Engaging Teacher Educators’ Commitment to the Principles of Communities as Resources in Early Childhood Teacher Education (CREATE) Over Time

• In Event: Communities as Resources in Early Childhood Teacher Education (CREATE): A Comprehensive Approach Toward Educational Equity for English Language Learners

Abstract

This paper will report on teacher educators' perceptions of the development of CREATE over three years, with a specific focus on how their understanding of the CREATE principles evolved and how their ability to enact the principles did (and did not) improve over time. Based on three years of interviews with participants in five different role groups (Principal Investigators, Instructors, Graduate Assistants, Supervisors, and Coordinators), we will discuss the challenges posed by curriculum change and responses to those challenges. Our design enabled us to follow the development of participants¹ understanding that occurred over time as curriculum was redesigned and implemented. We analyzed the ways different role groups responded to these challenges as they were surfaced and addressed across the three years of curriculum development and implementation. Each year, as we gained insights into the change process, we shared our analyses with the CREATE leadership team. This enabled the team to address more specific challenges of communicating with everyone about the curriculum and the principles, identifying the barriers teacher educators encountered as they worked to implement the curriculum in university-based courses and in early childhood classrooms, facilitating timely, relevant professional development to break through barriers, and working toward long-term sustainability. Our paper will conclude with a discussion of the current successes of CREATE and the areas in which we must continue to improve. We will discuss the implications of our research for other early childhood teacher education programs that wish to move from a campus-based initiative toward immersion in schools and communities.

Authors

• Renee T. Clift, The University of Arizona

• Sheri Robbins, University of Arizona

• Kimberly S. Reinhardt, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi