"I Had to Make a Choice": Contexts for Emerging Literacy Practices in Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: 52.040 - Reconsidering Context: An Examination of the Role of Context in Research and Practice in Early Childhood

Abstract

The contexts in which Early Childhood (EC) teachers practice can have important implications for their ability to engage with and implement new approaches to teaching (McGinty, Justice, & Rimm-Kaufman, 2008). Contexts for practice can include local or community expectations for what and how children learn, principal or site leader assumptions about what constitute curriculum and ‘best practices’, teacher beliefs about children’s ability to learn, and external accountability expectations from state, federal and/or professional groups. Understanding how varying contexts shape the ways in which teachers engage with their daily work is central to designing curriculum, professional development and research that is beneficial for the entire educational community (Erickson, 2014). For EC – where families, communities and school are tightly bound together in the lived experiences of young children – rich understandings of contexts for teacher practice are of particular importance (Swadener, 2010).
In this paper, we examine how the practice contexts of five EC teachers supported and/or challenged their abilities to take up a new approach to shared book reading, known as Books Aloud!. Using Erickson’s (2014) recent paper as a framework, we consider the role of context in how these five teachers engaged with the Books Aloud! curriculum. To do this we ask, how did local contexts provide for or limit opportunities for teachers to engage with a new approach to shared book reading? And, how can researchers use knowledge of local communities and contexts to design supportive experiences for/with teachers as they take on new approaches to curriculum?
The study included five teachers, serving children and families in five different, low-income EC centers in Brooklyn. We provided PD to support and expand upon the teacher’s existing approaches to shared book reading. This included discussion of the goals of the new approach and modeling of new techniques for the teachers. We provided four thematic sets of books with brief lessons for each book. The lessons provided topical educative information for teachers (Davis & Krajcik, 2009), suggested questions for engaging the children in the read aloud, and highlighted key vocabulary words in each set. Part of a larger design study, data include field-notes and video from PD, observational field-notes and video of shared book reading, observational field-notes of sites and neighborhoods, follow up interviews with the five teachers, and reflection notes by fieldworkers. Data were organized and analyzed using Dedoose qualitative analytical software.
Findings from this study indicate that contexts of teacher practice can provide unique opportunities and constraints for engagement with new approaches to curriculum. Three main themes emerged across the case studies: 1) the role of accountability, 2) use of preparation time, and 3) teacher/staff turnover. Results suggest that contexts that support the professional knowledge and decision-making of teachers create opportunities for engagement with new approaches to curriculum. Our findings provide further evidence that consideration of the unique contexts of teacher practice is central to designing and supporting new approaches to curriculum.

Authors

• Katherine Kresin Delaney, University of Toledo

• Susan B. Neuman, New York University