A Critical Discourse Analysis of Intersections of Emerging Readiness Constructs in Head Start Settings

• In Event: 25.051 - Policy and Policing Children's Identities: Normalizing Frameworks and the Issues of Developmental Discourses

Abstract

In this paper I critically analyze teacher and researcher discourses around an emerging/shifting notion of readiness in relation to an intensive focus on instructional practices, classroom quality and child outcomes in preschool classrooms. This study brings together: 1) three recent research papers focused on the impacts of mixed age grouping in Head Start preschool settings on child outcomes, and 2) findings from a research study with a group of teachers in a Head Start program relating to the Pre-K CLASS. Using critical discourse analysis, I explore the ways in which researchers and practicing teachers independently, yet similarly, use language to frame an emerging notion of ‘readiness for preschool’ related to child-outcome expectations and accountability-driven policies.

Author

• Katherine Kresin Delaney, University of Toledo