The Recurring Panic Over Kindergarten: A Frame Analysis of News Media, 1964–2017

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

Abstract

Recognizing that media plays a significant role in shaping public understanding and policy-making, our purpose in this paper is to explore how print media has framed kindergarten from 1964 to today, and to uncover the role of media in reflecting, amplifying, and/or circulating messages about kindergarten. We utilize frame analysis to explore the staging of kindergarten’s story, with a focus on how needs, problems, and solutions are constructed. Based on a sample of over 200 articles from four major national newspapers, we find that media construct different storylines about kindergarten according to children’s race and social class. Findings underscore the imperative for education researchers to convey nuance and contextualize as they communicate their work in the mainstream press.

Authors

• Kathryn Boonstra, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Graue, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Moonjoo Woo, University of Wisconsin - Madison