Making Sense of Inquiry-Based Professional Learning in Early Childhood Education and Care Spaces: A Multiple-Case Study

• In Event: Effective Pre- and In-Service Early Childhood Professional Development

Abstract

Professional development (PD) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is at a critical juncture within the current accountability and standards movement. Various stakeholders position PD as a necessity to ready children within a neoliberal framing of the education process and posit universal training/PD as a solution. Conversely, many scholars continue to call for more critical approaches such as inquiry-based professional learning (IBPL) to better support the linguistically and culturally diverse early childhood landscape and address larger social-justice inequities. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for sustaining such IBPL practices. This research, therefore explores how center leaders and teachers of three ECEC programs made sense of engaging in varying forms of IBPL.

Author

• Joanna Englehardt, San Francisco State University