Obscured Truths and Tensions of ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Professionals: That Which an Obedient Professional Conceals

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Inspired by this year's AERA call, the proposed symposium examines obscured truths in early childhood care and education (ECCE) spaces, unveiling injustices and providing alternatives for educational renewal. The symposium's six authors present research highlighting and uplifting the voices of teachers, problematizing their relationships with policy mandates (i.e., safety protocols, stress, preschool standardized assessment, professionalism conceptualizations). These areas of inquiry are crucial to the disruption and dismantling of oppression which disempower and disenfranchise ECCE educators and children, particularly those belonging to minoritized groups. Beyond exposing these obscured truths and tensions, we provide avenues for remedy and repair, each presenter providing recommendations to center culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining practices that uplift ECCE teachers and the profession.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 06:Transformations in Teacher Education Policies, Research, and Practices

Chair

• Cynthia Arraya Wiltshire, University of Texas - El Paso

Papers

• Lockdown Drills and Children with Autism: Early Childhood Educators’ Confidence, Experiences, and Perceptions - Melissa A Jackson, Hunter College - CUNY

• Urban Early Childhood Educators Under Pressure: Exploring Effective Coping Mechanisms for Stressful Mandates - Maria Mavrides Calderon, Hunter College - CUNY; Cynthia Arraya Wiltshire, University of Texas - El Paso

• Teacher Lies: Negotiating Professional Expectations and Regulatory Frameworks in ECCE - Emmanuelle N. Fincham, Western Washington University; Cynthia Arraya Wiltshire, University of Texas - El Paso; Amanda Reeves Fellner, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussant

• Helen Frazier, Bank Street School of Education and Compass Charter School