Curriculum as Situated Practice: A Case Study of Early Childhood Teachers’ Interpretive Work

• In Event: Interpreting, Negotiating, Teaching: The Role of Teachers in Producing and Disrupting Curriculum

Abstract

This study investigates how early childhood teachers enact curriculum as an interpretive and situated practice rather than following prescriptive lesson plans. Drawing on educational connoisseurship and criticism, the study explores how teachers make in-the-moment curricular decisions grounded in attentiveness, care, and responsiveness to children’s needs and interests. Through qualitative observations of a team of educators working with preschool-aged children, three themes emerged: relational care, aesthetic improvisation, and scientific inquiry. These findings challenge dominant narratives that reduce curriculum to outcomes and accountability, offering instead a vision of teaching as an embodied, ethical, and aesthetic practice.

Author

• Sinan Yozgatli, Indiana University