Trade-offs, Barriers, and Contradictions: California Early Childhood Educators’ Experiences During Universal PreKindergarten Implementation (Stage 2, 12:26 PM)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research Ed-Talk (Stage 2)

Abstract

California is transforming the state’s system of education in both function and scale through its Universal PreKindergarten (UPK) initiative prioritizing Transitional Kindergarten (TK), a new public school grade for 4-year-olds. This qualitative study examines how early childhood educators make sense of and negotiate this policy in practice, including differing and hierarchical conceptions of school, care versus education, and teachers’ professional autonomy. Findings indicate these conflicts are exacerbated by the rapid, market-disrupting implementation TK, compounding the untenable conditions of early educators’ work. An overall lack of support causes a dual marginalization of private and public ECE workforces with inequitable ripple effects across sectors, wherein children of low-income families have the most to lose as the de facto targets of UPK policy.

Author

• Micah Card, University of California - Santa Cruz