Administrators' Ideas About Agency in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: 54.060 - The Role of Agency and Control in Early Educational Equity

Abstract

Administrators play a role in the kinds of learning experiences that teachers offer young children in early grade classrooms (Goldstein, 2005). In classrooms serving significant numbers of children from Latino immigrant communities, this administrative oversight from the school and district levels is typically high (Adair, 2015). Administrators are an important, if not critical, part of improving the educational experiences and opportunities for children of immigrants (Buysee, Castro, West & Skinner 2005). While studies have emerged over the past decade about the influence of administrators in upper elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, there is a gap in the literature related to the impact of administrators in early childhood classrooms, particularly in settings serving Latino immigrant communities (Hammond, Muffs & Sciascia, 2001; Busch & Crawford, 2010).

This paper and proposed presentation builds on the critical role of agency in expanding children’s capabilities from development economics and Adair’s (2014) application of Sen’s (1999) capabilities approach. In addition, a sociocultural approach is used to compare ideas about early childhood education by positioning the administrator participants as a kind of cultural group with shared meanings and expectations. This paper draws from a video-cued ethnographic study of ten school administrators including superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals, assistant principals, and district curriculum specialist. Participants viewed a video of a first grade classroom in which young Latina/o children of immigrants used a lot of agency in their learning through project based learning and open-ended literacy instruction. Participants responded to the practices in the video as well as to a common set of questions. Transcripts from these individual interviews were then transcribed and compared to see patterns in their responses to practice, their ideas about agency and learning and what kinds of early educational contexts were believed to be optimal for young Latina/o children of immigrants.

Administrators that oversee early childhood programs in urban and border cities of Texas thought that children should have more agency in their learning but struggled against the control of assessment models that mandated proficiency of specific knowledge and skill sets. They often saw immigrant families as being unable to effectively prepare young children for school so many administrators thought the practices in the film might not work in their schools. Administrators also saw agency as a function of classroom structure and teacher-created environments, rather than something they could directly influence. The presentation will feature transcript examples and ideas from administrators about agency and control.

This paper adds to the symposium by offering insight and reported barriers that administrators face when trying to increase children's agency institutionally. The symposium is an opportunity to involve administrators in research and education on early childhood approaches that increase agency and foster positive views and relationships with immigrant communities.

Author

• Alejandra Barraza, The University of Texas - Austin