Reimagining Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies in Teacher Preparation and Beyond

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Windows Into the Life Worlds of Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

Universal “truths” and “grand narratives” (King & Swartz, 2016) about cultural domains (race, class, gender, etc.) are constructed in the early years, embedded within early childhood settings where certain acts, topics, and knowledges are prioritized. Therefore, teachers play an important role in selecting, creating, and implementing curriculum. With increased standardization and curricular constraints, we engage teachers in re-writing curriculum to subvert grand narratives circulating in popular culture and reified in classrooms. Drawing from a 2-year qualitative study with early childhood pre-service teachers, we examine the work of raising critically conscious teachers who re-imagine and re-write curriculum. Through interviews, focus groups, and analyses of artifacts, we highlight the role of dialogic curriculum bolstered by critical frameworks (e.g. feminist standpoint, Afrocentric praxis).

Authors

• Haeny S. Yoon, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Tran Templeton, University of North Texas