Curriculum in Early Childhood Education: Coverage in the Accountability Era

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Curricular Futures: The Challenges and Possibilities in Policies and Practices

Abstract

In this conceptual paper we examine how curriculum in early childhood education (ECE) has been shaped by multiple movements in both ECE and the larger field of curriculum studies. Our perspective problematizes ECE curriculum and allows us to examine the impact on children’s learning. Upon taking a close look at prominent ECE curricula, we consider what children are ‘allowed’ to learn, who determines this, and how young children, and their teachers, are situated as active agents (or not) within learning environments. We then discuss tensions present between curriculum theories and ECE practices, arguing that the act of working through these tensions can help ECE work towards a thick form of democratic participation in ECE classrooms.

Authors

• Nancy K. File, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• Jennifer J Mueller, Saint Cloud State University

• Kristin Lyn Whyte, Mount Mary University