Needed: Teachers' Acquisition of a "Developmental Perspective" on Young Children's Membership in a LGBTQ-Led Family

• In Event: Unpacking Early Childhood Education With a Critical Lens

Abstract

This conceptual study examines child development-based frameworks typically encountered by early childhood teacher education candidates in both the theoretical (developmental, behaviorist, and critical) and professional literature, with the objective of acquiring a “developmental perspective” (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2014) on teaching and learning. Given that recent census data analysis suggests the possibility one child in a classroom of 20-25 will have a LGBTQ parent (https://www2.census.gov/cac/nac/meetings/2017-11/LGBTQ-families-factsheet.pdf), its goal is to evaluate the efficacy of this curriculum on teachers’ potential dispositions towards children’s psychosocial health in relation to LGBTQ-led families, such that a) these families are made visible and valued as a matter of routine; and b) normativity of heterosexual-led families is neither assumed or sanctioned. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

Author

• Patricia M. Cooper, Queens College, CUNY