Conforming to reform: Teaching pre-kindergarten in a neoliberal early education system

Abstract

Policymakers' neoliberal education reforms have altered the landscape of publicly funded early education in the United States and across the globe. Practically speaking, these reforms expect early childhood teachers to prepare their students for success in elementary school and later life by providing them with a specific set of knowledge and skills. This creates a new set of challenges for early educators who strive to prepare their culturally and linguistically diverse students for school in a manner that addresses their individual, cultural, and sociopolitical needs. The study discussed in this article set out to examine how teachers who were identified as meeting their students' various needs prepared them for success in elementary school. In doing so, it became apparent that these teachers struggled to define their practices as well as the construct of effective teaching in ways that went beyond policymakers' neoliberal conception of the early education process. This article examines this tension and considers what is possible for teachers and the field of publicly funded early education in these highly structured neoliberal systems of governance.

Infant and toddler educare: A challenge to neoliberalism

“…This move away from egalitarianism is identified by the key critics of neoliberalism as an abandonment of social justice (Chomsky 2013(Chomsky , 2016Furedi 2017;Giroux 2015). This concern is reflected by Brown (2015), who argues that the neoliberal focus on preparing children for school (and ultimately employment) is prioritised over individual children's strengths and interests; again an emphasis on the neoliberal objective of standardisation and pushing school curricula down into programmes for very young children, positioning early childhood education (ECE) as an investment in the labour market of the future (Simpson, Lumsden & McDowall Clark 2015). This position identifies families as potential problems whose behaviour can risk the ability of their children to achieve desired outcomes.…”

The power of improvisational teaching

“…This shift was prompted by neoliberal reforms embraced by the majority of western countries that press for student outcomes through grade-level standards (Brown, 2007) and the development of data systems purported to make early childhood teachers more professional in their practice (Bradbury, 2012). This systems approach promoted aligned curriculum, assessments, and standards in K-12 and has been shifting practices in preschool programming as well (Bennett & Tayler, 2006;Brown, 2015) as policymakers seek evidence for investments in public preK (Fuller, 2007). In a search of fidelity of implementation, early childhood classrooms are increasingly scripted with curricula focused on academic outcomes (Hatch & Grieshaber, 2002).…”

“I Wanted to Know How They Perceived Jail”: Studying How One Early Educator Brought Her Students’ Worlds into Her Standardized Teaching Context

“…While high-stakes exams typically do not begin until the third grade, these reforms, such as NCLB, have affected the field of early childhood education (ECE) in numerous ways (Brown 2007;Barrett 2009;Parker and Neuharth-Pritchett 2006). Concerns have been raised about how the implementation of these policies redefine the purpose of Pre-K and K (Bowdon and Desimone 2014;Sherfinski 2013), diminish the role of play-based learning in classrooms (Dyson and Genishi 2012;Falk 2012), and lead to teacherdirected learning activities that negatively impact children's intentionality and curiosity as learners (Adair 2014;Engel 2011) as well as the teachers themselves (Brown 2015;Parks and Bridges-Rhoads 2012).…”