The curriculum as mysterious and constraining: teachers’ negotiations of the first year of a pilot programme for at‐risk 4‐year‐olds

Preschool Teachers’ Shared Beliefs About Appropriate Pedagogy for 4-Year-Olds

“…As both history and research inform us, any attempts to change or improve preschool education without consideration of the voices and thoughts of the classroom teachers who are involved in the realities of teaching have often resulted in superficial change fraught with misunderstanding and misinterpretation (Walsh, Smith, Alexander, & Ellwein, 1993), or even worse, strong resistance to change (Sarason, 1996). Without teachersÕ commitment to and ownership of any efforts to reform preschool education, little can be accomplished (Kagan & Cohen, 1996).…”

what is appropriate mathematics education for four-year-olds?

“…While the theme approach can be an effi cient and effective way of weaving mathematics into other subject matters, experts (Bredekamp and Rosegrant, 1995;Copley and Padron, 1998;Hirsch, 1996) warn about the risk of it becoming 'a grab bag of any mathematics-related experiences that seem to relate to a theme or project' but do not provide a coherent educational experience (NAEYC and NCTM, 2002: 10). Also, while the use of ready-made mathematics curricula and materials may be helpful in terms of allowing children to encounter key mathematical concepts in a logical sequence, this approach needs to be combined with a deep understanding of pedagogy in order to avoid the risk of superfi cial teaching (Ryan, 2004;Walsh et al, 1993).…”

“…The recommended new practices will be fi ltered through the lenses of the teachers' personal beliefs (Pajares, 1992;Richardson, 1996), which may in turn affect their classroom practices (Charlesworth et al, 1993;Stipek and Byler, 1997). Any attempts to change or improve classroom practices without consideration of the teachers' beliefs have often resulted in superfi cial change fraught with misunderstanding and misinterpretation (Kostelnik, 1992;Ryan, 2004;Walsh et al, 1993), or even worse, in strong resistance to change (Bailey, 2000;Sarason, 1990Sarason, , 1996. Therefore, with the current focus on early mathematics education, it is more important than ever to understand prekindergarten teachers' beliefs in order to achieve a high quality mathematics education in pre-kindergarten classrooms.…”

Message in a Model: Teachers’ Responses to a Court-Ordered Mandate for Curriculum Reform

“…Given the interests underlying this program of research, these findings continue to be contested by proponents of a direct instruction approach. Nonetheless, High/Scope remains one of the most widely implemented curriculum models, as is evidenced by the fact that what little research is available on preschool teachers' responses to curriculum models (O'Brien, 1993;Walsh et al, 1993) almost exclusively focuses on their implementation of High/Scope. Informed by Piaget's cognitive theory of development (Weikart & Schweinhart, 1993), the High/Scope curriculum is based on the premise that "the child's knowledge comes from personal interaction with ideas, direct experience with physical objects, and application of logical thinking to these experiences" (Weikart & Schweinhart, 1993, p. 197).…”

“…Examining curriculum reform as a process of mutual adaptation (Snyder et al, 1992), therefore, involves describing and examining more in-depth the organizational and social factors that contribute to a curriculum being implemented. For example, in one of the few studies of public preschool teachers' experiences of implementing the High/Scope curriculum, Walsh, Smith, Alexander, and Ellwein (1993) document teachers' frustrations with trying to understand and implement this child-centered approach. For many of the teachers, the curriculum felt constraining because they often had to check whether their plans and actions fit the aims of High/ Scope or because they "perceived that the curriculum was preventing them from doing what they believed their students needed" (p. 323).…”