Helping staff get along with each other can sometimes be more challenging than helping young children get along. A director can feel like a referee instead of a leader of professionals when staff bicker with each other. Many directors find that efforts made to strengthen everyone's skills in giving and responding to feedback help a great deal.…

The author describes the role of preschool supervisors. She provides insights into changes in the dynamics between a group of teachers and supervisors as a result of their joint participation in a six-month professional development course to help them enrich preschool literacy environments and reflect on teacher and supervisory practices. A list…

The authors present a checklist designed to help preschool and kindergarten administrators and teachers build confidence in their ability to be inclusive and to increase their awareness of the needs of children with disabilities. Teachers can use the checklist to prepare for the inclusion of a child with a disability. "Identifying potential…

Young children with special needs and their families often experience transitions across multiple environments in the early childhood years. Many transitions are identified as stressful for children and families. In the present study, a series of focus groups involving administrators, practitioners, and family members were held around the United…

Early childhood program directors must juggle many responsibilities while averting one crisis after another. Although directors have to be experts in multitasking, most often they assume their many responsibilities with little or no specialized training. This article describes how the authors created the Directors of the Midlands Development and…

The purpose of this research is to explore the role of a director of a preschool program who mentors and trains high school students to teach and work directly with preschool children in the context of individual lessons, small group activities, and large group instruction. This participant-observer research study also examines how the director…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the significance of, difficulties with, and issues driving the change process of curriculum innovations as well as the roles of leadership both in formal and informal structures that could facilitate the process in Hong Kong preschools. Design/methodology/approach: With the aid of an illustrative case study,…

The job of the early childhood director requires becoming comfortable in performing a wide variety of tasks. Being a director demands skills in many different areas, as well as the ability to focus one's attention in many directions at once. This is the broad description of the director's job, but very little attention has been focused on the…

Policymakers and researchers have focused attention on the significant role that directors play in building and sustaining high-quality child care programs. However, there has been limited focus on director turnover and its implications for programs. This article summarizes findings from the longitudinal study, "Then and Now: Changes in Child Care…

From snow removal to dishwasher repair, from pest control to playground renovations, there are countless demands on a child care director's time and attention. A child care director is required to juggle a wide variety of roles and expectations related to facility management, often with very little training or expertise in this area. Some child…

The Full Inclusion Preschool Project (FIPP) was a collaborative, county/state funded grant that included: four non-subsidized preschools, seven school districts and university support. The four-year FIPP grant fully included a total of forty-five students with disabilities, two to five years of age, over a three year period. The preschools…

Early childhood teachers may express positive views about inclusive practices but are the practices implemented in their classrooms? This study examined preservice and inservice teachers' attitudes toward inclusive practices as reflected in the teachers' behaviors. This qualitative study utilized open-ended initial interviews, observations with…

This bulletin is published as a much-need service to young men and women considering preparation for teaching. In it they will find information and judgments on duties, requirements, opportunities, satisfactions and annoyances in teaching as a life work. Because essential data has changed, the current report is written to describe the occupation…