Political and societal pressures are influencing kindergarten teachers and their classroom practices on a national level. Teachers' receptivity to reforms depends to a large degree on their buy-in to the change effort. Drawing on analyses of interviews with kindergarten teachers across school and districts, this study examined teacher buy-in to an…

Research Findings: This case study of an experienced toddler teacher resulted in the identification of 4 roles that the teacher played in mediating a culture of respect and participation in the classroom. These 4 roles contrast the roles discussed in Leavitt's (1994) ethnographic study "Power and Emotion in Infant-Toddler Day Care." I…

Research Findings: Naturalistic instruction is the intentional use of strategies embedded within typical activities of the environment to create learning opportunities for children. We used multilevel modeling to analyze data from this single-case design study that focused on improving teachers' use of naturalistic language strategies and…

Research Findings: This qualitative study examined how Head Start teachers thought about children's early literacy and how they enacted their thinking in a year-long curriculum reform effort. Data collected included interviews, observations, questionnaires, concept maps, and teachers' reflections on implementation. The results indicated that as…

Research Findings: Having practicing or preservice early educators employing iPads and their apps as part of their practices with young children in high-stakes teaching contexts is a challenging process. The case study examined in this article further unpacks this complexity by investigating how incorporating iPads into their high-stakes field…

Research Findings: This article reports on a study undertaken with 4 early childhood programs in a medium-size city in Canada investigating young children's and educators' perspectives on engagement and learning possibilities outdoors. A rights-based methodology including participant observations and interactive activities with children as well as…

Research Findings: Policymakers preschool reforms that are to prepare young children for school success have sparked important conversations within the field of early childhood education over how these programs are to ready young children for school. This article presents findings from a case study that examined this issue of school readiness…

Research Findings: This qualitative case study describes early childhood practitioners' (ECPs) perspectives on their professional development as part of a large federally funded school readiness intervention project as they experienced the processes of professional growth and change in learning skills related to promoting parental engagement in…

A study designed to replicate teacher values considered five domains: use of space, use of time, patterns of teacher-child interaction, materials and activities, and parent-teacher interactions. The program had an approximately even balance between the use of a cultural transmission model and a developmental model. (LB)

This ethnographic study examined one inclusive early-childhood setting over four weeks. Observations indicated that children with special needs regularly imitated behaviors, words, and skills of typically developing peers, more advanced peers with special needs, and teachers. Individualized interventions were regularly conducted within general…