Draws on Foucault to critically analyze interviews with Scottish preschool teachers. Suggests that, in contrast to preschool education's ideals of individual freedom and self-expression, greater governmentality and actual professional practices may lay the foundation for the production of governable subjects. Compares socialization,…

Developed, tested, and validated a model of Head Start classroom quality incorporating characteristics and beliefs of teachers and aides and classroom structural dimensions. Found that teacher/aide education level directly affected inappropriate beliefs, which impacted inappropriate instructional activities, which influenced classroom quality.…

Despite considerable examination of gender and gender equity within early childhood education, gender inequity remains problematic in many early childhood settings. Using qualitative methods, the study reported in this article investigated four early childhood teachers' understandings about gender and their commitment to promoting gender equity.…

The transition of young children with autism from preschool to kindergarten is an important event both for sustaining gains made during preschool and for establishing future social and academic development. This article provides a summary of 25 transition elements identified from the research literature as important for a successful transition.…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the impact upon a group of ten early childhood inservice educators of a collaborative professional development course in early literacy development presented using the tools of narrative and reflection. The study considered impact in terms of teachers' beliefs, values, practice, and sense of…

This report presents information collected at a pre-conference roundtable on various aspects of mentoring programs which are seen as a potential solution to the staffing crisis in early childhood education. Part 1 defines the terms "mentoring" and "mentoring programs." It describes the nature of the relationship between mentors…

A survey was conducted in Scotland's Lothian region to ascertain views on education provision for children under age 5. Subjects were over 400 nursery nurses, more than 1,100 parents, and staff members, at 175 nursery schools. The research questions covered six areas: (1) background information on parents and children; (2) benefits of nursery…

To assess the potentially stigmatizing effects of the label "developmentally delayed," a term used to identify young children in need of early intervention, this study surveyed preschool teachers from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The 89 teachers who responded to the survey were all female, and all but 16 had received some…

An ethnographic case study examined a kindergarten teacher's efforts to promote multicultural literacy learning in her own classroom and school. The teacher taught in a predominantly white, suburban, K-2 elementary school and considered literacy learning as a social process related to community building. The teacher presented her plan for…

A program was developed and implemented to train early childhood educators in two New York City school districts in how to identify and refer students who have been prenatally exposed to drugs or alcohol. Two substance abuse prevention and intervention specialists implemented the program, training 88 teachers in 4 schools. At the end of the…

This practicum was designed to provide a multicultural, bilingual inservice training program for the staff of six early childhood centers serving a large Hispanic population. The inservice training consisted of weekly seminars, guest lectures, classroom observations, and feedback interviews with center directors and executives of agencies that…

The development of a field-based approach to the validation of behavioral competencies for young children which reflect the theories of Bloom, Gagne, and Briggs is described in this paper. In Spring 1974, a list of 45 behaviors developed by the author was initially presented to the 50 faculty members of the Athens, Georgia, Child Development…

A pilot study that analyzed methods in Swedish pre-school teacher education showed that (1) pre-school methods no longer focus on concrete, detailed work with children, (2) teacher educators have less control over the organization of practical training, and (3) student teachers possess more subject knowledge. (RM)

This study compared parent and nursery staff perceptions of preschool children. Perceptions were examined from one parent and two caregivers for each of seven children. Aspects of the child's perceived personality and response to learning were also investigated, as were the expectations and judgments brought to the situation by each adult. In…

This paper extends the previously reported findings of the Starting School Research Project in Australia as to what various stakeholders see as important in children's transition to school; the current study considers responses from parents, preschool educators, and school teachers to 20 statements summarizing beliefs and expectations about…