Worldwide, preschool is recognized as an important arena for the implementation of education for sustainability (EfS). In Swedish preschools EfS has been a part of the national curriculum since 2019, but little is known about what this means in practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase our understanding about preschool…

We investigated the extent to which practices considered developmentally appropriate and inappropriate varied by preschool program auspice (private, public school, and Head Start). Survey data from a 2010 national sample of 2,664 teachers of 4-year-olds provided teacher reports on the frequency of seven practices (e.g., offering children choices…

This study investigated how early childhood special education teacher candidates described their professional identities. Professional identity is how individuals think about and act as members of the profession, and it has the potential to impact instructional practice and decisions to stay in the field. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of…

This mixed-methods study aimed to examine how the quality of interactions between a paraprofessional and a preschooler during playtime impacts students' language development. The data collected and analyzed included in-depth classroom observations and interviews with paraprofessionals. Data measured the paraprofessional's actions, trends,…

Emotion regulation includes the ability to up-regulate or enhance the emotional reaction and downregulate or suppress the emotional reaction in accordance with situational demands. However, children's use of enhancement strategies has been neglected, as has the examination of whether they can flexibly alternate between enhancement and suppression…

Upward mobility is core to the American dream yet remains unobtainable for many Americans. And although education is widely viewed as a key lever to support students' upward mobility, there is too little actionable information about how schools promote lifelong success. As a result, PK-12 education tends to focus on conventional indicators of…

Early childhood teachers routinely facilitate play-based learning experiences in their physical classrooms; however, the pivot to virtual teaching platforms created a barrier for providing age appropriate, play-based learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are few studies exploring how to promote play in the virtual classroom or…

Today, technology plays a crucial role in the daily lives of young children, even in their pre-kindergarten education. In an explanatory sequential mixed methods study, I addressed the following guiding question: "What are urban pre-kindergarten directors' self-reported behaviors associated with the International Society for Technology in…

The CLASS-PreK instrument is widely used to evaluate early childhood classrooms, but how classrooms using Montessori, the world's most common alternative education system, fare on CLASS is understudied. Because CLASS focuses largely on teacher-child interactions as the situs of learning, but in Montessori theory, child-environment interactions are…

Parenting styles act as a risk or a protective factor for the development of aggressive behavior problems in children. Moreover, children with deficits in emotion regulation often show increased aggressive behaviors. Previous studies confirm that parenting style also contributes to the development of emotion dysregulation. The present longitudinal…

This paper presents a conceptual framework drawn from philosophies of education underpinned by an Islamic worldview. The framework offers an interconnecting network of Islamic educational concepts that can be used by contemporary educators in Muslim contexts think through how they might reconstruct preK-12 education in a more authentic and…

Given the importance of early writing experiences, a key question is how educators can increase the amount and quality of writing in early childhood settings. Expert early writing teachers were observed to identify the types of activities and interactions they used to engage 4- and 5-year-olds as writers. Writing instruction occurred as part of…

How teachers' changes in their science teaching practices unfold over time remains unclear. We need greater understanding of the processes at work in professional development (PD) and how to sustain those processes that are effective over time. Effective PD processes are seen as those that recognize teacher change is…

While teacher education programs are increasingly creating short-term study abroad programs to support developing teacher interculturality, programs often focus on schools typical of the host country. Few programs target a specific philosophical approach and its enactment in classrooms. This case study focuses on a two-week trip to the city of…

Infant and toddler pedagogy has flourished as a specialized area of practice in early childhood care and education settings, yet it remains an under-researched area. There is also limited empirical research internationally that explores cultural meanings of meaningful provision for this young age group. This ethnographic study explored pedagogies…