Special Education and at-risk kindergarteners can be outstanding authors given the appropriate educational opportunity. In a small, suburban public school district, two university professors collaboratively met with experienced special and general education teachers to introduce them to writing workshop methodology. This year-long series of…

There is a growing body of evidence that children who possess both alphabetic and phonological awareness on school entry are in a good position to make the transition from emergent to conventional literacy (Nicholson, 2005; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). One of the challenges is how teachers can foster emergent literacy, including alphabetic and…

There is an increased need for quality care in the field of early care and education and, teachers interactions with his or her students are the catalyst for providing and ensuring quality within early childhood environments (La Paro, Pianta, & Hamre, 2008). The study examined the effect of training and consultation on Head Start teacher and…

Researchers have found that teachers seldom use computers in the preschool classroom. However, little research has examined why preschool teachers elect not to use computers. This case study focused on identifying whether community colleges that prepare teachers for early childhood education include in their curriculum how teachers can effectively…

Recent research has shown that students who enter kindergarten with prior academic knowledge are more successful later in their school careers. Yet, pre-school teachers face the problem of limited time in a day to focus on the academic skills of students, as well as work on their basic needs. The goal of this study was to find out if students can…

"New capitalism" has been characterized as an economic period in which insecurity, flux, and uncertainty exist in the workplace. Capitalism attempts to tame that uncertainty through risk taking. Taking risks has become what one must do with risk. Economic discourses of embracing risk--thoroughly grounded in the ideologies of neoliberalism--are…

This article examines the dominant discourses teachers in early childhood education (ECE) used to produce understandings of children and educational practice for them. Seven teachers from two early childhood centres in urban KwaZulu-Natal participated in this qualitative study. Data were produced through semi-structured interviews and…

This study investigated the influence of direct modeling of a supplemental classroom program on the early literacy beliefs and practices of Head Start teachers. Developed by speech language pathologists (SLPs), Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy Instruction (SEEL) was not undertaken with an explicit professional development goal. However, the…

The number of children participating in public school preschool programs has steadily increased over the last two decades. While the use of specific practices to support the transition to kindergarten has received a great deal of attention, there are little data on the use of transition practices by public school preschool teachers to support…

In recent years, teacher participation in school decision making has become an important topic for discussion in the field of early childhood education in Hong Kong. The purpose of this article is to discuss the theoretical significance, difficulties and issues of greater teacher participation in curriculum and pedagogical decision making in local…

In the United States, only 2.2 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers and 5 percent of child care workers are men. Other countries have much higher rates, but the percentage of men in U.S. early education has remained between 2 and 3 percent for the last several years. There are many reasons why so few men become early childhood educators.…

This article presents a way in which the innovative Nature Therapy conceptual framework coupled with creative therapeutic methods can help children develop resilience and support their coping with uncertainty and stress. It refers to the Safe Place programme that took place in 110 Israeli kindergartens, helping over 6000 children after the Second…

The research reported on a qualitative study of feedback given in one Finnish pre-primary education group which integrated English into the programme as a first foreign language. The study was based on the authentic video-recorded observations of actual pre-primary teaching sessions (N = 11 lessons). The findings suggested that the reactions of…

This study investigated how and when teachers used music in preschool classrooms throughout the day. Direct classroom observations were conducted to determine preschool teachers' use of music in four Head Start classrooms and one private preschool classroom for a total of 24 hours of observation in each classroom. Music was observed to be used 6.5…

This article discusses the potential positive and problematic influences of the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; 2008) report on prekindergarten and kindergarten classroom instructional practice. The authors support the instructional importance of the majority of the foundational skills identified in the NELP report as having "clear and…