| Now is a dynamic time for preschool education with its pending expansion and the field's re-conceptualization of appropriate early academics education. This study explored what preschool teachers of four-year-olds believed about the appropriateness of preschool literacy and mathematics curricula and instructional practices. Sixty teachers, half of them from fully-funded public programs and the other half from for-profit private programs in New York City, participated in this study. Compared to those from private programs, preschool teachers from public programs tended to be from a minority background, not to have an MA degree, and to have shorter preschool teaching experience. The teachers were interviewed individually and asked to respond to a series of written vignettes, each of which described two preschool teachers with different stances on issues regarding early literacy or math education.; The content analysis of the teachers' comments revealed the following differences among them. For mathematics the preschool teachers tended to stress kindergarten preparation and children's mastery of core knowledge/skills of the subject, while for literacy the teachers felt that such specific preparation for kindergarten was unnecessary, and they tended to stress children's social development, a child-centered curriculum, and informal ways of learning and teaching the subject. In addition, overall, teachers from public programs, with a minority background, without an MA degree, and/or with shorter teaching experience tended to stress academics especially for kindergarten preparation, the promotion of basic literacy/mathematics readiness skills, goals and plans for literacy/mathematics education, and classroom use of computers. They also tended to be concerned about their students' lack of home educational experience and their unreadiness for academics education. The teachers from private programs, with a non-minority background, with an MA degree, and/or with longer teaching experience tended to feel that academic education, specifically for kindergarten preparation was unnecessary despite parents' demands, since the teachers felt that their students, even if behind in academics at preschool, would be able to catch up later. They also tended to stress social development and to oppose the classroom use of computers. Whether the teacher specialized in early childhood education or not was not related to their beliefs. These findings have significant implications for teacher education. |
