The relationship between demographic characteristics and attitudes of Arizona elementary principals toward early childhood education

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics and attitudes of Arizona public school elementary principals toward curricular issues in early childhood education. This study examined the elementary principals' attitudes toward programmed/product curricular approaches, which emphasize a product (such as a grade or test score); and child-centered/developmental-interactionist (process) curricular approaches which focus on the child as learner, not on the curriculum, academics or academic skills, or the teacher. Four research questions were tested (.05 level of significance) to determine the relationship between principals' prior teaching experience and knowledge base in early childhood education and attitudes toward curricular practices for young children.;The findings revealed that a "typical" Arizona elementary school principal has teaching experience in grades 4-8 (79%) and has little teaching experience below the fourth grade level. He/she is likely to have attended one or more workshops about child development within the last three years, but is unlikely to have taken any formal coursework on the subject. Further, it was demonstrated that experience and training are demographic characteristics that have a positive influence on principals' attitudes toward curricular practices for young children. Specifically, experience in teaching grades pre-kindergarten through third grade, and training in the form of courses/workshops regarding child development or early childhood education were associated with a favorable response toward child-centered practices in the pre-kindergarten through third grade classroom.;This study utilized a questionnaire sent to the population of Arizona public school elementary principals state-wide (N = 691). Of the 691 questionnaires mailed, 501 subjects responded and comprised the participating sample. This represented an overall return rate of 72.5%. This sample was asked to complete the researcher-designed Elementary Principal Questionnaire, a 60-item Likert attitude scale of statements/concepts measuring varying degrees of agreement or disagreement about practices that take place in the pre-kindergarten through third grade classroom, and a demographic data form. The data were analyzed on computers at Arizona State University utilizing principal components analysis, Pearson product moment correlations, analyses of variance (ANOVA), and multiple regression analysis.