Helen Maniates

Transitional kindergarten: an opportunity to explore the intersection between early childhood and kindergarten practice

Early childhood educators are concerned about a ‘shovedown’ of elementary school expectations, standards, and curriculum on to young children due to policy-makers’ moves towards utilising preschool programmes to address disparities in academic achievement. This study employs interviews and classroom observations to contrast the perspectives of two transitional kindergarten (TK) teachers – one a former preschool teacher and one a former kindergarten teacher – to understand how they adapted practices from both early childhood and elementary education to support their students’ development in TK. Key intersections include (1) developing both self-regulation and academic skills, (2) exposing students to kindergarten standards rather than teaching to mastery and (3) differentiating expectations to match childrens development and interests. The study suggests that TK, operating in the hybrid space between preschool and kindergarten, has the potential to ‘push up’ child-centred practices of early childhood educators into primary grades.

Teacher Adaptations to a Core Reading Program: Increasing Access to Curriculum for Elementary Students in Urban Classrooms

ABSTRACT This article examines how three urban elementary school teachers adapted pedagogical strategies from a school district–adopted core reading program to increase their students’ access to the curriculum. Using teacher interviews and classroom observations to construct a descriptive case study of teacher adaptation, analysis reveals that the teachers: (a) provided social scaffolds that engaged students in a reading community, (b) repositioned students as active participants in constructing knowledge, and (c) embedded reading within authentic experiences. Results suggest that increased attention to when, how, and why teachers make adaptations to core curriculum programs is needed to ensure student access.

Recognizing Postmodern Intersectional Identities in Leadership for Early Childhood.

Current interest in the development of leadership capacity within the early childhood profession provides an important opportunity to critically examine our field’s conceptualizations of leadership. Modernist binary leader/follower conceptions are not reflective of contemporary scholarship describing identities as multiple, dynamic, socially constituted, negotiated, complex and like the self, undergoing continuous transformation. Additionally, linear descriptions of leadership development contrast with research documenting professional growth and change as a nonlinear, cyclical, and contextually influenced process, and deny the existence of power relationships that afford and constrain the multiple and intersecting identities of practitioners in the early childhood field. Drawing on a multilevel model of intersectionality, we problematize how identities are described in discussions of early childhood leadership and propose the need to revisit, revise, and reimagine leadership concepts for our field by advancing a postmodern turn in our theorizing.

A review of the literature on leadership in early childhood: examining epistemological foundations and considerations of social justice

ABSTRACT With the increasing acknowledgement of the benefits of early childhood education, there is a need to ask critical questions about whether ample leadership exists for guiding ambitious systemic change in the field. This review of leadership in early childhood educational contexts between 1995 and 2015 examines the epistemological assumptions embedded in the literature (and those advantaged and marginalized as a result), the expressed purposes of leadership work and specifically, whether, and to what extent, considerations of social justice and equity have been included in leadership theorizing. Eighty-one publications were identified through a search of major electronic databases and analysed using an analytic review template that includes definitions of leadership, modern and postmodern epistemologies underlying these texts, and considerations of social justice. Findings suggest that while traditional hierarchical conceptions are common, there is a shift towards more distributed and relational understandings of leadership. More recently, leadership is being described as a socially constructed, situated, culturally informed and dynamic process. There has also been an increase in the number of scholars emphasizing postmodern thinking in discussions of leadership over modernist conceptions. Still, there is less explicit discussion of postmodern intersectional identities in leadership. In addition, most literature does not include explicit discussion of social justice in theorizing about leadership, or the expressed purposes of leadership. This suggests the importance of critically examining the epistemological assumptions represented in leadership discourse and of more intentional links between leadership and goals that address social injustices for children, families and the early childhood workforce.

Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

difficult and seldom discussed topic in the field, to the discussions. Since teachers and parents are crucial for children to have successful and healthy dialogues about race, this book offers helpful strategies for teachers and parents to educate and facilitate their students or children to participate in successful race talks. The step-by-step process of this book can help the development of readers as they embark on the difficult journeys of race talk. However, there are several aspects that can be improved in this book. First, the analyses of the examples in this book will increase its credibility if the analyses can be confirmed by the people in the stories. Readers may be interested to know the reflections and perspectives from the roles in those examples about Sue’s analyses in this book. Readers may also be interested to see the effects of the strategies for successful race talks—if the people in the examples will be more comfortable to talk about race after they learn the strategies in this book. Furthermore, it is also important to include other perspectives other than the White/Black or Asian ones. Indigenous and Latino perspectives will complicate and enlighten further race talks. To order a copy ofRace Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race, contact JohnWiley& Sons, New Jersey Corporate Headquarters, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774.Website: http://www.wiley.com