Lisa S. Goldstein

Love, Love, and More Love for Children: Exploring Preservice Teachers' Understandings of Caring.

Abstract The development of an ethic of care is seen as a central concern of teacher education, however little attention has been paid to the preconceived conceptions of caring held by preservice teachers. In this article we share the results of a recent study of a group of preservice elementary teachers in which we examined the understandings of the relationship of caring and teaching brought by these novices to their first field placement experiences. Rather than seeing our students’ partial and limited understandings as problematic, we argue that the student teachers’ preconceptions can be an ideal starting point for productive, educative dialogue about caring and elementary school teaching practice.

More Than Gentle Smiles and Warm Hugs: Applying the Ethic of Care to Early Childhood Education

Abstract Caring has become a buzzword in education. However, the commonly held understanding of caring—characterized by gentle smiles and warm hugs—obscures the complexity and the intellectual challenge of work with young children. Coupling early childhood education with this simplistic conception of caring will be detrimental to the field. As an alternative, the author draws on feminist moral theory, specifically the ethic of care, to develop an understanding of caring that emphasizes its deeply ethical, philosophical and experiential roots. Using narratives of life in a primary grade classroom, this article highlights the ways that the ethic of care can be used to enhance our understanding of what it means to be caring teachers.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place in the Primary Grades: The Challenge of Providing Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Education in an Elementary School Setting.

Abstract Primary grade teachers attempting to implement developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in their classrooms must contend with the competing professional paradigms of early childhood education and elementary schooling. In this article I describe the practices of one primary grade teacher to give a picture of how these tensions play out in one public elementary school setting. Though the practices of the teacher studied here embody some aspects of developmentally appropriate practice, they are also marked by problems with personal interpretation, partial adoption, and inconsistency in implementation of DAP principles. Analysis of this teachers experience provides insight into the general challenge of implementing DAP as well as into the specific challenges facing primary grade teachers committed to developmentally appropriate teaching.

Caught in the Middle: Tension and Contradiction in Enacting the Primary Grade Curriculum

AbstractThe primary grades can be seen as an essential piece of elementary school as well as an essential component of early childhood education. But rather than being buttressed and supported by the strength of these two powerful domains, primary grade teachers often find themselves caught in the middle, and face a variety of challenges as a result. This article is a narrative case study of the teaching experience of a primary grade teacher who contends successfully with the competing professional paradigms of early childhood education and elementary schooling. Though this is, in many ways, a success story, it is also characterized by conflict. Complex tensions arose from a mismatch between the teacher’s enacted primary grade curriculum and the expectations and desires of her students’ parents.

Questioning Community in Early Childhood Education.

In current early childhood literature, it appears that anything called ‘a caring community of learners’ is considered excellent practice. In this article, however, we look critically at the idea of community. We examine the shifts in the field that led to communitys transformation from an implicit assumption to a recognized and explicit requirement in high‐quality early childhood educational environments, identify some of the more troubling and problematic aspects of community that are currently missing from the scholarly literature, and make suggestions about ways to continue this important conversation. Our goal is not to discount the value of community in early childhood educational practices, but to enrich and complicate our understandings of this important aspect of our work with young children.

Preservice teachers, caring communities, and parent partnerships: Challenges and possibilities for early childhood teacher education

Abstract The creation of caring classroom communities and a heightened focus on the central importance of partnerships between teachers and parents are two significant features of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices [Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, revised ed., National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC]. This article reports findings from a study of preservice primary grade teachers’ understandings of caring in which participants developed negative, adversarial beliefs about parents during their initial field placement period. The findings in this study indicate that in order to prepare preservice teachers to meet our expectations for high quality early childhood teaching practices, we must create teacher education programs and coursework specifically aimed at developing commitments to caring community and to parent partnership.

MOTHERLY LOVE, TEACHERLY LOVE, AND PARENT‐TEACHER PARTNERSHIPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION

(1999). MOTHERLY LOVE, TEACHERLY LOVE, AND PARENT‐TEACHER PARTNERSHIPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education: Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 353-365.