This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist ... more This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist education. The teachers' beliefs and practices included three components of constructivism: their professional identity, classroom practices, and negotiations with children's communities. Despite differences in individual teachers' descriptions of their identities, all the teachers shared the conviction that construction of knowledge requires a safe classroom environment, considering classroom as a community, pursuing children's interests, and flexible teacher guidance calibrated according to the children's needs. The teachers also converged on the belief that construction of knowledge as community practice requires establishing shared understandings with the children's own communities and school administration.
This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist ... more This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist education. The teachers' beliefs and practices included three components of constructivism: their professional identity, classroom practices, and negotiations with children's communities. Despite differences in individual teachers' descriptions of their identities, all the teachers shared the conviction that construction of knowledge requires a safe classroom environment, considering classroom as a community, pursuing children's interests, and flexible teacher guidance calibrated according to the children's needs. The teachers also converged on the belief that construction of knowledge as community practice requires establishing shared understandings with the children's own communities and school administration.
Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International Journal, 2023
This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist educatio... more This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist education. The teachers' beliefs and practices included three components of constructivism: their professional identity, classroom practices, and negotiations with children's communities. Despite differences in individual teachers' descriptions of their identities, all the teachers shared the conviction that construction of knowledge requires a safe classroom environment, considering classroom as a community, pursuing children's interests, and flexible teacher guidance calibrated according to the children's needs. The teachers also converged on the belief that construction of knowledge as community practice requires establishing shared understandings with the children's own communities and school administration.
Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide sc... more Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide school leadership for children from preschool to grade twelve instead of kindergarten to grade twelve. Illinois is the first state to make such a change and may well serve as a model for change in school leadership preparation on a national level. The inclusion of the requirement for school leaders to provide leadership to preschool children is a welcome one. However, this legislation leaves open how such leadership should be conducted and how it should be developed in principal preparation programs. The silence of the legislation on these issues is a cause for concern because leadership preparation faculty and their candidates often lack substantive training in early education. The legislation should be strengthened—in law, in practice, or both—by drawing on three principles of high-quality early childhood education that emerge from educational research: (1) Early education influences lat...
With the growing appreciation of the importance of early learning experiences for children's ... more With the growing appreciation of the importance of early learning experiences for children's healthy development, attention to the cultivation and maintenance of a qualified workforce has steadily increased. Such a workforce must have not just the knowledge and skills related to child development and early learning, but also be linguistically and culturally prepared to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse child and family population. To ensure a highly qualified workforce, programs and policymakers must attend to both the "pipeline" through which new early childhood educators (ECEs) enter the workforce and the "pathways" by which ECEs work toward and obtain the necessary education and credentials for different roles within the field. In line with the aims of this special issue, this paper leverages the first-person account style to describe barriers to and creative solutions for the development of practitioners in low-resourced communities in Chicago, wi...
This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist ... more This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist education. The teachers' beliefs and practices included three components of constructivism: their professional identity, classroom practices, and negotiations with children's communities. Despite differences in individual teachers' descriptions of their identities, all the teachers shared the conviction that construction of knowledge requires a safe classroom environment, considering classroom as a community, pursuing children's interests, and flexible teacher guidance calibrated according to the children's needs. The teachers also converged on the belief that construction of knowledge as community practice requires establishing shared understandings with the children's own communities and school administration.
This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist ... more This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist education. The teachers' beliefs and practices included three components of constructivism: their professional identity, classroom practices, and negotiations with children's communities. Despite differences in individual teachers' descriptions of their identities, all the teachers shared the conviction that construction of knowledge requires a safe classroom environment, considering classroom as a community, pursuing children's interests, and flexible teacher guidance calibrated according to the children's needs. The teachers also converged on the belief that construction of knowledge as community practice requires establishing shared understandings with the children's own communities and school administration.
Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International Journal, 2023
This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist educatio... more This study presents early childhood teachers' beliefs and practices about constructivist education. The teachers' beliefs and practices included three components of constructivism: their professional identity, classroom practices, and negotiations with children's communities. Despite differences in individual teachers' descriptions of their identities, all the teachers shared the conviction that construction of knowledge requires a safe classroom environment, considering classroom as a community, pursuing children's interests, and flexible teacher guidance calibrated according to the children's needs. The teachers also converged on the belief that construction of knowledge as community practice requires establishing shared understandings with the children's own communities and school administration.
Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide sc... more Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide school leadership for children from preschool to grade twelve instead of kindergarten to grade twelve. Illinois is the first state to make such a change and may well serve as a model for change in school leadership preparation on a national level. The inclusion of the requirement for school leaders to provide leadership to preschool children is a welcome one. However, this legislation leaves open how such leadership should be conducted and how it should be developed in principal preparation programs. The silence of the legislation on these issues is a cause for concern because leadership preparation faculty and their candidates often lack substantive training in early education. The legislation should be strengthened—in law, in practice, or both—by drawing on three principles of high-quality early childhood education that emerge from educational research: (1) Early education influences lat...
With the growing appreciation of the importance of early learning experiences for children's ... more With the growing appreciation of the importance of early learning experiences for children's healthy development, attention to the cultivation and maintenance of a qualified workforce has steadily increased. Such a workforce must have not just the knowledge and skills related to child development and early learning, but also be linguistically and culturally prepared to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse child and family population. To ensure a highly qualified workforce, programs and policymakers must attend to both the "pipeline" through which new early childhood educators (ECEs) enter the workforce and the "pathways" by which ECEs work toward and obtain the necessary education and credentials for different roles within the field. In line with the aims of this special issue, this paper leverages the first-person account style to describe barriers to and creative solutions for the development of practitioners in low-resourced communities in Chicago, wi...
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Papers by Catherine Main