Home visitors provide individualized services to families of infants and young children in their homes. Due to their unique role, home visitors must develop a specialized set of critical competencies--specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes. They therefore require preparation that differs in distinct ways from the preparation typically available…

The purpose of this paper is to describe a major revision process to the early childhood teacher education program at our 4-year university. We briefly outline the major policy and standards changes that we have witnessed impacting our work as early childhood teacher educators that were, in part, the impetus for our program changes. We describe…

Despite contrasting views on the overlap of early childhood education and teacher education, opportunities abound for expanding the role of early childhood educators in broader teacher education discourse. University-based early childhood education and kindergarten-through-grade-12 teacher education share purposes, philosophies, and resources that…

Teacher education faculty are experiencing increasingly diverse higher education classrooms. In many ways, the diversities present in collegiate classrooms mirror the differences in classrooms of young children. The diversity may be a result of a range of ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic differences. Or it may be differences resulting from…

This action research article shares the story of a student teacher and the arduous, but rewarding process of self-reflection. The authors integrate real life examples of the implementation of self-reflective strategies of a student teacher with self-efficacy, teacher life cycle, and effectiveness literature to analyze the student teacher's…

Less than one third of early childhood educators have a bachelor's degree, yet national indicators of high-quality early childhood program standards emphasize the importance of higher education for these practitioners. In order to adequately serve and retain these nontraditional learners as they strive to earn their degrees, teacher education…

This article provides an overview of the Australian Federal Government initiatives in the area of early childhood with regard to the provision of early childhood education and care. These changes have influenced a Western Australian university to develop an innovative birth to 8 years preservice educator education curriculum. Using an ecological…

Elizabeth Peabody, a radical feminist, used early 19th-century ideas of the "woman's sphere" to suggest that a career in early childhood education was "the ideal solution to the problem of what educated American women should do with their lives," and she credited Froebel's "genius" in identifying a way in…

This article provides an overview of the Australian Federal Government initiatives in the area of early childhood with regard to the provision of early childhood education and care. These changes have influenced a Western Australian university to develop an innovative birth to 8 years preservice educator education curriculum. Using an ecological…

There has been a great deal of discourse in the field of early care and education concerning the experiences, skills, competencies, and education level needed by early childhood teachers to ensure that quality teaching and learning take place in the early years. The purpose of this article is to describe an early childhood teacher preparation…

Five essential ideas or understandings that should underlie early childhood teacher education programs are discussed conceptually. Inquiry and reflection into practice are critical for continued teacher learning and development; learning and development are cultural and constructivist processes; the teacher's image of the child should be as a…

This article provides a conceptual base for pedagogy that embraces and incorporates the assets of nontraditional students in higher education and advocates for practice that honors and builds on students' cultural and social capital. It describes the challenges and opportunities faced by nontraditional students within institutions of higher…

Early childhood teacher education courses must prepare students for the types of challenges they will face in communities and classrooms after graduation. By adopting a scenario-based approach, teacher educators and others designing online environments can help prepare students for these challenges. Solving complex problems inherent in a…

This article describes a video review process for providing feedback to students and documents students' teaching practices using the CLASS in a practicum course and student teaching. Students videotaped themselves in their field-based settings and then met with the course instructors and classmates in small groups to review strengths and…

The aim of this article is to describe how field studies can be useful in teacher education. While participating in a specialty area called "Play, learning and development," student teachers collected data about their own and young children's experience and perception of the outdoor environment. They observed, carried out interviews from…