Teacher educators are charged with supporting adult learners as they prepare to collaborate with diverse families and colleagues. In this research, we examined how a cohort of teacher candidates (N = 29) developed over a semester in their understanding, dispositions, and knowledge of strategies for partnership through the "dilemmas"…

Policymakers' neoliberal reforms have negatively altered early childhood teaching and teacher education. In doing so, these policies make it difficult for preservice teachers to learn how to engage in pedagogical practices that sustain their students' sociocultural worlds. To address this issue, we utilized case study methodology to examine how a…

This teacher research study focuses on an initial cohort of early childhood preservice teachers who participated in a case study of teachers' constructions of becoming a teacher. The purpose was to determine, through qualitative teacher research, how our teacher preparation program can better prepare preservice teachers to develop, make, and…

This teacher research study explores the changes in early childhood teacher candidates' perceptions of how children construct and represent knowledge following repeated exposure to "The Wonder of Learning: the Hundred Languages of Children" exhibit. When the renowned exhibit from Reggio Emilia was housed on the study participants' campus for 6…

Prospective teachers' shifts of pedagogical beliefs over time were examined in this study. There were significant differences found between beliefs reported at the onset of a teacher education program when compared to beliefs reported at graduation and after one year of employment. Prospective teachers had higher mean scores on learner-centered…

The purpose of this study was to assess the beliefs of students and faculty in a 4-year birth-kindergarten teacher preparation program using the Teacher Belief Q-Sort (TBQ). Data were collected over one academic year from a total of 63 students, 35 students at the beginning of their coursework and 28 students at the end of their program,…

One way to help preservice teachers to articulate and advocate their teaching stance is by developing their knowledge, skills, and confidence in their ability to carefully, didactically, and strategically plan for instruction. The Integrative Research Project (IRP) is a planning process that enables the preservice teacher to incorporate not only…

Four early childhood preservice teachers interviewed and observed teachers and children in early learning centers on the Salish and Kootenai Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of preservice teachers versus those of the caregivers (in-service teachers) regarding the presence of family…

Case-based methodology has been a staple of teacher education coursework for many years. However, commercial case studies do not always meet specific teacher candidates' needs or match their experiences in school settings. Teacher educators in an Early Childhood program in a midwestern university developed an innovative use of case-based…

Beginning teachers of young children often express concern that their professional preparation has not adequately prepared them to work effectively with families. This remains the case in spite of literature documenting the importance of involving parents in their children's early education. This article describes a service learning project…

It is difficult for teacher candidates (university preservice teachers) to accept and use an innovative teaching method or strategy if they do not have an opportunity to actually engage in using the method or see it modeled in an early childhood classroom. Teacher candidates used Project Approach to learn about multicultural education. Their own…

The purpose of this report is to provide education professors teaching early literacy methods courses with information for beginning teachers to support struggling first-grade readers. This analysis identifies the specific word structures children are expected to know by the end of first grade, and shows the actual learning rates of these…

The ability to care for oneself, near and distant others, animals, plants, human-made objects, and even ideas is an antidote for violence in its many forms as experienced in childhood as well as adulthood. This article makes a case for facilitating the development of the ability to care as children develop. The authors emphasize the importance of…

Teachers and teacher educators are faced with an urgent responsibility to support the learning of an increasingly diverse population of young children. Based on the sociocultural perspective of reading, a literature-based approach is outlined for early reading teachers. The implications of this approach to teacher education programs are further…

In this article two teacher educators describe an approach they have used with preservice early childhood and early childhood special education majors. They explain how the approach that they call "stories about teaching" resembles, yet differs from case study methods. The authors explain the process they used to develop, pilot, and use stories…