Infant educators’ beliefs about infant language development in long day care settings

Abstract

This study examined infant educators’ beliefs about infant language development in the context of early childhood classrooms. Participants were 59 educators who were employed to work directly with under-two-year-old children. Educators were interviewed to determine their understandings of infant language development and Grounded Theory qualitative techniques were used to develop a conceptual model which illustrates their perceptions of the relationships between contextual, personal and teaching and learning components of their classroom contexts. The model provides a means of conceptualising ‘insider’ practitioner voices on how, as a dynamic system, contextual, individual and pedagogical components mutually interact to bring about the kinds of experiences and interactions that can shape language development. Findings have implications for understanding educators’ perspectives on infant room quality, suggesting that issues related to educator-infant ratios, staff consistency, qualifications and professional knowledge about language development processes may impact efforts to provide intentional language development support.

Keywords:

• Infants
• language development
• educators’ beliefs
• infant development
• quality

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the educators who generously gave their time to this research, and the team of research assistants who facilitated the collection and management of the data.

Notes

1. In this article, children under 24 months of age are referred to as ‘infants’.