Early Childhood Teacher Education: Historical Themes and Contemporary Issues

Abstract

Over the past decade, many states have increased their investment in prekindergarten (pre-K) school programs that serve 3- and 4-year-old children. This increase has raised questions about what constitutes a well-qualified early childhood teacher. Similar questions were raised in the late part of the nineteenth century when states began investing in kindergarten, then a new and unique idea on the educational landscape. This article situates contemporary issues in early childhood teacher education within the historical context of the kindergarten movement in the U.S. Focus is given to the following themes: (a) the relationship between legitimization via degree program and maintaining a unique early childhood identity, and (b) the relationship between evolving “best practices” discourses and the nature of early childhood teaching. The ways in which heightened awareness of historical themes in early childhood teacher education can inform contemporary early childhood teacher education are explored.

Notes

¹In 1856, Margarethe Meyer Schurz established the first U.S. kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin for the children of German immigrants. Schurz had employed Froebel's philosophy while caring for her daughter, Agathe, and four neighbor children, leading them in games and songs and group activities that channeled their energy while preparing them for school. Other parents were so impressed at the results that they prevailed upon Schurz to help their children, so she opened the kindergarten.

²In 1918 The International Kindergarten Union was considered the third largest educational body in the world. In 1931, the National Council of Primary Education joined with the International Kindergarten Union under the name Association for Childhood Education (ACE). The organization later added the word International to its name (ACEI).

³“By the mid-1980s, kindergarten education had gone from being a privilege, to a right, to (in some places) a legal requirement” (Dombkowski, 2001, p. 539).