From the guest editors: Preparing early childhood teachers for infant care and education

The call to reenvision early childhood teacher education to better prepare preservice and in-service teachers to meet the needs of infants, toddlers, and their families has resonated in the U.S. and abroad. There is a clear consensus that teaching this age group requires specialized preparation and continuing professional development (Dalli, White, Rockel, & Duhn, 2011; Recchia, 2016; Shin, 2015). As more powerful scientific findings reveal the critical nature of the early years as an essential foundation for lifelong learning and emotional well-being (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2007), the need for more deliberate and meaningful preparation of teachers to provide high-quality child care, early education, and early intervention for infants and families has become even more compelling (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2015).

The five articles presented in this special issue explore the challenges facing the field and offer promising practices for preparing and supporting teachers to work with infants, toddlers, and families. The studies and commentaries reflect diverse programs, issues, and settings, yet common themes emerge, including the lack of adequate preparation in early childhood teacher education for quality practice with infants and toddlers (Horm, Hyson, & Winton, 2013), the need for integrating more meaningful experiences with infants, toddlers, and families into professional preparation, and the importance of family–professional partnerships.

In our first article, “What’s missing in most of our early childhood degrees? Focusing more deeply on relationships and learning with infants, toddlers, and their families,” Marilyn Chu explores how future early childhood teachers in 2-year (AA) and 4-year (BA) degree programs are being prepared through coursework and field experiences to meet Washington State and nationally accepted core knowledge and broad competency areas for work with infants and toddlers. Using a participatory action review of surveys, interviews with early childhood teacher educators, and an examination of publically available course information, Chu uncovers the ‘uneven and limited inclusion’ of infant-toddler content in the state’s early childhood education programs. Her findings revealed a need for greater emphasis on infant development, early intervention, and child and family resilience. She suggests a clear incorporation of prenatal to age 3 content into all early childhood education courses and an increase in related field experiences and ongoing professional development opportunities focusing on this age group and their families.

E. Jayne White, Mira Peter, Margaret Sims, Jean Rockel, and Maureen Kumeroa explore the ways that universities are responding to changes in policy regarding preparation of infant and toddler teachers in their article, “First-year practicum experiences for preservice early childhood education teachers working with birth-to-3-year-olds: An Australasian experience.” In this article, they focus on the 1st year of a larger longitudinal project, “Collaboration of Universities Pedagogies of Infants’ and Toddlers’ Development—‘down under’ (CUPID),” at five Universities across Australia and New Zealand (NZ). Using the US CUPID study as a framework, White and her colleagues examine the practicum experiences of 1st-year early childhood preservice students and evaluate how five University sites were responding to national and local requirements for preparing preservice teachers to work with birth-to-3-year-olds. Using multiple data sources including document review, instructor surveys, and instructor and student reports to gain a deeper understanding of the learning experiences of preservice teachers in their 1st year of the program, the authors illuminate the ways that different universities take different approaches in response to national criteria. Findings reveal variation across preparation programs, with content designed in different ways based on interpretations of ‘what’s best’. The authors suggest that the current neoliberal policy context may be impacting university programs’ degree of focus on birth to 3, taking attention away from the most important components of working with infants in lieu of a preacademic focus for early childhood education.

In their article “Preparing home visitors to partner with families of infants and toddlers” Lori Roggman, Carla Peterson, and colleagues articulate the unique competencies needed to provide quality services to infants and families and discuss implications for preparing the workforce to meet the particular needs of this population. They describe the field as lacking a comprehensive set of competencies for home-based work with infants, toddlers, and families, which cuts across disciplinary boundaries, and articulate a set of core competencies drawing on interdisciplinary knowledge. The authors make clear how home-based work highlights the role of families in particular ways that require skills distinct from classroom practice. They discuss implications for enriching the preparation of home visitors through interdisciplinary coursework and hands-on experience with diverse families.

Kimberly Hile, Rosa Milagros Santos, and Mary-alayne Hughes followed a group of Early Childhood Special Education graduates to explore their perspectives on the extent to which particular components of their personnel preparation program prepared them to implement family-centered services and which of these practices they are actually using in their work in their study “Preparing early interventionists to implement family-centered practices.” Through a mixed-methods approach using surveys and focus groups, the authors gained insight into in-service teachers’ understandings and challenges. They found that the graduates held positive beliefs regarding partnering with families and indicated several contributing program components as facilitating their implementation of family-centered practices. The combination of coursework and actual “hands-on” practicum experience had the most powerful effect on the graduates’ understanding of family-centered practices and their desire to use these practices in their work. This article highlights the (dis)connection between theory and practice as well as the graduates’ need for ongoing support as they enter the workforce in the field of early intervention. The graduates were challenged at times to apply theory to practice, particularly in the face of the realities of working with diverse families. The authors offer meaningful suggestions for early childhood teacher education.

In our final article, “Parents’ and teachers’ reflections on the process of daily transitions in an infant and toddler laboratory school” Linda Traum and Mary Jane Moran explore an important context for connection and communication between parents and infant/toddler teachers—daily transitions in child care. They articulate the significance of this understudied aspect of caring for infants and toddlers and discuss implications for early childhood teacher education. Looking through the lens of attachment and sociocultural theories, Traum and Moran invite both teachers and parents to reflect on their transition experiences with their infants and toddlers using Video Stimulated Recall Interviews (VSRI) as a catalyst for discussion. By capturing daily actions during the transition process, the authors illuminate the ways that teachers support parents and children, as well as how teachers and parents develop partnerships to facilitate the process. By using the VSRI methodology with both parents and teachers, they also uncovered the ways that both parties sometimes see things differently. This methodology served as a professional development tool as well as a way to allow teachers and parents to think more deeply about the meaning of these daily experiences for the children.

Taken together, the articles in this theme issue provide insight and inspiration to the field of early childhood teacher education as it struggles to find more meaningful and effective ways to prepare professionals to work with infants, toddlers, and families. The ideas, opportunities, and experiences represented here reflect the efforts of early childhood teacher educators who are taking action to enhance our understanding of the complexity of infant care and education and to bring new energy to preparing professionals to engage in this important work.