I have completed my first year as editor of the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, and I have learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and am continually appreciative of the support I receive from the JECTE editorial board, our guest reviewers, Brittany Hewett, our editorial assistant, the NAECTE organization, and our publisher, Taylor & Francis. I have dedicated my work this year to my mother, my first teacher. I look forward to another great year for the journal. Throughout Volume 37, the complexity of teaching has been highlighted in published manuscripts. The interconnectedness of the multiple issues in teacher preparation were eloquently presented, intriguing ideas were studied, and recommendations and implications for teacher educators were provided. This first issue of 2017 carries on this theme of complexity and the opportunities for continual learning in teacher education.
The studies and practices included in this issue facilitate professionals’ deeper thinking and consideration of issues that they may be familiar with and present new ideas or perspectives that can be incorporated into their work as teacher educators. It seems that we are building dynamic models for professional development, models that are three-dimensional, interactive and extremely flexible. The profession has core standards, beliefs, and practices, and the continual learning within teacher preparation allows for the exploration and reflection on the implementation of these core ideas in new and varied ways. Being open to new perspectives and ideas contributes to the excitement of teaching and learning. This issue includes a study on critical reflection, technology in teaching and teacher preparation, university and community partnerships, and generative texts.
Elizabeth Beavers and colleagues remind us of the importance of reflection. In their manuscript, they make the point that completing a teacher education program does not provide all the skills that an effective teacher will need. Reflection is an important skill in teaching which must be taught, and critical reflection which incorporates critical thinking skills provides teacher candidates skills to evaluate their teaching and children’s learning. Although reflection is a core practice in teacher preparation, candidates may not be adequately prepared for the active nature of reflective and critical thinking. The need for opportunities to learn and practice these skills is important to consider in teacher preparation, and ensuring reflection from multiple perspectives and modeling this behavior in teacher preparation courses, can build these skills.
Christopher Brown and colleagues remind us that we all have learning do; in the case of their article, this applies specifically to the use of technology such as iPads and their apps in teacher candidates’ coursework and fieldwork. They ask us to step back and observe children’s use of technology as we think about how to best address the needs of multiple learner groups to understand and implement technology to maximize its benefits. Many go into teaching because they are perpetual learners, keeping an open mind, understanding what we do not know and being willing to learn and engage in the unfamiliar. It is what we ask children and teacher candidates to do, and as teacher educators, we can benefit from this process as well. Technology, used appropriately and creatively, opens avenues of thought and exploration that are exciting for teachers and learners.
In their Reflection on Practice piece also focused on the use of technology, Pamela Sullivan and her colleague discuss the importance of including creativity in teacher preparation and their experiences introducing teacher candidates to technology and reflecting on and evaluating their learning process. In this piece, students enrolled in a teacher creativity course experienced learning about 3D printing. The unintended outcomes from students’ experiences provide pause to think about problem solving and learning. When presented a new learning task involving technology, teacher candidates learned to work in groups and problem solve, skills that will help them be effective teachers as well as further understand the learning process of children.
Adam Kennedy and his colleague present a case for mutually beneficial community-university partnerships in a direct response to these calls for change in early childhood teacher education. In their article, the importance of sharing principles, features, and challenges associated with engaging multiple stakeholders in the development and implementation of a field-based undergraduate early childhood teacher education program is discussed. The flexibility of the field is evident in this manuscript focused on partnerships between a university and community settings intended to transform practices to increase teacher candidates’ skills and building connections rather than barriers between universities, teachers, and families.
Also challenging us to think and learn in broader terms, Mariana Souto-Manning discusses generative texts and inclusive classrooms. Her article allows us to reflect on the intersection of teaching practices and teacher education to create classrooms addressing the diverse experiences and needs of children. Her discussion centers on one program, but the presentation of the process of using critical pedagogy in planning and teaching with generative text sets allows us to reflect on our values, experiences, and biases as we think about providing meaningful experiences for all young children. If we limit our thinking, then we limit the experiences and learning of children.
And finally, Amanda Williford and her colleagues share findings from a course provided to in-service teachers, focused on improving teachers’ emotional, organizational, and instructional interactions with children in the classroom using video examples to increase teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and providing examples of high quality interactions. A key component of the professional development course was honing teachers’ observation skills to ensure that they were able to use behavioral terms to explain how and why a specific practice was important. The finding that teachers with more child-centered beliefs demonstrated stronger skills of being able to explain other teachers’ behaviors using behavioral terms and that this skill is associated with higher quality interactions, gives us pause to think about what content and learning activities could be included in professional development at the in-service level and at the preservice level.