Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Support Early Childhood Educators Need To Strengthen Teacher Retention, Anne Zimpel

Graduate Teacher Education

Early childhood educators (ECEs), referring to professionals who work with young children in various settings, often face feelings of isolation and lack of a 'sense of community/belonging.' These connections are essential to providing high-quality care for young children (NAEYC 2020). Feelings of isolation and lack of connections lead educators to burnout and emotional exhaustion. This research paper focuses on how ECEs can engage as professionals to build confidence in current practices, lessen isolation, and increase retention to reduce burnout and emotional exhaustion. It is essential to support early childhood professionals so that they can offer quality care for children. A …

The Joy Of Learning, Leah Graczyk

Graduate Teacher Education

Early childhood education has undergone significant changes in recent years (Harmon & Viruru, 2018). The increasing focus on academic success and the rising use of technology have somewhat overshadowed the joy of learning in young children (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2019). However, it's important to remember that play, often sacrificed in favor of structured academic activities, is a crucial aspect of developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood. These playful learning experiences are essential in sparking the joy of learning in young children (Friedman et al,, 2021). The research indicates that factors such as academic push-down, excessive use of technology, lack of …

The Broken System Of Child Care: A Workforce In Crisis, Lynn M. Ouellette

M.S. in Leadership

Child care is a business system that does not work to support its sustainability. The biggest issue facing the industry is the lack of ability to pay its workforce competitively. Literature suggests that child care has always faced workforce challenges and suffered from low wages and benefits. This project looks at the history of child care and the issues that have plagued the industry since the beginning. Reasons for these problems include inability to charge the true cost of care, lack of business and state federal leaders understanding and support, and the lack of societal change in how early education …

Developing Problem-Solvers: Cultivating A Scientific Way Of Thinking In Early Learners, Sarah Oeltjenbruns, Matthew J. Weyers, Maya Fogarty, Bryan Matera

Essays in Education

Adopting a science mindset in the early education years is critical for supporting critical thinking, curiosity, and systematic inquiry in students, setting a foundation for lifelong learning and problem-solving. This mindset, which values continuous learning and persistence, enables students to approach challenges across disciplines with a scientist’s curiosity. Through approaches like the Socratic method, problem-based learning, and hands-on activities, educators can enhance students' critical thinking and collaborative skills. By creating opportunities for inquiry-based learning, such as entry events, the See Feel Think Wonder protocol, and the Question Formulation Technique, teachers cultivate curiosity and guide students toward self-directed exploration. For example, …

Changing Course

DePaul Magazine

The Chicago Teacher Residency program, a partnership between DePaul University's College of Education and the Academy of Urban School Leadership, prepares career changers to teach in high-need Chicago Public Schools.

What Is The Value Of The Child And Dependent Care Credit?, Gabrielle Pepin

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Child and Dependent Care Credit (CDCC) subsidizes child care costs for working families. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 increased the CDCC’s generosity during 2021 only. I find that while the CDCC is of relatively little value in its current form, increases in eligibility rates and conditional benefits under the pandemic expansion increased the credit’s value dramatically. Conditional on CDCC eligibility, higher-income households experienced the largest increases in benefit levels under the expanded CDCC, but lower-income households benefited disproportionately when measuring benefits as a share of income or child care spending.

25asfc 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant, Deborah Ivie

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Exploring K-3 Teachers’ Perspectives Of Effective Resources And Strategies Used To Close Student Learning Gaps In Reading, Samantha Lott-Velez

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This qualitative study explores the perspectives of effective K-3 teachers on the resources and strategies they use to close student learning gaps in reading. Despite decades of federal and state initiatives, including Response to Intervention (RTI), differentiation, and the Science of Reading, a significant number of students, especially those in economically disadvantaged communities, continue to struggle with reading proficiency. Through a narrative qualitative design, this study examines the experiences of highly effective elementary teachers working in an urban Title I school district to identify the most impactful instructional approaches for accelerating student reading achievement.

Data was collected through one-on-one interviews …

Teaching Ettingerian Matrixial Theory, R. Michael Fisher

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Utilizing an adapted scoping review of the literature on Bracha L. Ettinger and Education (2008-2024), the author reveals the specific ways that Ettingerian Matrixial Theory (EMT) and its pedagogies are taught and can be taught in the future. EMT is argued to be a new branch of Critical Theory. The current literature shows there is mostly engagement with EMT in academic settings. As well, the literature reviewed shows EMT is used readily in arts and with artists as teachers and teachings for adults. However, the author unveils diverse other possibilities of teaching EMT. A few major themes from the literature …

A Matrixial Museum: Education In Almost-Impossible Spaces, Valerie Oved Giovanini

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This paper is meant to scaffold an imaginary space for what is currently an almost impossible museum. It would reside on a border between Gaza and Israel. Artists and participants would be able to enter from both sides of the border into a circular and cavernous space to make, share and experience art together. In artwork that values its relational capacity to affect another, the move from aesthetics to ethics recalls our mutual place of origin understood in Bracha L. Ettinger’s Matrixial Theory (EMT) as “the matrixial womb.” Griselda Pollock’s Virtual Feminist Museum, Gur-Ze’ev’s counter-education, feminist pedagogy, and Art-care activism …

She-Hero: A Memoir Of The Divine Feminine Within A Creation-Centred Paradigm, Darlene St.Georges

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

She-Hero: A Memoir of the Divine Feminine within a Creation-Centred Paradigm explores Ettinger’s matrixial borderspaces through an inter-woven theoretical | artistic | poetic métissage. An example of creation-centred research, this memoir is likened to Ettinger’s concept of metramorphosis—an active restoration of matrixial knowledge(s) and knowing. Embodying a creation-centred curriculum and pedagogy, She-Hero privileges non-dominant epistemologies to attend to the disruption of historical patterns of the hero—inviting readers to submerge and emerge in co-poesis within an intimate and aesthetic kaleidoscopic space of feminine affect and agency.

Traces Of Communal Touch: Matrixial Encounters With Pre-Service Art Educators Across Two States, Kate L. Wurtzel, Laura L. Mccartney

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

The matrixial sphere, as put forth by artist and psychoanalyst Bracha L. Ettinger, is a shared and transsubjective space that is beneath the conscious, under the touchable and perceptible; it is a space where we encounter ourselves and one another in shared trauma, healing, art making, and the lived experience overall. This co-authored essay explores how a shared matrixial space and the matrixial gaze, which is not always visual, have been experienced through the square boxes of ZOOM as part of a collaborative, long-distance art exchange project. The project, focused on Spontaneous Creation-Making (SCM) sessions, as outlined in Barbara Bickel …

Benefits Of Multisensory Rooms In Schools To Control Behaviors In Children With Disabilities, Kye Smith, Cassandra Nelson

Fall 2024 OTD Capstone Symposium

This project explores the benefits of implementing multisensory rooms in schools to manage challenging behaviors in children with disabilities. Conducted at the Barack and Michelle Obama Ninth Grade Center in Lancaster, TX, the program involved participants aged 13-15 diagnosed with disabilities. A comprehensive needs assessment identified gaps in behavior management and overstimulation challenges. The program was designed using evidence-based strategies, including the Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance (PEOP) model, and incorporated techniques such as the Take Five Breathing Strategy, deep pressure input, chair yoga, and meditation.

Through pre- and post-surveys with students, parents, and teachers, the study evaluated the program's impact on functional independence …

Social Emotional Learning Unit Plan For Kindergarten Students, Aubrey Groenhof

Masters Projects

Younger grades are beginning to look different as time goes by. With new laws in place, like No Child Left Behind, there is a higher demand for rigorous academics. Teachers have assessments and district provided curriculum to make sure to achieve within their school days. This push for academic rigor has led to less free-play in the younger grades resulting in more disruptive behaviors. Research has revealed the importance of Social-Emotional Learning within the classroom setting to reduce the disruptive behaviors and emotions. This project focuses on the impact of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) on disruptive behaviors. The author investigated different …

Early Childhood Faculty Perspectives On Inclusion Of Antibias Curriculum Or Components In Preprimary Teacher Training Curriculum In The United States, Carlotta Conley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was that there was the likelihood of a mismatch between preprimary teachers’ racial, ethnic, and cultural make-up and the children and families they educate and care for in the preprimary classroom from birth to 5 years. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine early childhood education (ECE) community college faculty perspectives on the importance of and challenges with implementing antibias curriculum or components into preprimary education training. The conceptual framework was Smyth’s model of reflection and the Learning for Justice organization’s antibias framework. For this basic qualitative design, data were collected …

Integrating The Elementary Literacies Through The Practice Of Physical Education: A Strategy Resource, Bryan Matera, Dillon Martinez

Essays in Education

Integrating literacy and physical education (PE) supports interdisciplinary learning that engages both the mind and body. This article explores innovative approaches to combining literacy skills with physical activity, highlighting the cognitive and physical benefits for elementary students. Recognizing students’ natural attraction to movement, the article demonstrates how embedding literacy into PE lessons can enhance reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and memory retention through action-oriented activities. These strategies also promote physical literacy, encouraging confidence and lifelong participation in physical activities.

Key instructional examples include the "Movement-Enhanced Word Wall," where students connect vocabulary to movement, and "Animal Action Reading Relays," which integrate reading …

Evaluation Of An Instructional Sequence To Promote The Emergence Of Convergent Intraverbals In Children With Autism, Jesika Woodard

Theses

Skinner (1957) defined intraverbal as a type of verbal behavior in which the

response form has no point-to-point correspondence with its verbal stimulus and is

followed by generalized conditioned reinforcement. Verbal behavior can be influenced

by multiple controlling variables, with convergent and divergent control being two

distinct types of this influence. In convergent intraverbals, multiple components of

antecedent verbal stimuli control a specific verbal response of the speaker. An example of

an intraverbal response under convergent control may be "banana" when asked, "What is

a fruit that is yellow?" De Souza et al. (2019) evaluated the effects of teaching …

Unpacking East And Southeast Asian Immigrants Portrayed In Children’S Picturebooks: Centering On Immigration In Contemporary Times, Su Jeong Wee, Jinhee Kim, Vivian Yang

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article describes a study that examined the portrayal of East and Southeast Asian immigrant children and their families in children’s picturebooks, focusing on their racialized and minoritized experiences. The authors’ analysis included a sample of 39 picturebooks written in English and published in the United States between 1993 and 2022. The findings reveal that these immigrant children and families are depicted as facing racism, stereotypes, financial difficulties, cultural differences, and language barriers. The Asian protagonists respond to their challenges in various ways, often employing multiple coping strategies. Additionally, they frequently find support through their social relationships when dealing with …

Harry Potter And The Pedagogy Of Hogwarts, Rachel Cepe

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Education plays a critical role in the academic and personal development of children. Harry Potter spends seven years as a Hogwarts student; while he navigates school, he fights against a growing evil force that threatens day-to-day life. This paper applies different educational theories to each year to examine how Harry adapts to the ever-changing conditions at school to be successful. In the first year, the application of attachment styles theory introduces Harry to a suppressed part of his identity. In the second year, applying intrinsic motivation theory reveals the cultivation of curiosity. In the third year, the locus of control …

Preschool Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Teaching Mathematics: A Multiple Holistic Case Study Approach, Farhana Afroz

All Dissertations

Teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching mathematics plays a significant role in students’ success in mathematics (Levine et al., 2010; MacDonald, 2020). Introducing high-quality mathematics instruction in preschool is crucial, as this practice impacts children’s future mathematics achievement (Claessens & Engel, 2013; Braak et al., 2021). Despite having this benefit, children at the preschool level get inadequate mathematics lessons due to the preschool teachers’ uneasiness or discomfort with teaching mathematics (Gerde et al., 2018; Bates et al., 2013). However, this discomfort or uneasiness may arise from teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching mathematics (Copley, 2004). This study investigated the perceived self-efficacy of preschool teachers …