Browsing by Subject "early childhood education"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Preschool Parent Perceptions of School Climate and Child Achievement
    (2022-03) Smerillo, Nicole
    School climate is an important factor in the socialization and development of children. It touches on essentially every aspect of school life—people and relationships, teaching and learning, and features of schools such as safety, leadership, and collaboration (e.g. Cohen et al, 2009). With so many factors of school life included in this singular construct, there are likely many pathways between school climate, and more specifically parent perceptions of school climate, aspects of parental academic socialization—how parents socialize their children to become students—, and child achievement. Using data from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of the Midwest Child Parent Center Program, this dissertation study explores the associations between preschool parent perceptions of school climate, child achievement, and the potentially mediational relationships of parent expectations and parent involvement. Using multiple imputation and inverse propensity weighting methods, associations between preschool parent perceptions of school climate and child achievement were found in preschool and persisted through study year five, when most study participants were in third grade. Some evidence of the association between parent involvement in preschool and child achievement through third grade was also found. While there was no evidence of mediation in this study, a discussion is provided as to next steps in understanding potential mediators in the relationship between preschool parent perceptions of school climate and child achievement.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Transforming the Transformation: A post-intentional phenomenological exploration of Montessori teachers engaging in anti-bias and anti-racist teacher self-reflection
    (2018-06) Christensen, Olivia
    Montessori teachers often enter the teaching field with a strong sense of a Montessori social identity developed through their transformational teacher education experience (AMI, 2018a; Malm, 2004), uniting them around a shared knowledge and belief system (Fairclough, 1992, 2003). While a social identity can connect individuals and provide security and purpose, it can also limit beliefs and behaviors by producing a prescribed way of being (Foucault, 2010). Research (e.g., Sumison, 2002) has shown that when teachers are confronted with instances that challenge their teacher identity and social practice (Fairclough, 1992), they may experience dilemmas and uncertainty (Cuban, 1992; Lampert, 1985) that call their self and social identification as a teacher into question. This post-intentional phenomenological study is an attempt to better understand what is produced and provoked (Vagle, 2018) when Montessori teachers engage in anti-bias and anti-racist (ABAR) teacher self-reflection, a critical first step to implementing antiracist teaching practices in an early childhood classroom (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Specifically, I explored what is produced and provoked in the Montessori self and social identity as teachers consider ways of being a teacher that possibly differ with the Montessori teacher way of being. Six Montessori early childhood teachers participated in three workshops on ABAR self-reflection which I developed and facilitated over the course of three and a half months. Participant experiences, including my own, and additional phenomenological material (e.g., Montessori's writing, current initiatives in the Montessori social world) offered important insight into the life and evolution of the phenomenon. To guide analysis, I used Jackson and Mazzei's (2012) thinking with theory and Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) notion of the rhizome to conceptualize the life and growth of the phenomenon. Findings revealed elements of the Montessori social identity that provide meaning and purpose for teachers working towards dismantling oppression as well as limitations in the form of a regime of truth (Foucault, 1977/2010) that can challenge the development of a dialogic identity. Implications suggest recommendations for Montessori teacher education programs including strategies of incorporating ABAR reflective practices into Montessori teacher development, reevaluating the words and position of an adored leader for relevance as society evolves, and encouraging social activism by disrupting the notion of objectivity and neutrality in teaching.