The garden is thorny

Teachers today are faced with myriad expectations. Whether preparing children for school learning goals, state assessments, or building social skills, it seems that teachers are being asked to do more every year. Perhaps the most palpable effect of the standards movement has been the academic “trickle down,” whereby our youngest learners have been exposed to a more academic, teacher-directed curriculum in many of today’s kindergarten classrooms. The evidence is strong; kindergarten has become the new first grade. This article explores the apparent conflicts and tensions evident in many of today’s kindergarten classrooms. In addition, recommendations are made to preservice teachers and school administrators in response to the challenges teachers face today in the current educational climate and the supports needed to ensure developmentally appropriate teaching. In this qualitative study four conversant and experienced kindergarten teachers were investigated over the course of a school year as they lived within the context of a changing curriculum, increased demands, and new expectations. This study looked to capture the lives of teachers and their abilities to develop and integrate strategies that consider the developmental nature of children, challenges of classroom diversity, and the imposition of standards and mandates

Accountability · Context (archaeology · Curriculum · Diversity (politics · Face (sociological concept · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

• How Education Stakeholders Made Sense of the Types of Learning Experiences Children are and Should be Having in Kindergarten and Why

  C P Brown, David P Barry et al.•Early Education and Development•2021

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• Make Kindergarten “Funner”

  Open Access•C P Brown, David P Barry•Teachers College Record The Voice…•2021

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• Attempting to fracture the neoliberal hold on early educators’ practical conceptions of teaching

  Open Access•C P Brown•Global Studies of Childhood•2018

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• Connecting kindergarten teachers’ play-based learning profiles and their classroom assessment practices

  Open Access•Angela Pyle, Christopher Deluca et al.•Teaching and Teacher Education•2022

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• Examining How Stakeholders at the Local, State, and National Levels Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

  Open Access•C P Brown, Joanna Englehardt et al.•American Educational Research…•2019

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• Polygenic Influence on Educational Attainment

  Open Access•B W Domínguez, Benjamin W Domingue et al.•AERA Open•2015

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• Beyond the DAP versus standards dilemma

  Open Access•Lisa S Goldstein•Early Childhood Research Quarterly•2006

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• From Child’s Garden to Academic Press

  Open Access•Jennifer Lin Russell•American Educational Research…•2011

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