Teacher Values and Classroom Culture: Teaching and Learning in a Rural, Appalachian Head Start Program |
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| Authors: | Leigh M O'Brien |
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| Institution: |
a Nazareth College of Rochester. |
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| Abstract: | This paper condenses a case study designed to explicate teacher values as evidenced by practice in one Head Start classroom. To make sense of the classroom culture, five domains were considered: the use of space, the use of time, patterns of teacher-child interaction, materials and activities used, and the nature of parent-teacher interactions. Findings include the program's approximately even balance between the use of a cultural transmission model and a "developmental" model-and the conflicts around maintaining that balance; the differences existing between the teachers despite surface similarities; and the less-than-positive views the teachers had of program parents. Practice and policy implications revolve around the establishment and maintenance of separate programs for compensatory early education. The dichotomous nature of the programming reflected the teachers' perception that they had to remedy "deficient" home environments and prepare children for an academic kindergarten, in addition to utilizing mainstream early childhood education (ECE) practices. Implications for teacher-parent relations are likewise linked to assumptions behind compensatory education. A discussion of our two-tiered early education system leads to the recommendation for a more universalistic conception of early care and education. |
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