Attempting to fracture the neoliberal hold on early educators’ practical conceptions of teaching: A case study

Abstract

The global shift toward neoliberalism, which frames the education of young children through markets, credentials, and individualism, creates a range of challenges for those who call for and seek out democratic teaching practices that strive to address the sociocultural worlds of the children in their programs. This article begins to address this issue. It does so by examining the findings from a qualitative case study that investigated how the practical conceptions of sample of early childhood graduate students in the United States were affected by developing and implementing a learning activity with children that reflected issues central to their lives in and/or outside their classrooms. Investigating and analyzing their experiences provide members of the early childhood community with steps they might take to assist early educators in framing their roles as teachers through democratic conceptions of practice that they can then implement within their early education context.