ABSTRACT

Preschool Teachers’ Lives and Work focuses on preschool teachers as people, what they do, and how they are affected by what they do. Highly politicized and hotly debated, preschool today is increasingly focused on comparatively narrow views of school readiness and academic outcomes which are generally in opposition to the broader view of readiness proposed by NAEYC. This powerful book, based around interviews and data drawn primarily from Head Start programs, illustrates the profound humanity of this profession and underscores the pressing and insistent need for greater investments in teachers’ well-being.

chapter 1|10 pages

Setting the Stage

ECE, the Teacher Workforce, and Head Start

chapter 3|17 pages

The Intensification of Teaching

What Is Good Teaching?

chapter 4|19 pages

Teaming and Teacher Identity

chapter 6|21 pages

Building Family–School Partnerships

Challenges and Opportunities

chapter 7|20 pages

A Woman’s World

Gender and ECE Teaching

chapter 8|19 pages

Contested Professionalism

The Ethics of Care

chapter 9|17 pages

Conclusion

Now What?