ABSTRACT
This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted with early childhood teachers within an Asian context that questions the use of Euro-Western assumptions to inform the preparation and practice of primary and pre-primary teachers in a non-western context. Conceptualized within the frameworks of postcolonial theory and globalization, the paper offers an alternate perspective on teacher education that will support the development of globally and culturally aware early childhood educators. Globalization works to bring global and local discourses together, with the former often being a western discourse which tends to dominate the latter. This leads to a colonized condition defined by Donaldo Macedo (1999) as being the imposition of an ideological yardstick against which members of weaker communities are measured and consequently fall short. Globalization also has a transactional nature to it and serves to bring diverse cultural elements together with regard to ideas, practices and policies. This transaction results in the creation of what Homi Bahba (1994) refers to as spaces of cultural hybridity. Rooted in the idea of cultural hybridity is the notion of pedagogical hybridity. Essentially this occurs within classroom spaces that are created when diverse pedagogical ideas and practices and policies are brought together. In this increasingly globalizing 21st century it is imperative that teachers are prepared in teacher education classrooms where culturally diverse notions on child development and educational philosophies are explored and acknowledged. In keeping with the theme of this conference of “Finding alternative approaches, theories, practices and frameworks of early childhood education in the 21st century” this talk will be focused on the globalized concepts of pedagogical hybridity and the pedagogy of third space by examining how that may apply to teaching practices in early childhood classrooms, and offering recommendations for teacher preparation programs.
