Reflecting, Representing, and Expanding the Narrative(s) in Early Childhood Curriculum
Urban Education
In this manuscript, we recognize that young children learn stories that propagate white supremaci... more In this manuscript, we recognize that young children learn stories that propagate white supremacist narratives through selective traditions of early childhood curriculum. The role of early childhood teachers, therefore, is to critically examine curriculum for biases, omissions, and distortions, as well as to rewrite curriculum to tell accurate stories and disrupt what Viet Thanh Nguyen refers to as “narrative scarcity”. Through a qualitative study of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) re-imaginings and revisions of early childhood structures, processes, and texts, we highlight the moves that teachers made to rectify, represent and expand narratives related to communities of Color.
The notion of Donald Trump provokes a range of gestures, images, and smear words. Mainstream libe... more The notion of Donald Trump provokes a range of gestures, images, and smear words. Mainstream liberal media outlets position him as an idiot (Adams, 2017), a slob (Shephard, 2017) and interestingly, a child (Brooks, 2017). So provocative is the last identification that Comedy Central’s Daily Show (2017) created a browser extension that converts Trump’s tweets into ”their rightful state: a child’s scribble”. His words, transformed into writing which reflects both whimsy and immaturity, remind us of children’s status and position in Western society: as adults-in-the-making, in need of adults to tame them, and unworthy of respect. After all, children, like Trump, ”are leaky: they do not respect established boundaries. They wet the bed, spew up their food, have no respect for tidy kitchens or hoovered carpet” (Holland, 2004, p. 6). While Trump’s policies have undermined the status of women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, undocumented youth, Muslims, etc., our responses to his office have...
Co-Inquiry, Co-Construction, Collaboration: The Emergence of Curriculum
Language arts, 2016
The natural inquiries of young children ("Why is the sky blue?") remind us that the wor... more The natural inquiries of young children ("Why is the sky blue?") remind us that the world is meant to be questioned, experienced, and lived through interactions with places, ideas, and people. In New York City, where our school is based, the children's questions reflect the uniqueness of what the city has to offer: modes of transport, changing seasons, the bustle of the city and its dwellers. Several subway stops away is the Museum of Natural History, where the multiple floors of dinosaurs, true- to- life scenes of predatory conquest, and brilliant displays of outer space are enough to transfix adults and children alike. It's only natural, therefore, that the children's inquiries into dinosaurs, space, transportation, and seasons play a prominent role in our emergent curriculum.In many formulations of child- centered pedagogy, children's interests and inquiries are scattered and sprinkled throughout the curriculum; we, however, see their interests and inqui...
Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 2021
This article explores the concept of literacy futurisms as guided by the 2019–2021 Scholars of Co... more This article explores the concept of literacy futurisms as guided by the 2019–2021 Scholars of Color Transitioning into Academic Research Institutions cohort, who conceptualize themselves as part of an emergent literacy research collective. Drawing on the knowledges of our ancestors and children, we offer dimensions of a framework-in-the-making (grounded on intersectionality, translanguaging, decoloniality, ancestral, play, and collectivity) for reenvisioning and reclaiming the future(s) of literacy research. We invite readers to engage in multimodal play as co-conspirators in reclaiming literacy research.
This article explores the challenges of rewriting prescriptive early childhood curriculum wherein... more This article explores the challenges of rewriting prescriptive early childhood curriculum wherein settler colonialism and childhood innocence as a discourse reinforce one another. We attend to two primary ideas: 1) that the presence of settler colonialism pervades everyday practices in the early years, and 2) early childhood curriculum maintains young children's innocence visa -vis the regulation of their knowledge of colonial violence and Indigenous dispossession. By examining the curricular revisions of one pre-service teacher, we highlight the tensions that educators may undergo in negotiating the violence of U.S. settler colonialism within classrooms with young children. To begin this, we describe a recent incident that speaks to the critical work we ask early childhood educators to consider in this article. This anecdote centers on Sachin (pseudonym), a 9-year-old, 2.5 generation Indian-American, male immigrant with whom Ranita (author) is personally familiar: One day after school, Sachin recounted a story to his mother. After reading a recent Scholastic News issue on Indigenous Peoples Day at school, he had a conversation with his teacher about Christopher Columbus. He explained that he spoke to his teacher in private because he did not want his classmates to think he was being "weird" or "a bad kid." In that private moment, he told his teacher that he thought it was wrong for the school to be closed for Columbus Day because "Columbus was a bad man who stole and killed many Taíno people." This was a counternarrative that Sachin had frequently discussed at home. Beaming, he asked his mother, "Are you proud of me?" After she affirmed his action, they talked further about Indigenous Peoples Day, and she asked about his teacher's response to his statement. Sachin explained that she agreed with him that Columbus did bad things, but she added that we have to focus on the fact he "discovered this land that was full of resources and great for farming" (emphasis added). When Sachin's mom asked what he thought of his teacher's response, he paused and with some hesitation, replied that "maybe Columbus was kind of bad and kind of good." Sachin paused again, and with more certainty than before, explained that if Columbus had not discovered this land, "We wouldn't have our country and it wouldn't have grown." His mother agreed with him that the land is full of resources (cultivated by Indigenous knowledge systems) and asked if he thought that gave Columbus and other CONTACT
Since the 2016 US presidential election, a number of political cartoons have been produced that d... more Since the 2016 US presidential election, a number of political cartoons have been produced that depict Donald Trump as an infant or toddler. He is drawn in diapers and with any number of objects we associate with young children, as well as engaging in behaviours such as crying, whining, and melting down. As a genre, the political cartoon offers complex readings, yet this particular phenomenon, in its repeated renderings, seems to signal just as much, if not more, animosity toward children than toward Trump. The question is, who is the real object of critique in these visual displays? What are the assumptions that cartoonists have about children, and how is the child deployed in and through these images? In this work, we examined thirty political cartoons depicting Trump as an infant or toddler, along with related artifacts, dating from 2015 to 2018. We discuss the ways that the cartoonists rely on stereotyped affects and behaviours of childhood to express purportedly progressive notions of equity. The effect of this growing archive of images, however, may betray those objectives, instead enacting power over the figure of the child.
In this research article, Haeny Yoon and Tran Nguyen Templeton explore the challenges of listenin... more In this research article, Haeny Yoon and Tran Nguyen Templeton explore the challenges of listening to children in both classrooms and research that purports to center young children. Through two stories from their respective studies, Yoon and Templeton highlight the complexities of following children's leads given the competing agendas situating the work of teachers and researchers in neoliberal contexts. Time constraints, curricular mandates, and research expectations limit children's valuable contributions to their sociocultural communities. The authors' goal is to discuss the possibilities in taking up children's words, gestures, and moves as knowledge. They contend that children's voices should not simply be heard for curricular purposes, for adults' amusement, to forward a neoliberal agenda, or to maximize our own goals and pursuits. Instead, we should listen to understand the creativity and intelligence of young children whose social worlds are meaningful.
aspect, but knowing how to demonstrate the next steps is vital if children are to make the most o... more aspect, but knowing how to demonstrate the next steps is vital if children are to make the most of the technologies. (p. 122) Finally, in Chapters 8-10, the authors incorporate additional practices to invite young children into the writing curriculum. Through the use of quality children's literature and technology, the readeris encouraged to use multiple resources to foster agency in young children and their writing. The message within these chapters emphasizes how educators must understand and construct a writing curriculum supportive of all learners. Consider the message in the following passage and the language the authors use to engage the reader: You will meet writers in your classrooms and every possible combination in between. You have to plan for them, motivate them, enthuse them, plan their learning against the national curriculum, assess them and explain them as developing and improving writers. (p. 2
‘That street is taking us to home’: young children’s photographs of public spaces
Children's Geographies, 2018
ABSTRACT Children’s identities constitute and are constituted by the everyday spaces they inhabit... more ABSTRACT Children’s identities constitute and are constituted by the everyday spaces they inhabit. Though there are innumerable accounts of what adults think public spaces like subways and city streets mean to children, fewer recorded accounts exist from young children themselves (Faulkner and Zolkos 2016, “Introduction.” In Critical Childhood Studies and the Practice of Interdisciplinarity, ix–xvii. Lexington: Lanham.). In this work I explored 2- – 5-year-old children’s conceptions of public space through the photographs they took and the narratives they told in and around those images. I focused on how children imaged their spaces, how their narrative fragments added layers of story to the images’ contents, and how their photographic performances acted as ‘visual voice’ (Burke 2005, “‘Play in Focus’: Children Researching Their Own Spaces and Places for Play.” Children Youth and Environments 15 (1): 27–53.), highlighting for us how they see themselves and their positions within the larger urban environment. The young children’s photographs depicted their growing autonomy and mobility within an urban context, attunements to non-human forms of the city, and knowledge of what it means to live in their communities.
Applying Response to Intervention Metrics in the Social Domain for Students at Risk of Developing Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
The Journal of Special Education, 2008
Response to Intervention (RtI) has become an important element of policy, practice, and research ... more Response to Intervention (RtI) has become an important element of policy, practice, and research since the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In this article, five metrics recommended by Gresham (2005) were used to evaluate the progress of 127 students who were at risk of developing emotional disturbance and enrolled in a Tier 2 targeted group intervention. Student progress on a daily behavior report card was used to identify responders and nonresponders. Results suggest that percentage of change and effect size were the most useful metrics and identified 67% of the students as responders to the intervention. Additionally, 91% of the responders were not identified for special education, and over 50% reduced their problem behavior ratings on the Social Skills Rating System Teacher Form. These findings suggest that the intervention reduced the student's at-risk status and helped prevent the development of emotional and behavioral disabilities.
Meta-Analysis of Math Interventions for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 2008
Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) struggle in the area of academics as well ... more Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) struggle in the area of academics as well as behavior, and these academic difficulties manifest a great deal in mathematics. The number of children with EBD served in general education settings is increasing, and mathematics curriculum is expanding to include additional content areas and more complex mathematical processes. The convergence of these trends creates an enormous instructional challenge: an increasing number of children with EBD, with limited mathematics abilities, dealing with ever more complex subjects. This meta-analysis of mathematics interventions for students with EBD examines math performance outcomes as a function of study and sample characteristics, treatment effects of elements of math instruction, maintenance and generalization effects of these math interventions, and levels of mathematics investigated. Fifteen studies spanning nearly 20 years are included. Results emphasize the need for development of int...
I know how to take a picture": Young children's photographic practices and the construction of identity
Young children have been the leading subject of family photos since the inception of the camera i... more Young children have been the leading subject of family photos since the inception of the camera in 1839. Now, in the era of universal pre-kindergarten (UPK), cameras are commonly used by early childhood teachers, in efforts to "make learning visible" (Giudici, Rinaldi, & Krechevsky, 2001). These photographs of children's experiences act as evidence for accountability measures and give rise to the image of the neoliberal child, the individual in the first stage of becoming workforce-ready. Simultaneously the children in pictures remain subject to prevailing notions of innocence and naïveté, and these adult-conceived images have been the driving force on which early childhood curriculum is based. As a consistently marginalized group, young children have largely been left out of narratives about them, but what happens when they have access to tools to construct their own identities? How would they present their multiple selves across time and contexts? Situated at the nexus of visual sociology, early childhood literacies, and critical childhood studies, this work positions children ages 2 to 5 as a cultural group worthy of study. Adept with cameras to construct themselves, the participants in this image-based study took photographs across their home, school, and public spaces, shedding light on childhoods through children's eyes. In a process of Collaborative Seeing (Luttrell, 2010b, 2016), involving multiple image-making and audiencing opportunities, the participants presented aspects of social life that mattered to them. Using ethnographic methods (e.g. participant observations, child-directed interviews, and child focus groups), I highlight the children's intimate encounters with public spaces, everyday objects and technologies, and relations with peers and adults. The findings suggest that children's identities are co-constructed in and through complex networks of the human, non-human, temporal, and spatial. Young children's understandings of the world far exceed adults' ideas of them, and the ch [...]
Uploads
Papers by Tran Templeton