ERIC Number: EJ747225
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Dec
Pages: 8
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1082-3301
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Available Date: N/A
A Cultural Perspective on Professional Beliefs of Childcare Teachers
Hsueh, Yeh; Barton, Benjamin K.
Early Childhood Education Journal, v33 n3 p179-186 Dec 2005
Preschool is an institution for cultural preservation, which responds to social change. Guided by this assumption, this study used a recent video of Chinese preschool in conjunction with the questionnaire from "Preschool in Three Cultures", a study by Joseph Tobin and his colleagues in the 1980s, to examine the cultural and professional beliefs of three groups of U.S. early childhood educators (preservice, inservice non-Head Start, and inservice Head Start). We examined participants' cultural beliefs, critical comments on the preschool, and group differences in their comments. Results show that participants' beliefs about necessary qualities for a teacher remained stable from the 1980s in the U.S. But a shift occurred in beliefs about why society needs preschools. More education and longer employment were linked significantly to more critical comments of Chinese practice. There was a marked difference in professional "and" cultural beliefs by educators' group affiliations.
Descriptors: Preschool Education, Cultural Maintenance, Social Change, Preservice Teachers, Beliefs, Cultural Differences, Protocol Materials, Preschool Teachers, Foreign Countries, Matched Groups, Questionnaires
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A