A case study of preschool teacher expectations and teacher-student interactions

Public preschool in NJ is a targeted program aimed at ameliorating the effects of disadvantage by readying children for school. Recent research (Ladson-Billings, 2009; Chien, Howes, Pianta, Burchinal, Ritchie, Bryant, Clifford, Early, and Barbarin, 2010) suggests that teachers may vary their interactions with children in these programs based on their expectations of academic need and that these expectations may be mediated by race and class. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teacher-student interactions in a local urban preschool program where the teacher and students racial, ethnic, and socio-economic status differ. The research questions that guided this study are: What do teacher-student interactions look like in the preschool classroom when teachers’ and children’s backgrounds differ? a) What are teachers’ expectations of their preschool students? b) How do teachers convey their expectations to their students? c) What do the students perceive are the expectations that their teachers have of them? Qualitative data was collected in two pubic preschool classrooms through interviews, observations and document analysis. Classroom teachers were interviewed three times using a semi structured protocol aimed at understanding each teacher’s responses and expectations of students. Two interviews were also conducted with each of the four student participants to elicit their views of life in preschool. Classroom observations of whole group and small group instructional events captured descriptive information about teacher-student interactions. Documents, such as lesson plans, provided insight into teachers planning for students and were collected to triangulate data. The results of this study show that both teachers had an academic agenda that focused on skills rather than substance. Overlooking what the children could do, both teachers taught academic content to their Black students in the same way, almost as routine. The knowledge and ii competencies that children brought with them into the classroom were overlooked and as a consequence, neither teacher is really getting the children to the levels of literacy and numeracy that they need to be at to be successful in kindergarten. The children were aware of their teachers’ expectations of them: that the wanted them to learn, not excel, but just get through the basics.Ed. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Angela Sanson