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No description available.

The purpose of this study was to describe what happens when parents and children are invited to participate in a child-parent-teacher partnership which mutually supports the child's literacy development during transition into first grade. Questions which helped focus the study were: How do child-parent-teacher partnerships develop? How are participant's understandings and expectations about literacy affected and what is their influence on literacy development? What kind of changes related to involvement with literacy occur during the transition period? What are the conditions under which partnerships were promoted or impeded? Constructivist theory and ecological theory of human development provided the theoretical foundation for the study. Families from the researcher's classroom were invited to participate in child-parent-teacher partnerships. Eight families participated in the study. A case study design was used to describe the partnership process. Data collection consisted of three family surveys, child and parent journals, researcher folios, children's work samples, school records, written and verbal correspondences, unstructured interviews, and audio taped at home child-parent work sessions. Data analysis followed grounded theory methodology. Analysis revealed a uniqueness to each family and each child-parent-teacher relationship. Child-parent-teacher partnerships developed with seven of the eight participatory families. One surprising partnership developed without a positive parent-teacher relationship. The eighth intended partnership failed to emerge. Findings indicate the eight characteristics of partnership development are: interest and willingness to participate; shared purpose; reciprocal flexibility; ability and willingness to negotiate and compromise; unconditional commitment; mutual respect; effective communication; and availability of curriculum materials. Three benefits of child-parent-teacher partnerships are: enhanced literacy development; enriched parental understanding, expectation and involvement; and more informed child-parent-teacher communication. / Ph. D.

In an age of adultism in which children have been perceived as mere drains on society, schooling often has been viewed as a means to an end. Due to the fact that a capitalistic society requires future workers, children have been socialized in the necessary skills and knowledge required to fulfill their future job requirements. Consequently, schooling often has taken place in the form of the banking model in which students are treated as empty vessels to be filled up by the knowledgeable teachers, and then to regurgitate said knowledge on assessments to prove their understanding. I challenge this antiquated vision of education, especially in relation to what it has meant for young children in preschool through first grade. Using critical pedagogy and the Reggio Emilia approach as theoretical frameworks, I conducted a critical narrative study of eight early educators who have had experience working with students in early grades in emancipatory ways. I found that educators’ own experiences and consciousness greatly affected their beliefs about young children as well as the liberatory practices they engaged. I present a proposal for a shift in thinking about the education of young children, a relational model of education that highlights the intersections of critical pedagogy and the Reggio Emilia approach in grounding the work of teaching in armed love, belief in the capabilities of children, and opportunities for students to work with educators as revolutionary partners and transformative change agents who have an active role in their education and their world.

Progressive concept of education -- The education of young children today is being interpreted in terms of child growth and development. It is no longer thought of as mental training primarily, but as the well-rounded development of each individual, physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally to the extent of his potentialities.

The problem in this study is two-fold: (1) to determine the effects of a democratic curriculum upon the educational growth of first-grade children; and (2) to show that, through living the democratic life, the first-grade children developed behavior patterns that fitted them to live more wholesome lives.

The problem in this experiment is to try to determine if the use of certain materials during the first semester of the first school year of a group of children will cause the intelligence quotients and achievements of these children to improve.

The purpose of the study is to determine what degree of relationship exists between chronological age and performance in the first grade.

This study was selected to determine the relation of reading readiness to the mental, physical, personal, and social factors of a group of low first-grade pupils of the Plano Elementary School, Plano, Texas during the first five months of the school year 1949-1950. This study involves consideration of (1) mental readiness, (2) physical readiness, and (3) personal and social readiness as factors of child development.