Which Way Should We Go from Here?
Some Thoughts about Early Childhood Curriculum
by Stephanie Feeney
This article is an edited version of Stephanie Feeney's Closing Plenary Session address to
the NAEYC 15th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development in San Antonio,
June 2006.
CURRICULUM IS A DYNAMIC PROCESS and a product of its time. Its content
evolves and changes in response to the historical moment, politics, the changing knowledge
about children and about subject matter. We sometimes describe the process as an educational
pendulum that swings from an emphasis on the needs and interests of children to a focus on
subject matter to be mastered. Today the pendulum has definitely swung to the subject matter
side of the continuum.
Many early childhood educators are concerned about how we can respond to the current focus
on content and accountability without losing our historical commitment to child-centered,
humanistic practice. I hope that in this age of accountability we will remember to give
curriculum the same serious thought that we are giving to standards and assessment.
Standards as a basis of support
From the sessions I attended at this NAEYC National Institute for Early Childhood
Professional Development, I see a lot of productive thought and work going on regarding how
we can use standards as the basis for supporting and improving learning opportunities for
young children. Sessions on math, literacy, and dance standards were guides for improving
curriculum planning. Other sessions focused on selecting appropriate curriculum for particular
groups of children, using a quality-rating system to provide a foundation for appropriate
curriculum, aligning curriculum with state standards, and integrating math, literacy, and the
development of social-emotional skills.
Several excellent sessions drew our attention to standards that could be used in support of
appropriate play-based activities, emergent curriculum, and the project approach. Presenters
stressed that meaningful play-based learning can lead to acquisition of the standards and be
assessed by authentic means. Sessions addressing the social-emotional development of
children and cultural issues also had important implications for what we teach young children
and how.
Challenges ahead
I have expressed my concerns about the proliferation of standards, and although still
concerned, I am heartened by the thoughtful work presented at the institute by early childhood
educators. Based on my understanding of early childhood curriculum and what I have heard
educators saying at this institute, I identify four important challenges in learning to embrace standards while doing what is best for young children.
1. Focus on the why of curriculum
Remembering to focus on the why of curriculum may be the greatest challenge. We need to
keep in mind what it is we are trying to accomplish for children and for society.
The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland said something that can be applied very well to
early childhood education. As Alice was wandering in the woods, a smile appeared in a tree
and slowly materialized into a cat. Alice inquired, "Would you tell me please which way I
ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the cat.
How can we decide what we are going to do, if we do not know where we are going? The
Cheshire Cat's response provides us with a central question that can guide thoughtful
curriculum planning: What am I trying to accomplish as a teacher—for children and for
society? In making your choices, it is critical to keep in mind where you want to get to.
We all have values we want our society to embody, and all teachers want the children they
teach to be creative, productive citizens in the future. But values vary in the extent to which they
emphasize different aims and goals. Like Alice, most teachers want to get somewhere, and most have some
specific goals in mind. And they wish for the paths they walk with children to be pleasant and productive ones.
How can we make this happen? I hope you will think about your aims for the education of
young children and make sure they are reflected in the standards you use and in your
classroom practice. If we neglect doing this, we may lose track of what we most desire for
children. We might be busy focusing on bits of content instead of the bigger picture of the
kinds of knowledge and skills children must have to succeed both as students and as citizens
in the future.
Let us look critically at our standards to see if they address aims like creativity, empathy,
problem solving, being part of a community, learning to live in a democratic society,
practicing social justice, and many others. We need to find ways to include in our standards
those things we value most or find ways to address them along with the standards.
2. Keep children at the center of practice
Children are at the center of our practice. Standards must be addressed in ways that will
allow us to preserve a teacher's love of teaching and children's love of learning. What I have
heard at this institute persuades me that we can do this, but we need to be vigilant in ensuring
that the use of standards is, first of all, beneficial to children. Standards too should help us to
evolve and improve our practice rather than stultify it.
There are many ways to address any standard. Remembering this, we want to be clear that
standards are not curriculum; they are guidelines for the development of curriculum. We need
to find ways to address standards without standardizing the curriculum and to tailor our
programs to the specific groups of children we serve and to unique individuals within the
groups. We need to be sure that what we teach addresses the cultural backgrounds of the
children we serve and is responsive to their social-emotional development. At the same time,
we don't want to lose track of the social-emotional development of children.
3. Embrace the intellectual, continue the experiential
To use standards to make us aware of meaningful content for young children while
continuing to do those things that early childhood teachers have always done well, this is the
third challenge. Keep on supporting children's play, providing nurturing relationships, and
offering opportunities for hands-on experiential learning.
At this institute I noticed how much more comfortable we are becoming about acknowledging
the intellectual (also referred to as academic ) aspect of our work with young children. I hope
too that we embrace the intellectual in ways that are substantive and child centered like the
Project Approach, Bank Street's curriculum based on community exploration, and other
methods that help children learn to appreciate and understand the world they live in. These
approaches are consistent with Maria Montessori's view that the universe is the child's
curriculum (Montessori [1949]1995). I believe that these approaches that support children's
growing understanding of the world are much preferable to a curriculum that focuses on
unconnected bits of information and skills.
Curriculum can engage children in worthwhile experiences and help them learn meaningful
and interesting things about their world. I believe strongly that early childhood curriculum
should honor children as meaning makers deserving of content about the world that is real,
interesting, and has intellectual integrity. In other words, what we teach and what children
learn should be worth knowing. And while language, literacy, and math skills are important in
today's educational climate, it is important to remember that they are best learned in the
context of a rich, exciting curriculum.
4. Strengthen preparing and practicing teachers
The final challenge is helping those who work with young children and those preparing to be
early childhood educators to provide or learn to provide a child-centered approach in their
practice, while coping with a proliferation of curriculum standards and accountability
demands. As a profession we need to do everything we can to help them learn to implement
standards and preserve what the early childhood field believes best for children.
Carol Anne Wien's book Negotiating Standards in the Primary Classroom: The Teacher's
Dilemma is helpful in understanding what teachers are experiencing and how to support them (2004).
Wien found that teachers who negotiated standards and maintained appropriate practice selectively
discerned which standards could be stressed and which could be deemphasized and integrated
into subject areas in their teaching. She learned that teachers who survive and thrive in a
standards environment tend to have a vision of what they want to accomplish, a strong
knowledge base, support from their administrators, and quite a bit of freedom to select what
and how to teach. We can work to provide these qualities and strengths for all the early
childhood educators and prospective teachers in our communities.
# # #
It is a challenge to be an early childhood educator today. I hope this institute energized you,
strengthened your commitment, and renewed your vision of what is best for young children.
References
Montessori, M. 1995 [1949]. The absorbent mind. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Wien, C.A. 2004. Negotiating standards in the primary classroom: The teacher's dilemma. New York: Teachers College Press.
Stephanie Feeney, PhD, is professor of education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and director of the
master's program in early childhood education. Her publications include the textbook Who Am I in the Lives of
Children? (7th edition), a curriculum for young children based on social studies concepts, the original NAEYC
Code of Ethical Conduct, two books about professional ethics, and articles on aesthetic development, children's
literature, and ethics.
Copyright © 2006 by the National Association for the Education
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