Final Version May 5 07

163
voice to be heard. The cases are presented to depict the experience of emergent
curriculum and how it relates to practice and image. I have employed a journey metaphor
to the cases for narrative purposes while seeking to understand the experience of moving
from one point of practice to another. I have bounded the cases by this criterion to limit
the focus, understanding that I could not include an entire depiction of practice.
The Reluctant Traveler: The Road Resisted
I will begin by introducing Layla, an early childhood educator with nearly 20
years of experience. Layla is a college graduate working in a Reggio-inspired
child care centre in a midtown public school. Layla was the first to respond to my
invitation. I had never met her and had not been to this site since it had developed
an emergent curriculum focus. In our first meeting, during the first interview,
Layla described her initial reaction to her director’s suggestion to adapt an
emergent curriculum. She had been adamantly resistant to the idea.
The Spirited Traveler: The Road to Community
My second case study is of Rose, an early childhood educator working with
school-age children from 4 to 10. Rose has a college diploma and a Bachelor of
Arts degree. She has been working at the same child care centre for 8 years. Her
responsibilities have increased, as the organization has grown, to include a
number of satellite school-age programs, one of which Rose supervises. I first met
Rose when I was asked by this centre to present a professional development
session on emergent curriculum. Rose’s spirit is energizing, and together with her
coworkers, a collegial atmosphere of community has emerged.