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of preschool teachers are even less heeded than those of teachers generally. “Preschool
teachers appear to be seen either as glorified babysitters whose working lives are
unrelated to the lives of other teachers or as a subset of teachers generally, without
exceptional and important characteristics of their own” (Ayers, 1989, p. 3).
Discourses on curriculum are constructed in power relations between teachers and
learners with both positive and negative influence on the teacher’s ways of knowing and
selecting practice. Assisting early childhood educators to take a critical perspective is to
find a place within the curriculum discourse. There the ability to scrutinize the
assumptions and knowledge underpinning the view of curriculum would be empowering
for the practitioner (Kable, 2001).
Assumptions and Limitations
The assumptions that shape my research are based on a social constructivist
perspective. The first assumption that guides my thinking is that teaching and learning
should provide a transformational experience for the teacher and the learner. The second
assumption is that my story needs to be an integral part of the telling of the stories of
others. My development mirrors those whom I study. Who I am is an essential ingredient
to the research process.
To make meaning of my research process, I focus on ideas that do not merely
include me, but are me. For Eisner (1991), “the self is the instrument that engages the
situation and makes sense of it” (p. 34). In essence, this is a heuristic process that requires
a return to the self, recognition of self-awareness, and a valuing of one’s own experience
(Moustakas, 1990).