The Role of Administrators in Recruiting, Retaining, and Respecting Early Childhood Educators: Creating a Culture Where Teachers Feel Valued

Literature Review

This is a crucial time in early childhood education, as the field has seen great transformation in recent years. Throughout the past two decades, there has been a major influx of change. Today’s early learning environment consists of “increased academic expectations” and heightened curricula fueled by new policies in pedagogical practices (Haslip & Gullo, 2018, p. 250). Though the early childhood curriculum was once rich in social activities conducted through play, a snapshot of today’s classroom shows a much different picture, as formative socialization has been replaced with an increase of academic standards and data collection (Haslip & Gullo, 2018). Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms were once environments where assessment was conducted through the observation of social constructs, yet today’s four and five year olds are spending more and more time engaged in formalized assessments in preparation for later grade levels. This “new normal” can create greater stressors for young learners and for early childhood teachers. Social, discovery-based experiences allow students to develop valuable skillsets and methods of expression, yet teachers in today’s classrooms are often unable to provide such experiences for children, depriving them of developmentally appropriate methods of learning (Haslip & Gullo, 2018). Research finds that teachers who find “policies and practices” questionable are often more likely to leave (Glazer, 2018, p. 69). Many early childhood teachers have convictions against the movement toward advanced structured curricula and less time for play, and this new methodology of learning often goes against the initial reasons that these educators chose to teach young children.