Supporting preschool teachers’ use of culturally grounded Practices: Factors that influence program fidelity

ABSTRACT

Policymakers have underscored the importance of professional development (PD) opportunities for supporting the early childhood education workforce. Yet little is known about how the scope and delivery of PD opportunities impact the extent to which the content provided informs classroom practice. In the present study, we explored how teacher fidelity of implementation differs by the PD scope and delivery, and the role it plays in overall classroom quality. Lead teachers in under-resourced preschool centers were randomly assigned to one of three PD conditions: (1) a broad-based program focused on incorporating children’s cultural funds of knowledge throughout the day, delivered via an in-person coach, (2) a culturally grounded classroom storytelling program that is narrow in scope and delivered via in-person coaching, (3) a culturally grounded classroom storytelling program that is narrow in scope and delivered via an animated webinar series. Findings showed that teachers’ fidelity of implementation was higher when trained in a classroom program that is narrow in scope, fidelity did not vary by mode of delivery (i.e., in-person coaching vs. webinars), and that higher fidelity of implementation was predictive of more supportive classroom practices. Results are discussed in relation to implications for best practices surrounding in-service professional development opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• early childhood
• professional development
• culturally-responsive
• fidelity

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by a grant awarded to the first and last authors by The Brooke Astor Fund for New York City Education. The authors would like to thank Lauren Scarola and Maria Petrolekas, as well the administrators and teachers at our partnering schools, without whom this work would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2023.2223143

Notes

1. While these terms are, at times, used interchangeably, children’s lived experiences can go beyond direct aspects of cultural heritage, whereas cultural heritage might not necessarily be present in children’s everyday lives; funds of knowledge describes the toolkit of cultural and everyday practices that children bring with them to the classroom.

2. The Spanish language gender-inclusive term Latine (instead of the English term Latinx) is used to refer to individuals whose cultural background originated in Latin America.