Deconstructing the 2022 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards: A cross-cultural analysis of developmentally appropriate practices in Australia, Kenya and Nepal

ABSTRACT

This critical cross-cultural study examined the alignment of the 2022 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards in the U.S. with Australian, Kenyan, and Nepali educational guidelines. Previously, NAEYC’s educational guidelines adhered to Euro-Western notions of child development, with a biased view of normative development for young children (Zaman and Anderson-Nathe 2021). Among other findings, data from this study showed that NAEYC’s standards were potentially sensitive to cultural difference, but did not adequately address child, family, and contextual needs. Therefore, this study recommends continued review of NAEYC’s educational standards to make them culturally and contextually inclusive.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• developmentally appropriate
• national association for the education of young children
• cultural contexts
• critical document analysis
• indigenous epistemologies
• early childhood policies and practices
• cross-national
• Australia
• Kenya
• Nepal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).