Continuing to critically engage with DAP to foster democratic teaching and teacher education in neoliberal early education contexts

ABSTRACT

As the fields of early childhood teaching and teacher education continue to evolve and diversify, policymakers’ neoliberal reforms further standardise and restrict these programmes of practice. Many have documented the impact of these policies on early childhood teaching and teacher education, and in this article, we add to these conversations by investigating how the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) fourth edition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) might assist early childhood stakeholders in countering policymakers continued push towards neoliberal systems of early education and teacher education. Drawing from over 15 years of investigations in the United States, we highlight how preservice and in-service early educators in public school contexts have and continue to struggle with two primary issues: having to align their teaching with policymakers’ reforms and seeking professional knowledge and opportunities for change. We illuminate these challenges to identify opportunities for teacher educators to use DAP to support preservice and practicing teachers across the globe in speaking back to and moving beyond policymakers’ neoliberal policies. We also offer suggestions for NAEYC to continue to improve DAP so that the early childhood stakeholders can promote a policy and practical agenda that places democratic practices at the forefront.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Such a week would also reiterate the fact that the US is still only one of two countries (the other being Somalia) that have not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. See https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention

2 See https://www.naeyc.org/events/annual/sponsors

3 See https://www.waldenu.edu/online-bachelors-programs/bs-in-early-childhood-studies-tempo-learning

4 The authors would like to thank all the preservice and classroom teachers for their time and insightfulness into the issues examined in this article. They would also like to thank the editors of this special issue and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and insightful suggestions in strengthening this article.