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Abstract: As a kindergarten teacher, I have witnessed many ways that children and parents experience the transition to school—seamlessly for those who seem to fit into classroom rhythms with ease and joy; anxiously and, at times, with resistance for those who have difficulty finding their place. As a parent, I helped my own children navigate changes to their daily routines when school began. I also adjusted the rhythms of our family life to integrate with the school schedule, coordinating our daily plans with school arrivals and departures and planning family holidays during school breaks. When the transition to school goes smoothly for first-time students, it is easy to overlook the changes they are experiencing, and when a transition is rife with difficulty, they are often approached as problems to be solved. For more than four decades, “problem” transitions have concerned parents, teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and educational researchers. The extent research conceptualizes the transition to school as “readiness,” prioritizing the cognitive, social, and interpersonal skills a child needs for school as well as the practices and strategies that teachers, parents, and communities can use to make schools ready for children. With so much effort spent looking for solutions, researchers miss the opportunity to delve deeply into the humanness in this life-changing event. The review of the relevant literature that I conducted as part of this study uncovers the opportunity for phenomenological query and reflective exploration regarding a child’s transition to school.Inspired by Max van Manen’s (2014) phenomenology of practice methodology, this doctoral study considers the experience of the transition to school for parents and teachers. A phenomenological approach is well-suited for exploring this extensively studied childhood transition because it seeks to understand the meaning structures of pre-reflected, lived experiences before theories conceptualize such events. Interviews with three teachers and nine families reveal embodied, relational, and spatial-temporal events of preparing, arriving, separating, and welcoming during the transition to school. Lived experiences become the basis for phenomenological and philosophical reflections.In three articles— A Child’s Transition to School: Review of the Relevant Literature, Phenomenology of the Parent-Child Goodbye and The Phenomenology of the Kindergarten Classroom—I use this rigorous and sophisticated research method to explore some of the possible meaning structures of a child’s transition to school. This dissertation reveals the co-constitutive nature of relationally intersubjective and generative human activities intentionally directed toward the child being in a classroom and becoming a student.

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Young students on the autism spectrum are at risk for poor social-emotional and behavioral functioning at school. Better quality student-teacher relationships (STRs) have been associated with improved student outcomes across social-emotional, behavioral, and academic domains. Teachers who use more positive reinforcement strategies may promote better student-teacher interactions and closer STRs that could mitigate some of this risk. The present study investigates a path by which teachers’ use of positive reinforcement strategies promotes closer STRs, which in turn lead to improved social-emotional and behavioral functioning in a sample of 145 young (age 4-7 years) autistic students. The model was a close fit (χ2 (18, N = 145) = 18.4, p = .43, TLI = 1.0, CFI = 1.0, RMSEA = .01), with teachers who reported using more positive reinforcement strategies having significantly closer STRs, and closer STRs significantly predicting student academic engagement, social skills, and social integration. Student outcomes in academic engagement and social integration persisted into the following school year. Strategies that teachers reported using most frequently were praising good behavior, commenting on good behavior, and rewarding good behavior with incentives. Factors contributing to teachers’ reported frequency of using positive reinforcement strategies were also explored. Of all teacher variables examined (e.g., years of experience, general education v. special education, perceived preparedness to teach autistic students), teachers’ perceived usefulness of positive reinforcement strategies and regular trainings in autism were the only significant contributors to frequency of positive reinforcement strategy use. Findings underscore the protective role that teachers’ use of positive reinforcement and close STRs plays for young autistic students, and highlight teachers’ perceived usefulness and regular trainings in autism as critical factors for implementation of positive reinforcement strategies.

Early care and education programs have demonstrated strong impacts on the development and school readiness of young children, with particular benefit for children growing up in poverty. Within these programs, teacher-child interactions have been identified as they key active ingredient underlying the impacts on children’s development. However, limitations in conceptualization and measurement have hindered efforts to elucidate the most important features of teacher-child interactions and for whom and under what conditions these beneficial interactions occur and demonstrate impact. Guided by the Bioecological Model and Differential Susceptibility Theory, this dissertation first provides a conceptual framework to guide the examination of individual children’s experiences with teachers and associations between individual experiences and development in preschool. The second paper utilizes a person-centered analytic approach to assess how multiple developmental characteristics of children associate with their individual experiences with teachers. Membership in the profile with low developmental skills across domains was associated with teacher reports of more conflict and less closeness and higher levels of observed conflict between teachers and children. The third paper examines the association between children’s self-regulation and growth in academic skills and whether children’s individual experiences with teachers mediates this association. Results provided little support for mediation, but indicated links between children’s self-regulation and some aspects of experiences with teachers and academic growth.

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the experiences which motivated early childhood educators to persevere in their positions at the same early childhood education center, for five or more years, in south-central Pennsylvania. For the purpose of this research, perseverance was generally defined as continuous teaching at the same site for five or more years. The theory guiding this study was Herzberg’s (1968) motivation hygiene theory as it addressed experiences which impacted job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, directly impacting perseverance. One central research question and two supporting research questions were used to guide the study. The central question guiding this study sought to determine how early educators of five or more years in the same early learning program described their experiences and reasons for persevering. The research subquestions focused on how early educators described their experiences that caused them to persevere in their position and how early educators who persevered described the coping methods they used to face their challenges in the early education workplace. The sample consisted of 10 teachers from four early learning centers in south central PA. Centers were selected to allow for variation in type of program and quality rating as defined by the state’s quality assurance system. Teachers were selected based on program director’s advisement with consideration taken to allow for variance in participant demographics. Data was collected through semi structured individual interviews, a focus group interview, and observations. Moustakas’ (1994) guidelines were followed for transcendental phenomenological data collection and open coding analysis. The results provide insight into experiences which motivate early education teachers to persevere, which may allow early education programs to increase retention and better support student outcomes.

Native American children have frequently been overlooked in early childhood development and education literature, though they are part of demographic with some of the highest levels of documented educational and health disparities. The roots of disparities often occur early in life, so this study sought to address the gap in early childhood literature by investigating the phenomenon of raising healthy young Native American children. Using a phenomenological approach, this study addressed two questions: 1. What does it mean to raise culturally whole Native American children, birth through five years of age, in an urban context? 2. How do these important Native American skills and knowledge areas align with items on a federally-approved tool for monitoring young children’s development? Ten Native American caregivers from tribally diverse backgrounds (skewed more heavily Ojibwe) were interviewed, with each interview lasting from one to four hours. Close to 300 pages of transcripts were typed up. Wholistic, line-by-line, comparison, and relational levels of analysis identified themes answering the first question. Comparison was then made between participant comments from the line-by-line analysis and items on the Survey of Well-being of Young Children. Native American children were found to develop within four intersecting planes of existence—Child and Adult, Past and Present, Physical and Spiritual, and Native and Non-Native. A model of this developmental context is proposed, with five thematic examples—Historical and Ongoing Trauma, Cyclical Nature of Parenting, Passing on Living Culture, Healthy Educational Environments, and Healthy Spaces to Grow and Develop. When compared to items on the developmental screening tool, Native American caregivers had most overlap with items for a healthy home environment and motor and communication milestones. Distinct differences were noted between caregiver discussion and screening tool items in the social emotional domain. Further research on this area is needed with both a broader sample as well as to do validation work on developmental screening tools. It is important that practitioners, researchers, and policy makers keep in mind the great diversity of experiences of Native peoples and take time to get to know any individuals they work with to learn about their unique story.

This dissertation focuses on the midlife adjustment of individuals from a longitudinal study in its 5th decade of follow-up. The Abecedarian Project, a prospective randomized control trial (RCT), began in 1972 with the primary goal of preventing cognitive impairments and school failure in children born into impoverished families with multiple risk factors by randomly assigning 111 infants to either an early education (n = 57) or control group (n = 54). This dissertation reports midlife outcomes at ages 39 – 45 for 42 individuals who received the early education treatment and 36 who were controls. This dissertation focuses on two primary hypotheses within a twojournal manuscript format. The first primary hypothesis of this dissertation is that the Abecedarian early education intervention will increase the number of successful outcomes over the lifespan, showing the cumulative effect of positive experiences (Sameroff, 2009) and a sense of personal efficacy (Dweck, 2008; Seeman, 1959). The second primary hypothesis of this dissertation is that response contingent learning and being an active agent in early cognitive and social settings during the first five years of life will provide a strong foundation for future perceptions of control over important areas in one’s life (Furnham & Steele, 1993; Walden & Ramey, 1983; Wallston, Wallston, & DeVellis, 1978). The analysis of midlife indices of strength and risk reveal results favoring the treatment group compared to the controls on both the Midlife Strengths Index (F (1,76) = 15.85, p = .000) and the Midlife Risk Index (F (1,76 = 8.88, p = .004). Additionally, a significant interaction exists between group assignment and IQ at age 48 months for the Midlife Strengths Index (β = -.215, p < .05). Analyses of Locus of Control scales reveal that the control group reports “powerful others” have more influence on both their health behaviors (F (1, 76) = 3.962, p = .05) on the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale and their economic behaviors (F (1, 76) = 5.146, p = .026) within the Economic Locus of Control Scale. Additionally, the control group reported more external economic locus of control than the treatment group with a marginal statistical significance (F (1, 76) = 3.359, p = .071). Results are consistent with the conclusion for children born into multi-risk, economically impoverished families there are lifelong benefits of receiving high-quality early care and education that extend into the midlife years.

It may be fairly said that most countries around the world are joining the English-speaking world since English became one of the popular languages. In this situation when the importance of English is emphasized, people’s reaction to and recognition of the importance of early-childhood English education is cursorily formed without foundation; therefore, the excessive focus on early-childhood English education has become more serious. However, excessive early English education can cause severely negative effects on a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. A child who receives longer early English education has more stress, and this stress may lead to behavioral disorders.

Preschool children today will not remember a time when there were no smartphones, laptops, or iPads. The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the challenges and benefits of implementing tablet technology for early education teachers that work in subsidized preschool programs. Tablet utilization in preschool classrooms was generally defined as how teachers from five different classrooms utilize tablet technology to enhance the instructional programs for children in subsidized preschool programs. The setting for this study was five early education centers in a large urban school district. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, audio-visual recordings, and observations. Data were analyzed by applying within-case analysis, cross-case synthesis, and direct interpretation of the evidence. Issues of trustworthiness were addressed through triangulation, member checks, and clarifying researcher bias. The primary research questions were: (a) How do sociocultural learning theory and developmentally appropriate practice apply to a preschooler’s use of tablet technology? (b) What do early education teachers need to understand so iPads can be successfully utilized in a preschool classroom? (c) How do early education teachers describe their experience as they implement iPads into the instructional program? The results of the study revealed that children benefit the most from technology when it is used in conjunction with interactions that are commensurate with socio-cultural learning theory and developmentally appropriate practices. Devoid of these interactions, children can use the technology but this does not always translate into meaningful learning. The study also revealed that teachers who systematically plan for how the devices will be implemented in their classrooms also experienced greater successes while mitigating their initial fears and challenges.

This study aims to identify differences in the later integration of children with mild to moderate special needs based on their exposure to specialized staff regardless of the type of preschool they attended. This is done by observing the behaviors exhibited by those students with special needs and the proportion of the student’s day in a traditional classroom. One of the most noted issues with students who have special needs is their lack of appropriate early intervention with specifically-trained staff. This may attribute to those students delay in social emotional skills, and cognitive skills. Transitions, specifically those from one classroom setting to another, can be difficult for those students with special needs. The schools that were examined in this study were specialized preschools which have a fully trained specialized staff, and inclusive preschools which are more designed for those students that are typically developing. Parents/guardians of students with special needs may enroll their children with special needs into a preschool that is specifically created with specialized staff, which are termed specialized preschools. Parents/guardians can also enroll their child into a traditional preschool. Within this traditional preschool setting, the student with special needs will receive early intervention services allowing students with special needs to be educated alongside their typically developing peers. This is an example of an inclusive preschool. The current study used a modified version of the Classroom Behavior Continuum Scale (CBCS) that utilized secondary data from the student’s teachers. Overall, the study found that there were no significant differences between the amount of exposure each student with special needs had with specialized staff and their observable behavior. It was also found that due to lack of information, we were unable to conclude any significance with the type preschool attended and its effect on the behaviors of student with special needs.

Children moving from early education programs into elementary schools face a critical transition, making it important for both systems to coordinate to better serve our youngest children. Yet, there is limited research on coordination around the transition to school. The objectives of this dissertation were to: 1) describe the coordination efforts used by Head Start programs to smooth children’s transitions to kindergarten, 2) examine the association between coordination and children’s outcomes in kindergarten, 3) test whether there is an interaction between Head Start coordination efforts and elementary school-based transition practices, 4) test interactions between coordination and child/family characteristics, and 5) understand the benefits and challenges to coordinating across systems. This study included two phases. Phase I examined coordination efforts between Head Start programs and elementary schools in a nationally representative sample of Head Start children (N=2,019). Findings suggest that Head Start programs are engaging in a variety of activities to coordinate with elementary schools. Results of regression analyses found that coordination was positively related to children’s language and mathematics skills in kindergarten for children enrolled in elementary schools engaging in limited activities to support the transition to school. Phase II involved interviews with sixteen Head Start directors. Results showed multiple ways they coordinate with elementary schools to share information about individual children and general program practices, as well as the ways they serve as a bridge between families and elementary schools. Findings suggest that coordination may benefit children through improved practices by Head Start and elementary schools, as well as increases in parental readiness and involvement.Overall this study shows that Head Start programs are engaging in multiple activities to coordinate with elementary schools. Although direct relationships between coordination practices and child outcomes were limited, interviews with Head Start directors pointed to indirect pathways by which coordination efforts may benefit children. These findings suggest the importance of coordination practices, and stress the need for additional research to explore these pathways.

Transition into kindergarten is a critical educational transition for children that has enduring academic and social consequences. Academic, socioemotional, and behavioral challenges following the transition to K-12 schooling can initiate turning points characterized by negative academic trajectories across young people’s educational careers. The current study examines the effects of kindergarten school processes (i.e., transition services and school climate) on children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes in third grade and to what extent these relations are mediated by children’s early adjustment and parental educational involvement. Family socioeconomic status (SES) was also tested as a possible moderator of study relations. Data were drawn from 10,540 kindergarten students (50% females; 63% White, 11% African American, 16% Latino, 6% Asian American, and 4% other race/ethnicity) participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort 1998. Results indicated that both kindergarten transition services and school climate were related to children’s academic abilities, but not socioemotional adjustment, in third grade. The link between kindergarten school processes and children’s distal outcomes was mediated by children’s greater early academic skills mastery in the spring of kindergarten, which in turn elicited greater parental educational involvement behaviors. Moderation analyses revealed that greater early academic skills elicited more school-based involvement strategies for high SES children, whereas lower levels of early academic skills elicited more home-based involvement strategies for middle and low SES children. These findings suggest that academic interventions and supports could be carefully targeted to better support young children’s early educational success.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions that K-5 teachers have toward Georgia’s mandated Early Intervention Math Program (EIP) on at risk learners in an elementary school in a rural, North Georgia community. The following questions guided the study: 1. How do K-5 teachers describe their experience with Georgia’s Early Intervention Math Program as an early math intervention for at-risk learners? 2. How do participants describe their experiences with Georgia’s EIP regarding student math preparedness? 3. How do participants perceive the EIP program in comparison to the regular education math program? The setting for this study was a rural elementary school with a population of 751 students. Participants included 10 teachers from K-5 that have experience working with the EIP program. Interviews, focus groups, and reflective journals were coded and analyzed for major themes. The following themes were identified: EIP model of delivery is important to the success of the students; lack of support, funding, and training is crippling the EIP program; and teachers are determined to support students and intervene even if no formal program is in place to do so. Teacher participants felt as though the resources and training provided for them were not adequate; however, they were determined to provide appropriate interventions for their students to help them achieve success. Future research would be helpful on this same topic with a different demographic population, a more focused look at individual delivery models, and a survey of teacher preparation programs to identify gaps in learning for new teachers.

This paper explores the serious issue of bullying in school settings and reports on a descriptive case study of IM4U, a character education curriculum, in an early childhood education setting. IM4U addresses the social and emotional development of young children. The case study includes an examination of teacher perceptions regarding the use of the program as an anti-bullying curriculum. Results from the data allowed the researcher to conclude that pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students had developed core values to varying degrees and that teaching character education in early education has positive effects on students' core value development. Findings also demonstrated that bullying, including physical, verbal, and emotional, is a problem in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. The research also raises questions about the concept of "bullying behaviors" as it applies to children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Teacher perceptions and impressions of the IM4U program indicated that they supported the overall idea and concept of a curriculum addressing bullying behaviors and felt that songs, activities, and discussions effectively influenced students' thoughts and behaviors; however, teachers believed the curriculum was more appropriate for older students and suggested making the curriculum more age appropriate for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. Further, with such programs, a proactive approach and comprehensive professional development including follow-up engagements to support the implementation of the curriculum and the use of program materials is recommended. The absence of assessment instruments within the program should be addressed in addition to identifying language and terminology regarding bullying which is more applicable to early education settings. This short-term study builds upon the research base on the social and emotional development in early education and recommends that more long-term and longitudinal studies of larger student populations be conducted. Such studies could provide additional evidence of the effects of character education and anti-bullying programs on student outcomes including the earliest grades.

In this study the African American childcare provider’s life experiences are heard through the use of narrative inquiry and oral history. Often perceived as individuals who could not become teachers in the K-12 system, the women presented tell the reader in their own words what factors lead them to becoming childcare providers. By focusing on oral history, the stories told solidify the idea of the past creating the present. Education, religion, socioeconomics, culture and racial issues play an important part in each person’s life. Therefore, these factors were the main focus when participants were asked to describe their lives. The results were cross-referenced in order to gain a sense of similarities or differences among those questioned. Interviews and dialogue with each participant resulted in similarities across all factors. Hearing the participants words in the form of a fictional narrative, begs the reader to become better prepared to understand what leads African American women into childcare. Educators and students of education normally focus on children’s needs once they enter kindergarten. There is an abundance of research on teachers and students in the K-12 system. Few results on childcare providers or their children are found in the literature. Therefore the present inquiry was conducted to investigate the hypothesis that education of children begins with the childcare provider. Due to this supposition, her reasons for caring for young children was researched in order to further the field of early childcare. The study resulted in the conclusion that African American women are in childcare due to their strong beliefs in religion and the desire to help further educate and care for their own race. Further conclusions were seen as to the fact that these women feel the need to become successful business entrepreneurs. Entering the field of childcare provided easier access to this goal. Other determinations identified were that African American women want to help the families within their communities obtain the fundamentals of early education while in a safe, loving environment. Therefore, beginning in early childcare, their placement in a career with young children extends the families’ strength. Cultural identification also presented itself as a strong condition for working within the field. Finally, results showed a deep love for children, including, but not limited to, wishing to prepare them for success in life. These results were seen by all those who participated in this research despite obstacles such as low socioeconomics, stereotyping, or lack of higher education. INDEX WORDS: Narrative Inquiry, Oral history, African American women, Childcare, Providers, Race, Culture, Education, Religion,

Parent involvement has an influence on children's educational engagement during the elementary years. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of rural Turkish parents about their involvement in schooling with elementary school students based on Epstein's (1995) six types of parental involvement (parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community). This study also examined the differences among parent demographic characteristics (education level, income, marital status, and age) and parent involvement at the elementary grade level in rural areas of Turkey. Epstein's survey was used to collect data from 742 parents of elementary schools in three rural settings in the city of Konya, Turkey. Data was analyzed with Factor Analysis and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). This study indicated that family income had a statistically significant impact on combined factors of parent involvement. No significant differences were found in parent involvement among parents who are from different education levels, marital status, regions, and age groups in Turkey.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine whether the public-private partnership influences the quality of programming at client level by applying the partnership example in early childhood development as seen in the child care center’s partnership with Head Start agency. Specific aims are: 1) to examine how a Head Start partnership influences parent satisfaction with child care and education activities; 2) to examine how organizational investments influence parent satisfaction, and 3) to examine what characteristics of the Head Start partnership influence parent satisfaction. Key theories in an effort to understand the public-private partnerships in social services delivery have two main viewpoints: 1) economic perspectives to see the partnership as contracting and economic efficiency-based relationships, and 2) organizational and institutional perspective to explain the dynamic collaborative processes of the partnership.The data was drawn from Partnership Impact Research Project, 2001-2004, quantitative data gathered from child care directors, teachers, and parents in Ohio. This data was cleaned as cross-sectional basis and finalized 1475 parents of 91 child care centers as well as 745 parents of 50 partnering centers. All research questions was examined through the use of hierarchical linear modeling.This study revealed that the child care center - Head Start agency partnership has a positive impact on satisfaction with child care and education for single parents, but a negative impact for parents in general. Teachers’ benefits and their satisfaction with the center were found to be significant predictors of parent satisfaction, but they were not supported as organizational benefits by the partnerships. Among partnering centers, partnership maturity is a significant predictor of higher parent satisfaction. Thus, the study findings supported that higher parent satisfaction is more likely to depend on how the partnership has been characterized, rather than whether the centers have a partnership itself.This study contributes new empirical knowledge through more direct evaluation of partnership factors and quality programs at the client level. These empirical findings imply that the partnership between a child care center and a Head Start agency needs to further develop strategies to support better designed partnerships that effectively promote quality programs.

The term school readiness refers to the idea that most children, upon entry into kindergarten, have achieved a developmental level that enables them to adapt to formal schooling and achieve later academic success (Ackerman & Barnett, 2005). While research has found that preschool children vary considerably in their pre-education experiences as well as their readiness upon entry into formal education, the literature also notes that children’s skills at school entry are highly correlated with later abilities and educational outcomes (e.g., Duncan et al., 2007). Therefore, assuring early competence is important. Beginning in early elementary school, those children identified as at-risk for school failure experience a significant gap in their academic achievement compared to their peers (Magnuson, Meyers, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004). Head Start was designed to remediate said gaps by enhancing school readiness during early childhood. The early childhood literature points to the need for additional research in order to estimate the prevalence of at-risk preschool children in order to better serve them. Moreover, although social/emotional functioning and physical health have been implicated as important dimensions of school readiness (e.g., Castelli, Hillman, Buck & Erwin, 2007; Ladd, Herald, & Kochel, 2006), there are few studies that have integrated these variables to provide a multidimensional understanding of school readiness in children attending Head Start programming. Utilizing a diverse sample of 555 children who attended Head Start programming prior to kindergarten, this study examined how cognitive, social/emotional, and physical health in prekindergarten were related to direct assessments of child readiness at the start of the kindergarten year. The results suggest several characteristics affect kindergarten readiness in this group, including demographic variables, residential mobility, and cognitive and social/emotional performance in pre-kindergarten. Further, the total number of characteristics in preschool may be related to decreased school readiness in kindergarten. Children fared better when attending multiple years of quality preschool programming. These findings have implications for a range of state and local policy and program development efforts, as well as clinical practice and school guidelines.

The discovery of "windows of opportunity" regarding learning as the brain develops during the preschool years reinforces the important role early education teachers play in the lives of children. As a result, the credentials of those who work with young children have come under investigation as it relates to the provision of quality early education. The purpose of this qualitative study is to look at the imposed challenges facing early educators regarding degree requirements via phenomenological methodology in an effort to hear the voice of early educators on the subject. This study is needed to investigate the gap between research and practice regarding the practicality of implementing credentialing requirements of early educators. Directors must be allowed to share their experiences and voice their opinion on the subject to provide a dimensional look at early education credential requirements.

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This dissertation compares the movements for kindergarten education in England and the USA from 1850 to 1865. These movements, inspired by the work of German educator Friedrich Froebel (1782--1852) and led by middle- and upper-class women, advocated a new, humanist-inspired form of early education that contrasted with Anglo-American traditions of rote-learning and Three Rs instruction. Although the kindergarten class is their best-known contribution, these movements for Froebelian education in England and the USA neither began nor ended with the issue of public school kindergartens. Divided chronologically into two halves (1850--1917 and 1918--1965), this study argues that a complex and changing combination of structural and ideological factors made the kindergarten attractive to Anglo-American social and educational reformers who in turn mobilized long-lived movements for free and universal access to particular forms of early childhood education. In both countries, the efforts of twentieth-century kindergarten activitists shaped and were influenced by national and international movements for child study, nursery schools, compensatory education and child care. This study locates the transnational history of the kindergarten amidst context-specific responses to educational innovation; in perceptions about relationships between the family, experts, and the state; in definitions of childhood; in the professionalization of Anglo-American early childhood educators; and in the nature of Euro-American intellectual affinities and exchange. While the provision of early childhood education in England and the USA was determined by nation-specific policy contexts, the values and pedagogics promoted by early childhood educators and educationists transcended national boundaries and were significantly shaped by processes of transatlantic exchange.

The study was an investigation of parental decision-making regarding preschool programs for their children. Data indicated that parents investigated a preschool program beyond a conversation with the preschool director and that non-educational aspects of preschool programs were important considerations in the selection of a preschool program by parents. Parents educational preferences tended to coincide with the educational programs of the preschools they selected, although parents indicated favorable opinions of more educational variables than any of the preschools surveyed offered. Levels of education attained by mothers appeared to have little effect on educational preferences, and parents whose first child was attending preschool had educational preferences similar to those of parents whose older children had attended preschool.

Expectations in six areas of concern were explored by means of a questionnaire distributed to parents, staffs, and directors of three day care centers. These included physical setting, educational activities, social development, staff relationships with children, staff relationships with parents, and parent relationships with the center. Responses averaged over 50 per cent in each category of respondent. Analysis showed that although there were areas of almost total agreement, there were a number of statements that demonstrated a wide divergence in the expectations of the respondents. This study and the related literature indicate that there is cause for concern that children's needs for consistency in child-rearing practices are not always being met.