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Why Every Teacher Should Learn About Early Childhood Education
On Centering Children and Their Autonomy
By Alexandra Luciani, Early Childhood Educator
“For me, the child is a veritable image of becoming, of possibility, poised to reach towards what is not yet, towards a growing that cannot be predetermined or prescribed. I see her and I fill the space with others like her, risking, straining, wanting to find out, to ask their own questions, to experience a world that is shared.”
- Maxine Greene
Early Childhood Education is Relevant to You, Too.
I am an early childhood teacher. The depth of my expertise is with infants through eight-year-olds. As this forum is a space for educators PreK-12, I recognize that many educators often do not have the opportunity to know the complexities and theories that are so essential to understand before the child even enters your classroom.
Children do not enter school as simply children in class there to learn for a specific purpose. This overlooks the importance of seeing the whole child, and respecting and acknowledging the many different schemas children have when they enter kindergarten. Having worked with children from toddler to fourth grade, I have learned how crucial an understanding of child development is for deep, authentic, and child-centered instruction.
Early childhood educators are often quietly overlooked in the teaching profession. I believe this comes from a lack of knowledge, not a lack of respect. However, I think this needs to change. I encourage you to listen, truly listen, to the words of early childhood educators, and the children around them. I invite you to join me on a journey sharing the ways working with young children has profoundly informed me, not only as a teacher but as a human being in this busy and constantly changing world. My values of life are interchangeable with those of my teaching, and I think there is such beauty and wonder in reaching a point where who I am as a person, and who I am as a teacher, merge.
In 2016, I had graduated from Connecticut College and knew I wanted to pursue early childhood education. I applied, and by August of 2016, I began to walk the halls of Teachers College, Columbia University, recognizing that I was stepping the same halls so many important educators have walked, such as John Dewey and Maxine Greene. I eagerly anticipated what was to come, unaware of the ways my teaching philosophy was about to emerge, some expected, some surprising. What I knew at the time was my fierce belief in my core values of empathy, honesty, and connection (this includes listening). What I feel in my soul was always there, starting as a seed to now a tree with branches outstretched. Every interaction I have had with young children has shaped me and I am awestruck by the magic of my transformative process as not only teacher but as a human being.
How to Know a Child
Children are profound. They are full people with likes, dislikes, emotions, personalities, and all the other idiosyncrasies we possess ourselves.
Just as we are uniquely and distinctly how we are, so, too, are children.
This knowledge beat inside of me and grew throughout my experience in many different early childhood settings. With Vivian Paley as a guide and inspiration for how I began to document, my teaching philosophy took time. One would think this would emerge from the collection of classes and extensive papers, projects, lesson plans, and research from getting a graduate degree. These did inform my philosophy and were the stepping stones I needed to cross the bridge between my knowledge of theorists, research studies, class discussions, and learning developmental milestones to knowing children.
Knowing children is much more than talking to them and asking what their favorite color is, or exclaiming the beauty of a drawing pressed into your outstretched hands.
Knowing children is listening with intention.
Allowing the children to experience the world around them, including navigating social situations in new ways, might feel uncomfortable at first. I have learned that taking an extra pause before intervening or talking about the child’s play opened up so many opportunities. I saw the ways play transformed. I stood by, ready to support children having a conflict, and learned that children will often use their skills to figure the situation out. Young children seldom have the opportunity to simply be, without adults telling them what to do, or participating in extracurriculars every single day after school.
When possible, I take space and time to nurture each child’s autonomy. I teach them that their words matter and have power. I talk to them about saying no and being aware of their bodies in space. If I could simply say to you in one sentence the question of why early childhood, I will leave you with this. Children are profound. Listen. As I reflect on my core values of empathy, honesty, and connection, I truly am astounded by how these are deeply intertwined with how I teach and experience the world. To me, there is nothing more important. I am grateful each day for the children I have held space with, scaffolded, listened to, learned from, and who I have had the honor of interacting with along the way. What a breathtaking part of life this is, and I am forever grateful and forever learning. Like that tree with branches outstretched, new branches and leaves emerge, and always will.
Alexandra is an early childhood teacher with extensive experience working with a range of learners. She received her MA in Early Childhood Education from Columbia University. Her teaching philosophy is guided by theorists and educators such as Lev Vygotsky, Maxine Greene, and Vivian Paley.
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