Declared emergent literacy practices of early childhood education novice teachers

Abstract

This article aims to describe the emergent literacy practices declared by six early childhood education novice teachers. A questionnaire and a semi-directed interview were conducted with the participants with regards to the classroom physical environment (design, materials, resources) and psychological environment (practices and interactions) supporting emergent literacy. Following a deliberative inductive analysis, results show teachers declare using a variety of educational approaches. Results related to the physical environment show that classrooms feature a reading and writing center, and that teachers sometimes include print-related materials in other classroom areas. As for the psychological environment, results show that teachers put emphasis on oral language and letter knowledge. Also, teachers mention the insufficiency of their initial training in early childhood education regarding emergent literacy practices. 

Keywords : novice teaching practices, emergent literacy, early childhood education, educational approaches, initial training.