Investigating how literacy practices in kindergarten are influenced by parents' and primary school teachers' expectations

This work describes a survey conducted in the area of Patras in Greece. The purpose was a) to investigate kindergarten teachers’ attitudes about early literacy and the knowledge and skills they consider as important for... [ view full abstract ]

This work describes a survey conducted in the area of Patras in Greece. The purpose was a) to investigate kindergarten teachers’ attitudes about early literacy and the knowledge and skills they consider as important for pre-school aged children, and b) to examine in depth if and how literacy practices in kindergarten are influenced by parents’ and first grade teachers’ expectations. A semi-structured interview was conducted and applied to 20 kindergarten teachers working in various public kindergartens. The interview consisted of questions about three factors: a) knowledge of early literacy perspective, b) literacy practices in kindergarten class, and c) parents’ and primary school teachers’ expectations. The results, although not analyzed fully yet, indicate that kindergarten teachers’ attitudes on literacy differ significantly from the provision of the official curriculum, which is based on emergent literacy perspective. Due to lack of an in depth in-service further education for kindergarten teachers, they, influenced by parents’ and primary school teachers’ expectations, are forming a hidden curriculum, which is based on phonics, which implies that mere acquaintance with phoneme – grapheme correspondence is enough for the foundational level of education.