Challenges and Learning in Multicultural Preschool Classrooms

Teaching young children from diverse backgrounds has become a research priority in early childhood education in the United States and other countries. The study in the book adds to the early childhood education research literature in this critical area. Past relevant research suggested to document teachers' reflections on teaching children from diverse backgrounds. Other researchers have not examined how teachers make meaning of these experiences and transform their teaching practices. In the book, the findings of a phenomenological research illuminated six teachers' experiences working with young children from diverse backgrounds. Understanding the teachers? experiences should help other teachers of young children in similar settings to reflect on their own experiences, and encourage each other to meet the challenges and to learn together by sharing stories. By reading the book, international parents of young children could be inspired to find ways of teacher- parent collaboration in their children's multicultural preschool classrooms. The book should also become a helpful reference for researchers to learn about documentation of teachers' meaning making from their teaching experience.