Abstract
Transitions from one classroom to the next as children reach a certain age or achieve certain milestones seem inevitable; however, this taken-for-granted practice in early childhood centers has not been looked at closely in research. This article considers what happens when we look more in depth at these day-to-day experiences of teachers and children, examining teachers’ experiences and perspectives during children’s transitions to new classrooms within an early childhood center. Framed within a postdevelopmental perspective on teacher research, thematic narrative analysis of teachers’ journals and field notes generated connecting themes regarding teachers’ personal experiences during classroom transitions and their perceptions of the children’s transition processes. Findings reveal much complexity around the transition process, specifically in regard to the teachers’ emotional involvement and their perceptions of children’s shifting identities, opening spaces for new perspectives on children’s transitions between classrooms. Implications for practice and further research are also considered.
Introduction
Transition is a part of life. As people living in this world, we have all experienced moving in and out of institutions, locations, relationships, and residences. In our daily lives as adults or children, we transition in and out of states of wakefulness, moods, activities, and locations. Obviously, transition is a major part of human existence and, in the early childhood years, has been a topic of examination as practitioners aim to support young children’s emotional development. Researchers and practitioners have looked at how teachers support young children through daily transitions and developed suggested practices to support children during transitional times (e.g. Jung, 2011; Malenfant, 2006). Additionally, some research and recommendations for practice focus on how young children transition into and out of childcare (LoCasale-Crouch et al., 2008; Merrill, 2010; Steen, 2011).
However, one aspect of transition in early childhood has been extremely neglected: young children’s transitions between classrooms, within the same childcare center. The small body of research on children’s transitions between classrooms suggests that there is little consistency in the transition practices enacted within childcare centers. Common practice in the United States follows the factory model of schooling, which continues to inform the entire education system. This model expects children to develop at the same pace and proceed to the next classroom based on age, developmental achievements, and space availability. As reflected in practice, children in many schools and centers are often abruptly moved from one class to the next in accordance with a birthday or newly developed skill, such as beginning to walk (Cryer et al., 2000). Developmentalists suggest these abrupt classroom changes can be disruptive to the child’s attachment with caregivers and peers and inhibit the ability of teachers and children to build relationships (Howes, 1993; Raikes, 1993). Additionally, licensing often dictates policies and practices for centers regarding the age and number of children, the adult–child ratio, and diapering or toileting procedures, all of which provide little flexibility in grouping children. Furthermore, centers with fewer resources are often more closely governed by city or state entities and are subjected to stricter guidelines for practice. In the midst of all of this bureaucracy, the experiences of children and teachers are being overlooked.
Research has shown that centers effectually use various mechanisms to prepare children for transitions between classrooms, such as constructing the physical environment to create connections between classrooms (Weinberger, 1996), discussing the move with children, or involving the children’s families (Cryer et al., 2000). Survey data suggest that a majority of centers involve families by talking to parents about the child’s move and prepare the child by visiting the new classroom and talking about the move with the child (Cryer et al., 2000). However, there is little research on what these discussions and visits look like or the effects of the transition process on children, families, and teachers. Cryer et al. (2005) looked quantitatively at children’s behaviors around classroom transition, but the findings do little to uncover the experiences of the children in building new relationships and getting to know the new classroom.
As discussed, the current literature acknowledges the many ways children’s transitions to new classrooms are affected by administrators and external rules governing classroom size and make-up. The literature also reveals a variety of approaches to carrying out these transitions. However, what is not well represented in the research are the voices of those children and teachers who are experiencing these transitions and are impacted by the changes that come along with children moving to a new classroom. By looking in depth at our own and our colleagues’ experiences as teachers during a time of center-wide transition, this study hopes to demonstrate the importance of valuing both the teacher’s and child’s voice throughout the transition process and initiate a conversation around alternative ways of looking at transitions. This type of research, which closely examines specific practices taken up by individual childcare centers, has the potential to powerfully add to the current literature that looks more widely across centers and practices. Our findings point toward the ways children’s school identities shift during classroom transitions along with the emotional involvement of teachers during these times. These aspects of children’s and teachers’ experiences are not often considered when transitions from one classroom to the next are taken for granted as an unexamined structural practice of schooling. Through examining the practices teachers take up within our center, we begin to shed light on these often overlooked aspects of early schooling.
Overview of this study
As teachers in a small, university-based childcare center, we have come into the center’s “way” of doing transitions and have found it to be reasonably unique in comparison with other centers that we have visited or read about in the literature. The transition process for children in our center is gradual, beginning with short visits to the new classroom and increasing experiences over time until the child is spending full days in the new room. The children first visit the new room with a familiar teacher, and as they become more accustomed to the new environment, the teachers adjust the amount of support to reflect each child’s individual needs. The decision to transition children to the next classroom is made collaboratively across classrooms and with families, considering multiple facets of the child’s development, relationships, and experiences in the center. This approach leads to small groups of children transitioning together when they are deemed “ready” as opposed to moving children as a whole group or when they reach a certain developmental milestone or age.
While our transition process is grounded in what we consider to be “best” practice, we began to notice that we had become somewhat complacent in our way of doing things. The rationale and drive for conducting this inquiry grew out of our own questioning of the transition process over time and an awareness of taking our practice for granted. In order to examine ours and the children’s experiences during a time of transition more closely, we invited our colleagues to participate with us in a teacher research study to face our assumptions and uncover knowledge about our roles and experiences as teachers during the transition process. Throughout this inquiry, we were constructing themes that connected teachers’ experiences throughout the transitional time, specifically in regard to the way teachers perceived the experiences of both themselves and the children as they moved through the transition process together.
Being practitioners ourselves, we take up a teacher research methodology utilizing narrative methods. A narrative approach to teacher research brings the often neglected voices and experiences of early childhood teachers and children to the forefront of research. Teachers researching their own classrooms and practice produce insider knowledge of the lived realities of teachers and children (Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 1993), leading to a practice that unsettles the traditional power structures in educational research where the researcher voice is privileged over the teacher (Nespor and Barylske, 1991). In constructing narratives of lived experiences, the teachers in this study engaged in a process of “meaning making through the shaping and ordering of experience” in writing (Chase, 2011: 421), generating knowledge from practice and seeking to open “new spaces of possibility” in research and practice (Soto and Swadener, 2005: 2).
For the past two decades, some early childhood scholars (e.g. Burman, 2008; Cannella, 2002; Grieshaber and Cannella, 2001; Soto and Swadener, 2005) have been examining and unpacking the developmental knowledge that “regulates children, parents, and teachers because it is regarded as a set of ‘scientific’ facts about the child that are considered true” (Edwards et al., 2009: 55). Calling attention to the reliance on developmental knowledge in the field of early childhood points out the limitations for research and practice that arise by privileging this developmental lens. Blaise (2005) enlists the term “postdevelopmentalism … to define alternative theoretical perspectives that question modernist assumptions of truth, universality, and certainty” (p. 3) on which the field relies. Research drawing on postdevelopmental thought looks at more than just student outcomes and developmental stages by focusing on the complexities of early childhood classrooms (Edwards et al., 2009). We have thus chosen to situate our study within this “postdevelopmental” framework as we seek alternatives to the current discourse around transitions. As our center began the transition process, it afforded us an opportune moment to look in depth at our practices surrounding within center transitions. The following section describes our approach to methods, leading into a summary of our findings and reflections on this study of teachers’ perspectives of the experience of children transitioning to new classrooms.
Methods
Participants and setting
In order to embark on a collaborative teacher research project, we took on the role of participant researchers and invited our fellow head teachers in the center to participate. Including ourselves, five of the six head teachers participated, representing all of the classrooms across the center. The teachers, one male and four female, represent diversity in language, ethnicity, culture, and years of teaching experience. Our center is a small, university-based early childhood center in New York City, which utilizes a play-based, emergent curriculum. The center serves purposes for the university beyond childcare as a site for research and early childhood teacher preparation. On the surface, the children and teachers in the center appear quite diverse, representing many nationalities, ethnicities, and languages. However, being a tuition-based program that exclusively serves university faculty, staff, and students, there is much less socioeconomic diversity. The three classrooms in the center are organized by approximate age ranges: the infant room (6 weeks to 2 years), the toddler room (18 months to 3.5 years), and the preschool room (2.5–5 years). The age ranges of each classroom overlap with the next, which allows for flexibility in children’s placements and mixed-age groupings.
The temporal setting also sets the context for this study, which took place during a center-wide transition time when two children were transitioning from the infant room to the toddler room and three children were moving from the toddler room to the preschool room. The children’s experiences come through in the perspectives of the teachers, but we were not directly focusing on the children in the production of the data. That said, we must acknowledge their role in this study as tremendously important. To protect the identities of the children and their families, pseudonyms were used and we sought to exclude what we regarded as personal information in our choosing of exemplary data. During this time, we focused on experiences involving the children who were transitioning; however, other children are also represented in the data.
Data collection
Prior to starting data collection, we met with all of the participants to discuss the motivations of the study and consider possible formats for the data. After discussion, it was decided that each participant would journal to keep track of their own experiences and their understanding of the children’s experiences during the transition. The transition process was defined as the 3 months around the official date when children would become full-time in the next classroom, and we met again halfway through the process to check in and discuss the experience of journaling.
In each of the participant meetings, we made a point to encourage each participant to approach their writing individually, in whatever form was most comfortable for them. Working with a narrative methodology, we were expecting in-depth writing as the participants reflected on their experiences during this time. However, the format of the data varied by participant, with some utilizing more elaborate narrative formats while others wrote shorter field notes, keeping track of what they viewed as important moments with the children or jotting down brief interpretations of their own and the children’s experiences. Regardless of style, each participant journal was viewed as a narrative text to be read and analyzed (Riessman, 2008).
Data analysis
Employing thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008), we looked across the constructed narratives, focusing on content as we looked for connections in the teachers’ writings. Analysis of the data consisted of three rounds of coding, making interpretations based on our research questions. In each round, we read and coded the data individually before uncovering points of agreement. During the first round, we each read for possible themes and then compared our notes and ideas. We found commonalities in our interpretations of the data and collaboratively generated potential themes. In the second round, we individually color-coded by theme before comparing our coding side-by-side. During this phase of the analysis, we both uncovered some incongruity between the data and our original themes. At this point, we reframed the themes to expand on our original concepts. Together, we organized units of data, which we interpreted as singular contextualized experiences, into a chart relating to each theme. For the final round of coding, we individually read this chart to identify threads of thought within each theme. In representing the research in writing, we collaboratively articulated our findings and selected examples from the data, which were modified for readability and to maintain confidentiality of children and families.
Findings
Aspects of teachers’ experience of the transition process came through in their narrative writings and observations of children. In our interpretation of the data, we generated four overarching themes in response to our inquiry around what connected teachers’ experiences during transitional times. Our findings are framed by the following four themes, which were represented across all participants’ narratives: construction of children’s school identities, teachers’ emotional involvement, ways of supporting children, and notions of “readiness” and “success.” In this article, we concentrate on the first two findings as those held the most impact for us as researchers and as practitioners. In the final sections of the article, we will elaborate on the significance of these findings and consider possible implications for practitioners and researchers.
Construction of children’s school identity
We found that teachers sought to understand the children’s shifting identities as they went from infant to toddler or toddler to preschooler. We saw the teachers’ understanding of children’s identity as a co-construction involving both the child’s self-perception and how they were perceived by others. Additionally, the center itself plays a role in constructing children’s identity by organizing children into groups where they are then collectively labeled as “infants,” “toddlers,” or “preschoolers.” As the teachers commented on these identity shifts happening over time, we noticed children’s progression toward a new identity. The way the teachers understood children seeing themselves paralleled the way they were perceived by teachers and peers.
Self-perception
Children were seen as taking on a new identity as they became part of their new classroom. Observations of behavior and the ways children referred to themselves and others gave the teachers clues as to how children were perceiving themselves. The children transitioning classrooms experienced a big change in the dynamics around them. They had spent a year or 2 in their current classroom, solidifying their place in that community. They were now going from being the oldest in the class to the youngest, and most of the children were transitioning from a classroom where the teachers saw them holding most of the power in the peer group to being quickly overpowered by others in the new classroom.
In our analysis, we conceptualized the ways the teachers saw the children’s identity shift happening as a somewhat linear progression from a visitor in the new classroom to an acknowledgment of the new identity through renaming. In the beginning of the transition, the children were gradually introduced to the new classroom, sometimes jumping right in and exploring materials, other times taking a step back to observe what the others were doing. The children mostly engaged on their own or with their fellow transition-ers, but eventually became more involved in the activity of the classroom and interacted more with their new teachers and peers. As they learned the routines of the new classroom and began to spend more time there, the teachers documented many instances where the children were demonstrating moving toward a new identity:
As we left the park, I talked to Peter about how long they stayed in the preschool and what all they did today. He looked down and said, “but we aren’t going back.” I think he has begun to make the shift in identity from toddler to preschooler. (Toddler teacher) When setting up her mat for nap for the first time, I took her stuffed animal and brought him over to Stella and asked in his squeaky voice, “Stella, why are we sleeping here today?” Stella smiled and plainly told him, “Because we nap in preschool now.” She understands the joke and also lets me know how she is understanding the new routine. (Preschool teacher)
For some, there was a point where the teachers noticed the children experiencing a more definitive shift in their identity. While teachers interpreted many of the children’s behaviors as expressions of their new identity, they also reflected on how the more verbal children expressed acceptance of their new identity. Through labeling themselves or others, the children seemed to confirm the shift and make sure everyone knew it:
I’ve noticed an obvious change in the kids that moved up. They seem more mature and have separated themselves from the toddler room. Stella seems like she is still not ready to come back and visit us, maybe she is still coming to terms with the new identity of preschooler. But, Olivia came and told me at the end of the day, “I’m a preschooler now. I got bigger.” She obviously sees herself differently and is very secure in that new identity, ready to visit for a while and jump into games with the toddlers. (Toddler teacher) Monday, Nora came to visit briefly at the end of the day. She gave Zachary hugs and then said, “See you later Infants!” It amuses me that she has already moved on from being an infant and already thinks of herself as a toddler. (Infant teacher)
However, children did not continually progress forward on this linear path to their new identity. The teachers saw the children as experiencing an “in-between” phase where they were perceived as confused or uncertain about where they belonged, at times moving forward while other times holding on to their prior self:
Olivia does not want to go back to the toddler room—asked to stay after nap even though they were not asked to go back to the toddler room—a few days later, Olivia asked if she has to go back to the toddler room after nap. (Preschool teacher) I asked them all if they would want to stay in the preschool or go with the toddlers. Interestingly enough, Olivia was the only one that said toddlers. I asked her first, then expected Stella to answer the same. Stella got seemingly nervous and said, “no, no, I want to stay with the preschoolers.” (Toddler teacher)
Perception by others
The way children see themselves is in relation to how they are seen by others. There are many constructs in place in our center that contribute to children’s understanding of identities, and, viewing identity as a social and discursive construction, the way teachers and peers see the children also contributes greatly to how they see themselves. Unsurprisingly then, the way children’s identities were perceived by others followed a similar progression. Teachers supported the children along this path and stepped back as they saw the children move forward. The teachers also commented on moments where they perceived a child as becoming a “toddler” or a “preschooler,” based on an observation of their behavior that fit with the teachers’ understanding of what it meant to take on that new identity:
I saw Nora today and she was definitely a toddler! First off, she knows all the names on the name mats and thanks to her that activity has resurfaced. This afternoon, she put on a dinosaur mask and marched around with all the toddlers to the dinosaur song. Then, she roared with the rest of them and kept roaring after the song was over and everyone else had stopped. She stood there like she was in control. Not looking around for guidance, not seeming shy, just standing there with her legs straight, chest out, and head slightly tilted up to make the loudest roar she could! (Toddler teacher)
Additionally, some teachers also questioned how the organization of the center structures identities and wondered what role this identity shift played in the transition process:
There seems to be a large classroom identity and it is interesting to see how we all contribute to that. The classroom titles suggest specific age groupings. In our daily routines, teachers refer to the children in these classrooms by classrooms. We ask if they want to go visit the toddlers or see the toddler teachers. We tell the older kids to be careful around the babies, even if they are by all other manners toddlers. Parents in the center do a similar thing, referring to other kids and teachers by their classroom grouping. It is also clear that the children identify themselves with their classrooms. But when does that shift happen? Does it happen for all of them? Is it an important part of transitioning or is it just a title? (Infant teacher)
Along with the teachers’ own perceptions of children’s identities shifting, the peers in the new classroom seem to influence the way the children see themselves. The peers in the new classroom started off seeing the transitioning children as visitors from another classroom, identifying them as not part of their group and questioning their presence. One of the preschoolers often asked, “Why are the toddlers here?” upon seeing the transitioning children come to visit. A toddler transitioning to preschool was refused invitation into a football game because “It’s not for babies … they might get hurt.” Watching how the transitioning children were being perceived by their new peer groups raised many questions for the teachers:
This had me thinking, what is the perception of the children who are “taking in” new kids? Why did Gavin think Peter was a “baby” even though he is only a little more than a year younger? Does this affect the kids transitioning? Do they pick up on the “veterans” perspective that may exclude them in a way? I’ve noticed that the kids really identify each other based on classroom. Daniel asked one day, “why are the toddlers here?” As children also identify themselves this way, what is it like to have to change your identity from “toddler” to “preschooler?” What do you have to change about yourself in order to change your identity? Is this a factor in the relationships with teachers? Do you have to let go of old relationships to develop new ones? (Toddler teacher)
Following this time of being the somewhat unwelcomed visitor, the veterans in the classroom began to see the transitioning children as the new kid, not quite a full-fledged member of the group, but getting there. The transitioning children were taken under the wing of the veteran children and shown the ropes. The new kids were a welcomed playmate but not quite ready for the same type of play as their current peers. And, they were in need of care and reassurance when the transition was taking its toll. This period, in the peers’ eyes, seemed to last longer than it did for the child themselves. While teachers saw children acknowledging their new identities as they started full time in the new classroom, it seemed that peers took more time to accept the transitioning children as equals:
An interesting thing happened with Peter today in the playroom as he and Gavin played a little rough. I was excited to see Gavin engaged with Peter while just a couple weeks ago he was referring to him as a baby! They were “boxing” with the big black mats and Peter held it as Gavin went to town. Peter fell back and was hurt and/or scared and began to cry. Gavin immediately looked around, a bit shocked, then went to Peter to make sure he was okay. Peter nodded through sobs, then they made a plan to not hit as hard. Peter stood up, sniffed, and smiled as he held the mat again for Gavin to hit. Soon, Peter said to hit harder and began to laugh. (Toddler teacher) Abby was trying to calm Ian down after about 7 minutes of crying. She squeezed his face a bit too hard though, which he didn’t like. When I suggested rubbing his back instead, she did and he calmed down a bit, also looking at her a bit confused. Soon, he continued his cry, but not as strong. Abby told him several times, “Be patient Ian, be patient!” I’m not sure what she really meant by this, or what her understanding of being patient is, but she was reaching out to comfort him in her own way, though maybe out of being annoyed. Welcoming new kids into the classroom always brings about some change in the veteran kids as they reach out to the younger ones to support and guide them. How long does this period last? When do they begin to become less protective and see them more as equal peers? (Toddler teacher)
Changing dynamics, changing identities
In addition to the children transitioning, the identities of all the children within the classrooms seemed to shift. As younger children became the older ones, they took on new roles and were consequently viewed by the teachers and their peers in a new way:
We anticipated a lot of the change in the room after the older ones left. However, what we did not anticipate was that Sarah was now the big kid. She seemed to have grown a foot overnight, but maybe in proportion she just seems bigger now. Also, she decided to just start talking a lot and louder. Similarly to Stella last year, did she just need an opening to come out and show herself? It made me think that when kids move as a whole group, some kids may never get that opportunity if the dynamic stays the same with the same kids. (Toddler teacher) Zachary has taken quite a caregiver role in the classroom. He excitedly greets all of the children in the morning and finds toys to give the other kids. (Infant teacher)
Teachers’ emotional involvement
The literature around transitions has concentrated mostly on the experiences of children, specifically around the emotional support of young children during this process. Working off of attachment theory, suggestions for practice around transitioning children focus on maintaining the continuity of care so that children have a trusted adult to rely on during the process. However, children are not the only ones invested emotionally in this process of changing classrooms. Little attention has been paid to the teacher’s emotional involvement in this process, but as we found, teachers do experience a range of emotions during transitions and must work within their practice to acknowledge the influence that these emotions have on the choices they make.
We organized our analysis around four motifs in the teachers’ writings about emotions that influenced their thinking about their practice: letting go, baggage, empathy, and practice in flux. A common thread throughout these areas was how stress, which resulted from feeling these ways, influenced the teachers’ practice. Within each of these motifs, teachers saw feeling these ways as both positively and negatively influencing their practice, as well as sometimes seeming neutral regarding the influence of emotions as just part of their work.
Letting go
To us, the most obvious area of emotional involvement was the idea of letting go. There was a sadness around saying goodbye to children as they moved on to the next classroom. It seemed hard for some teachers to see children whom they had developed special relationships with move on and form relationships with the teachers in the new classroom. In field notes, there were many observations of children “not needing” their current teacher anymore while teachers’ narrative writings explicitly talked about how hard it was to let go:
I was a little heartbroken to see Peter go right up to his new teacher, climb on her lap, and ask her to play a game with him while she was at the computer. In my head, I thought, “Peter, I’m right here, why didn’t you ask me to play a game?” But at the same time, I was thinking how great it was that Peter had developed this relationship with one of the preschool teachers. I just hope he doesn’t forget about us! (Toddler teacher) I saw the two of them in the hall over the past few days and they say “hi” but are more than content on their own. I gave them each big hugs the other day and got quick ones back before they ran off to play elsewhere. They seem to know that I am no longer their teacher. To have been a part of their lives for so long and then see them move forward is hard but also rewarding. (Infant teacher)
The feelings of letting go seemed to weigh heavily on the experiences of the infant and toddler room teachers, but the preschool teachers did not comment on these feelings. We assume that this is contextually influenced as the teachers do not directly experience the transition to kindergarten with those children and families who are leaving the preschool room. Similarly, the experience of the toddler room differs from the infant room in that the toddler teachers are working with children transitioning out of the classroom at the same time as children are transitioning into the classroom. One of the toddler teachers commented on how these two transitions interact:
After I wrote the first entry the other day, I realized that I didn’t say anything about the kids transitioning in from the infant room. I guess my focus is really on the ones leaving. Is that because I already have a relationship with them? Or, maybe I am considering that the new kids will continue to transition for a while? It’s a little odd, since I’m noticing in the preschool room that I can really step back and give them space to get to know the teachers, the kids, etc. But, I haven’t yet found an opportunity in my classroom to get to know Nora, Ian, and Zachary. (Toddler teacher)
Baggage
We framed the next area of teachers’ emotional involvement around the concept of emotional baggage. Teachers in all three classrooms were influenced, both positively and negatively, by their prior knowledge of the transitioning children and families. Some children were talked about with a sense of ease, as already knowing the child and family would make the transition go smoother:
Overall, the initial transition process was pretty smooth, and it feels like he has been part of the classroom for longer. I also feel comfortable interacting with his parents, which I feel is just as important to the transition process. (Preschool teacher)
On the other hand, teachers seemed surprised by certain transitions, based on their prior understanding and interactions with a child:
Olivia used to be absolutely terrified to see me last year. I thought it might have been because I was a male and a little taller, but her dad is big and tall, so maybe it was something else. This year, she seems to be more upbeat and not crying during pick up. Upon her transition, I was pleasantly surprised by how she accepted me as a teacher. I think I realized this shift when she asked me to help her get some water, by name. (Preschool teacher)
Relationships played a major role in the transition experience, and there was a lot of baggage tied to both peer relationships and the relationships between parents and teachers. Peers transitioning together were often couched in the legacies of their friendship that had developed through shared stories among the teachers. Children entered their new classrooms, already expected to behave in certain ways based on the shared knowledge about these children in the center. Behavioral concerns, rooted in the children’s histories together, led to teacher stress as they worked to support these children and their families in transition:
It’s clear that Olivia likes to play with Stella. They stay together upon entering the classroom and play dress up. It is nice that they have each other since there are not as many girls in the preschool room. I have been told that they have a love/hate relationship so that is something I’m paying attention to. I did not see them argue early on in the month of May, but they fought more and more frequently as they became more integrated into the classroom. (Preschool teacher) With all that has been going on, we’ve been so focused on watching out for certain behaviors that I feel we’ve been neglecting actually forming relationships with these kids. A healthy relationship cannot grow from just being a “protector” or “supervisor.” We talked and made a shift this week, purposefully finding ways of interacting with them and getting to know them better and bonding. It has seemingly changed our entire outlook and experience in the classroom. (Toddler teacher)
Empathy
In reading the perspectives of the teachers, we found many instances where teachers empathized with the children going through the transition process. Choices in practice were made based on how the teachers understood the children’s experiences and emotions. The teachers understood that transitioning was an emotionally difficult time and could sympathize with the stress and anxiety that the children were feeling, as they themselves were also stressed and anxious during this time. Perceiving the children’s experiences in emotional ways, the teachers who were supporting transitioning children found moments of feeling protective as they helped children navigate the new environment and moments of frustration as logistical administrative issues got in the way of what they thought best for a child:
After awhile, Zachary went to the door and seemed ready to leave. I honored his request and we returned to the infant room to play. Sometimes I wonder if I should push him a bit more, but I want him to feel comfortable in the space and want to ensure he has a positive experience. I think he just needs more time in the room to get to know the students, teachers, and activity level. I think it may be overwhelming for him to have so much going on. (Infant teacher) We are facing logistical issues now with the rosters for the summer, making it technically impossible for us to actually transition Zachary along with his peers. Since we cannot have 13 kids in the classroom, we cannot officially transition Zachary. But, he’s been doing a lot of visits and things are going really well for him. We are concerned that we might confuse him, making his transition longer and in separating him from his friends. Another logistical issue on paper is that the preschool will be very low on kids and Olivia and Stella will be the only girls with a small group of boys, mostly the older ones who are leaving next year. As far as peers go, it won’t do much for them, but it should be a good opportunity for them to continue to get to know the preschool teachers better. (Toddler teacher)
Similarly, the teachers wondered what it was like for the child, questioning their choices and the process from the child’s perspective. In efforts to empathize, teachers questioned how it would feel to experience this type of transition in their own life. They also found a need to seek out understanding of the parents’ experiences as well:
She [a parent] also seems to be struggling with how to approach the toddler teachers and how to deal with the differences in teaching and classrooms in general. It has really struck me this semester just how difficult the transition from infant to toddler is. It isn’t just a transition the children make, but a transition the parents, teachers, and classrooms make. It seems that for the parents, the infant room is for babies and the toddler room is for big kids. Parents begin to see their children in a whole new light and see them as older even if their age has not really changed. For these parents, it seems that this transition was very difficult. They don’t want to let go of babyhood, even though their children moved away from that quite awhile ago. (Infant teacher)
Practice in flux
As the classrooms changed, the teachers felt a range of emotions as their practice had to change as well. Feelings of uncertainty and concern added to the stress of the teachers during the transition period. As teachers who were supporting children’s transitions entered the new classroom with that child, they had to adjust their practice to fit. While the preschool teachers experienced some uncertainty and anxieties around supporting the new children, the infant and toddler teachers felt a need to support the transitioning children according to their knowledge of the expectations of the new classroom. There was also an underlying sense that the teachers visiting with the children felt judged by the other teachers’ perceptions of the children’s behavior. Based on our knowledge of each other as teachers, it is reasonably unlikely that the teachers in the next classroom see things in this way, yet it was still something felt by the teachers who were transitioning children:
How involved should I be? What are my expectations? (Preschool teacher) As we are doing things in our classroom to prepare the kids for the preschool room according to what we think, what is it that the preschool teachers are actually looking for? Are they expecting certain behaviors and understandings of routines or do they just start from scratch when the children enter the classroom? Just as they are searching for what they need to do to get kids ready for Kindergarten, do they expect us to be getting the kids “ready” in any certain way? They seem surprised that they all caught on to the meeting routines so quickly. Are there other things that they have been surprised by? Does it have to do with our preparation or just that the kids are older? (Toddler teacher)
Throughout the transition process, teachers questioned their choices and felt unsettled as they were traveling from room to room with children and sensing the changing dynamics of their own classrooms. For the infant and toddler teachers specifically, the end of the transition process brought a welcome sense of calmness to their practice. The transition time was stressful for all involved, but when the classrooms began to settle again, the teachers appreciated a return to a focus on the daily practice and looked forward to what was ahead:
I am feeling calmed by the classroom. It is a very different room than it was in the spring. The children are different and there are fewer of them, which allows me more time to focus on each of the kids. We are starting a new child this week, a decision that just happened. I am excited as I feel adding another child will provide more cohesiveness to the room. At times it seems as if the children aren’t focused in play or are engaged in their own separate activities. This dissipated somewhat this week, but I still get a sense that the children are confused, looking to know why their classroom has changed in the way it has, wondering where there friends have gone. (Infant teacher) I think I’m enjoying getting back to the younger toddlers. I spent a lot of time in the little kitchen this morning with Isaiah and Billy, responding to a fight, but then helping them negotiate the rest of the time. It ended up being a really fun and funny play episode. I wonder what happened to my practice at the end of the semester. Maybe I was bogged down with the older kids? I really think the verbal nature of the room was getting to me and I was missing opportunities to reach the kids who were not quite there yet. Now that we have a new dynamic, I’m really anxious to see what goes on with Devon and get to know Nora and Ian more. (Toddler teacher)
Discussion
In this study, we sought to reveal the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of teachers that lurked underneath a taken-for-granted practice in order to approach the topic of transition with an alternative lens. By doing so, we acknowledge that teachers are as much a part of the transition process as the children. Teachers’ perceptions of children moving through the transition process were influenced by a variety of factors including children’s own self-perception, the way they were perceived by teachers, and the way they were perceived by peers. Similarly, teachers’ perceptions of nontransitioning children also began to shift, as younger children moved into leadership roles when transitioning children moved on.
By acknowledging the complexities of the transition process, we are better able to support children’s and teachers’ individual needs while working within the constructs of the center as a whole. This is in contrast to the factory model of schooling where individual differences are often held in deference to the needs of the center and assumed developmental progress. Through this acknowledgment, we are able to allow children to move at their own pace through the transition, giving them time to make sense of their shifting identities. Furthermore, by looking at the teachers’ role in this process, we own that teachers are emotionally complex and experience a variety of feelings during the transition.
As children moved through the center, teachers were faced with differing emotions and feelings related to letting go, shared experiences with the children and families, and shifting classrooms. In looking closer at what exists beneath the surface, this study valued the emotional lives of teachers, which are often neglected or viewed in conflict with traditionally masculine understandings of “professionalism” (Osgood, 2006). Furthermore, with permission to “feel,” teachers were able to look critically at their actions. This allowed them to uncover the underlying reasons behind choices they were making in the classroom and provided them with an understanding for moving forward in their practice.
In looking deeper at the teachers’ emotional involvement in the transition process, we found that teachers in each classroom experienced the change differently within the common themes. As one might expect, the contextual factors surrounding a child’s transition affected how teachers viewed the transition experience. For example, teachers in the infant and toddler rooms dealt with more feelings of loss and letting go than the preschool teachers who were not in the midst of “losing” any children. Preschool and toddler teachers were more concerned with how to welcome children into a new classroom, whereas the infant teachers did not have new children entering at the time. In addition to these shared contextual factors, each teacher viewed the transition with his or her own lens, providing multiple perspectives on the transition process.
Reflections and implications for research and practice
While this study provides important insight into the daily lived experiences of teachers, it was not without its challenges. This study relied on teachers’ written observations and journals as narrative data, and we learned very quickly that each teacher had his or her own views on what that data would look like. Some journals we received were traditionally narrative in form, with detailed observations and analysis of practice, while others consisted of shorthand field notes. Expecting a more narrative style, we were not sure how to interpret the more objectively focused field notes of some of the participants alongside the more personal narratives of others. This forced us to rethink our own definition of the data and expand our conceptualization of a “narrative” text (Riessman, 2008). In analyzing the data, we began to look for the subjective behind the objective, presuming that the participants made choices in what to write about. The field notes told a story of experience just as the personal narratives did.
Other challenges we faced during this study were time and grappling with dynamics of power. As teacher researchers working in active classrooms, we all seemed to face a struggle in finding time to journal our experiences, and similarly, we, the authors, experienced some guilt in asking our very busy colleagues to participate with us in this process. While acknowledging that teacher research can provide much needed insights into the daily experiences of teachers and children, we find it imperative to also consider the challenge teacher researchers face in finding extra time in the day to focus on research. Although we approached this study with a desire to bring our colleagues on board in a cooperative and equitable way, as participant researchers, our voices are not just present but privileged in the data, analysis, and representation of the research. While we see this adding value and validity to our work, we acknowledge that our own perspectives and interpretations are fore-fronted as we constructed meaning from the data.
Despite these challenges, this type of research provides valuable insight into the realities of teachers working with children transitioning from one classroom to another within childcare centers. By looking deeper at how children are perceived and how they perceive themselves, this study showed the complexity of shifting identities throughout the transition process and also gave insight to the intense emotions teachers feel when transitioning children into and out of their classrooms. As practitioners ourselves, we found that these findings have implications for our own and others’ work with young children. By acknowledging the complexities of transitions, teachers and administrators are better able to support one another and children as they move through this uneasy time. Additionally, valuing teachers’ emotional investment in the classroom allows a space for higher levels of compassion, care, and respect within the teaching role.
While this study did not set out to make generalizations or provide an evaluation of and evidence for a “best” practice, it has closely examined a specific aspect of schooling within one early childhood center, articulating just some of the complexities involved as children transition from one classroom to the next. Further research in this area of early childhood education is needed in order to compare transitional practices on a broader level, allowing for the representation of multiple perspectives in the literature. While large-scale, evaluative studies provide certain perspectives in the field, with this type of research we are addressing “the need for early childhood education as a field to generate a research agenda based on the thoughts and actions of teachers, rather than simply continuing to study the effects of early childhood programs on children’s development” (Edwards et al., 2009: 56).
In looking at the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of teachers, we have built an argument to acknowledge that teachers are as much a part of the process of transitioning to new classrooms as are the children and that there is more to the process than a developmental readiness. Our focus on this area of practice has revealed much complexity, supporting the need for more research around children’s transitions between classrooms. Practitioners and researchers need to be aware of the emotional involvement of both teachers and children during these transitions and interrogate practices driven by developmental “norms” that make assumptions about children’s readiness and needs. Teachers’ personal experiences inform their practice, and their emotional involvement in their work needs to be regarded and examined, rather than taken for granted or neglected. Furthermore, transitions between classrooms need to be viewed as a time of uprooting for both children and teachers as they navigate new relationships and identities. Transitions from one classroom to the next are accepted as a way of life while in school, but, as this study shows, there is much complexity behind the assumption that children and teachers are ready to move on after a designated period of time in one classroom.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.