Beliefs about the Importance of Use of Developmentally Appropriate Practices Among Early Childhood Teachers in India

This article explores beliefs of Asian Indian teachers regarding the importance of use of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood classrooms. A total of 178 Asian Indian early childhood teachers working in various early childhood classrooms in the southern part of India participated in the study. The teachers filled out a questionnaire to determine their beliefs about the use of developmentally appropriate practices. The questionnaire contained 62 statements with five subscales: (1) parent participation, (2) assessment, (3) curriculum development and integration, (4) teaching strategies, and (5) caring for children's development. The teachers responded to the questions on a Likert scale of 1-5, where 1 was " Not at all important" and 5 "Extremely important." Preliminary analysis of the data indicated that all the teachers were not very inclined towards the use of the western definition of developmentally appropriate practices. Parent participation was rated highest (3.74), followed by assessment (3.44), teaching strategies (3.29), curriculum development and integration (3.16), and caring for children's development (2.76). The results of the present study seem to indicate that Asian Indian teachers were leaning more toward the use of what westerners view as inappropriate practices. This brings up the issue of the meaning of developmentally appropriate practices in various countries. What is considered developmentally appropriate in one country might be considered inappropriate in another. Therefore, as teacher educators we need to start thinking about how we can best study the teaching practices in various countries without making judgments about the " right" way to teach. This sentiment is echoed by various early childhood professionals who are urging us to look beyond our environment and learn about how we can improve our practices based on this new information. This information may prove to be useful in preparing our teachers to be able to better meet the needs of children and families from other countries.