Frequency of six early childhood education approaches: A 10-year content analysis of early childhood education journal

The frequency of early childhood education approaches spanning 10 years of publications was investigated. A content analysis of publications (N = 492) from Early Childhood Education Journal was conducted. From a previous content analysis six approaches or search words were identified: Bank Street, Head Start, High/Scope, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf. Overall, the current content analysis demonstrated that the Head Start approach most frequently appeared. The results indicate that approaches vary as to their frequency of appearance and that contributors of Early Childhood Education Journal have investigated, reflected upon, and expanded upon approaches to educating young children to different degrees. This finding may be beneficial to future contributors of Early Childhood Education Journal. In addition, we have provided a brief overview of each approach that early childhood professionals may use to aid parents with their early childhood education enrollment decisions. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007.