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Teaching children at-risk

This article examines how an American preschool teacher’s practice and her views of her practice for children considered at-risk for later academic failure are constrained by her cultural contexts. The research is framed by a cultural psychology and draws on an 18-month ethnographic and interpretive biographic study of Anita, an experienced preschool teacher. Anita emphasized: providing a controlled and predictable environment; helping children succeed in kindergarten; and promoting children’s ability to take care of themselves. Her practice and her discussion on her practice reflected European-American cultural beliefs about the independent self. We discuss how these cultural beliefs both enhance and restrict the teacher’s views of children from underprivileged families and of their development.