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What’s your image of the child? Examining trajectories of prospective ECE teachers’ beliefs during practicum

ABSTRACT Research literature acknowledges the influential role of teachers’ beliefs on their interpretations, decision-making and pedagogical practices. It also suggests that initial teacher education (ITE) plays a relevant role in explicitly addressing beliefs that students hold. This study aims to examine beliefs about the child of prospective early childhood education (ECE) teachers at two stages of their ITE, before and after completing field-based practicum. Thirty-four students attending a professional Master in ECE participated in the study. Students’ written narratives on the image of the child were collected in both stages, with data analysis allowing for the emergence of eight categories. Changes in the image of the child were identified, with a tendency towards a more agentic, non-universalistic, rights-based perspective about the child at the end of the practicum, but also the persistence of beliefs less responsive to children’s rights. Implications are drawn on the relevance of recursive praxeological dialogues among beliefs, practices and theories in ECE teacher education programmes.