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“To Tie Both Hands Behind Your Back . . . is Really Unjust and Disheartening”: Neoliberalism, Expansive Learning, and the Contradictions of Kindergarten Readiness

McCloskey, Tricia A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1588870718156486

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Foundations of Education.
This qualitative case study provided evidence that engagement in a collaborative action research method led stakeholders in one suburban Michigan school district to change their activity of kindergarten readiness. Popular education and cultural-historical activity theory framed the study of the teacher, administrator, and parent participants’ experiences as they worked collaboratively through a reduced expansive learning cycle during three intervention sessions. The researcher and participants explored the neoliberal-influenced contradictions inherent in their activity of kindergarten. The exploration of contradictions uncovered issues of power and control related to neoliberal educational reform policies and practices that contributed to the Othering of young children, their families, and early childhood educators. The participants’ experiences led them to resolve the contradictions by creating a more just and sustainable model of kindergarten readiness.
Lynne Hamer (Committee Chair)
Dale Snauwaert (Committee Member)
Mark Templin (Committee Member)
Michelle Howard-Brahaney (Committee Member)
367 p.
Early Childhood Education; Educational Sociology; Preschool Education; Social Research; Sociology
Collaborative action research; contradictions; cultural historical activity theory; expansive learning; ideology; kindergarten readiness; meritocracy; neoliberalism; Othered; Othering; popular education

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • McCloskey, T. A. (2020). “To Tie Both Hands Behind Your Back . . . is Really Unjust and Disheartening”: Neoliberalism, Expansive Learning, and the Contradictions of Kindergarten Readiness [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1588870718156486

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • McCloskey, Tricia. “To Tie Both Hands Behind Your Back . . . is Really Unjust and Disheartening”: Neoliberalism, Expansive Learning, and the Contradictions of Kindergarten Readiness. 2020. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1588870718156486.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • McCloskey, Tricia. "“To Tie Both Hands Behind Your Back . . . is Really Unjust and Disheartening”: Neoliberalism, Expansive Learning, and the Contradictions of Kindergarten Readiness." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1588870718156486

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1588870718156486
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© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.