Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: Doing Our Best for Young Children - Softcover

“This book on professionalism by Stephanie Feeney stands to elevate the field. It introduces the idea of a wider and deeper set of dispositions and skills that are required of teachers if we're ever going to realize true reform and bring about excellence for young children.”

Sherry Cleary

Executive Director

New York City Early Childhood Professional Development Institute

The City University of New York

In this groundbreaking book Stephanie Feeney addresses the topic of professionalism and how insights gained from the study of professions can contribute to practice in the field of early childhood education. She offers an approach to looking at professionalism that reflects the unique history, mission and knowledge base of the field of early childhood education.

In it she discusses:

·      the nature of professions,

·      the professional status of early childhood education,

·      knowledge and skills that are needed to work effectively with young children (technical competence),

·      professional behaviors needed by early childhood educators including communication skills, work ethic,

        and professional ethics (moral competence), and

·      personal attributes that are desirable for those who work with young children.

Because experiences in the early years are so important, those who work with young children need to exhibit a high degree of professionalism in their day-to-day work with children. This book was written to guide them in providing the high standards of nurturing education and care that young children need to support their development.

Dr. Stephanie Feeney is Professor Emerita of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she directed early childhood teacher education programs for many years. She received her bachelor’s degree at UCLA, master’s degree at Harvard University, and doctorate at Claremont Graduate University. Her publications include Who Am I in the Lives of Children? (9th edition), Continuing Issues in Early Childhood Education (3rd edition), Early Childhood Education in the Pacific and Asia, Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator: Using the NAEYC Code of Ethics, Teaching the NAEYC Code of Ethics: A Resource Guide, a curriculum for young children, numerous articles, and four children’s books about Hawaii.

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Since the mid l980s Dr. Feeney has participated in work on professional ethics for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). She was co-author of the association’s Code of Ethical Conduct which was developed based on input from the field under the guidance of an Ethics Commission which she chaired. She has worked on two revisions of the Code, on the development of supplements to the Code for Adult Educators and Program Administrators, and she co-authors an ethics column in the journal Young Children.

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Dr. Feeney has lectured and taught throughout the United States and in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.¿ She has served on the Governing Boards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE), and on committees relating to early care and education in Hawaii and nationally.

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Dr. Feeney may be contacted at feeney@hawaii.edu.

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