A study of child development alumni perceptions of the quality of professional preparation for employment in low socio-economic child care settings

Abstract

The first purpose of this mixed method study was to contribute to the information base for future curriculum development regarding a low income practicum study for two-year and four-year child development majors in a Midwest University. This study also determined turnover rate in child care centers. Prior studies attribute: lack of teacher preparation during pre-service education, low compensation of early childhood teachers, and lack of diverse faculty offerings during college as reasons given for providers leaving child care in less than one year. This study used survey data collected from 54 alumni. Personal interviews gathered data of perceptions from alumni about their college training and job tenure. Previous findings do not suggest that high turnover rate in the workplace is related to a lack of a purposeful planned low income practicum study before graduation as this researcher seeks.