Abstract
Reshaping Universal Preschool: Critical Perspectives on Power and Policy examines the social and academic shortfalls in the expansion of universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) in the USA. By aligning various stakeholder perspectives on UPK, Lucinda G Heimer and Ann Elizabeth Ramminger frame their deep dive into collaborative local policy-building by presenting a historical snapshot of UPK policy and then carefully plot its evolution (Heimer and Ramminger, 2020). The authors provide thought-provoking questions that encourage discussion and creative solutions around the issue of equity in early childhood education. In language and format, Reshaping Universal Preschool is accessible to early childhood pre-service and in-service teachers, policymakers, and researchers.
The publication of Reshaping Universal Preschool comes as early childhood education is returning the spotlight to “school readiness” as a panacea for addressing the “underperformance” in US K–12 education (Altun, 2018; Gupta and Lucia, 2019; Nxumalo and Brown, 2020; Russo et al., 2019). This book aligns with the conversations among policymakers, educators, parents, and other stakeholders as to how to confront the opportunity gap and establish equity in education and life outcomes for all children (Michael-Luna and Grey, 2019; Wilinski, 2017).
The authors bring a wealth of knowledge and counternarratives to the book. Lucinda Heimer, Associate Professor of Early Childhood/Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Ann Elizabeth Ramminger, founder of Early Childhood Solutions Consulting, collaborate to expand and extend Heimer's powerful 2005 PhD dissertation, which unpacked the expansion of UPK policy. To broaden the conversation, Heimer and Ramminger include Katherine Delaney, Sarah Galanter-Guziewski, Lacey Peters, and Kristin Whyte in nuanced ethnographic studies and descriptions of UPK.
Heimer and Ramminger frame their critique of UPK policy-into-practice by giving historical background and theoretical frameworks. In chapter 2, the authors examine the key question “What is quality to whom?” to highlight how power, social capital, and policy-as-discourse work in collaboration. In chapter 3, Heimer and Ramminger bring marginalized voices into their examination of collaboration by creating and presenting counternarratives to dominant views of UPK policy, specifically drawing on Foucault's notion of power. Chapter 4 focuses on interest convergence (critical race theory) and policy-as-compromise. Of note, contributing author Galanter-Guziewski considers the different communities she included in her decision-making as a public school principal. Chapter 5 presents the fraught story of curriculum selection in a collaborative (or not so collaborative) process, illustrating its points with observational data of UPK teachers. Additionally, Delaney's case-study contribution gives a clear example of a teacher's experience implementing a play-based curriculum and placing children's voices at the center while balancing district demands. Chapter 6 reexamines the key threads woven through the text: stakeholder voices, perceptions of leadership, access and delivery models, standardization, curriculum, and assessments. Contributing author Peters’ description of New York City's UPK assessment and curriculum helps to widen the lens of the book to the national stage.
Reshaping Universal Preschool provokes the reader to consider ambiguous terminology. For example, while the term “universal” gives the illusion of equity in collaboration, the authors’ framing of inequitable social and economic realities shows how one UPK policy can lead to separate education opportunities. The authors’ discussion of curriculum illustrates the tension, caused by blending early childhood (birth to five years) with the K–12 educational system, between research-based best practices for the whole child and the desire for more standardized and measurable content-based learning. One of the most convincing points shared by Heimer and Ramminger is the “importance of understanding self within the larger social context, thus illuminating the paradox of public education” (67). We would like to have learned more about the parent perspective, specifically around UPK's focus on academics rather than play-based learning. The organization of the text—choices usually made at the editorial level—could have been improved by the placement of the powerful vignettes from each of the stakeholders at the beginning of each section. Instead, the vignettes float, unconnected to the authors’ main argument.
Reshaping Universal Preschool highlights that there is not a one-size-fits-all quick fix for UPK policy, and provides the reader with the opportunity to question, discuss, and develop answers to the various aspects of having a preschool that is truly universal in collaboration, access, enrollment, leadership, standardization, and curriculum. The authors’ goal of illuminating the messy and often fraught role of the collaboration of stakeholders in the social construction and implementation of UPK policy has been achieved in a compelling and readable manner.
