Teacher Perceptions and Beliefs About Field Trips as a Curricular Source

Abstract

In today’s educational arena, field trips are often viewed as an extracurricular activity disconnected from curriculum. Currently, teachers are experiencing pressure to prepare students of all ages to be college and career. Policy makers are mandating commercialized curricula as a means to ensure proficiency on standardized assessments. These types of curricula are often void of culturally relevant experiences that could be found through investigating local contexts. This study documented the process of two early childhood educators developing curriculum that stemmed from children’s interests and their local contexts. During a 12-week period, a qualitative research study was conducted in a preschool located in a university lab school studying how the teachers, children, and families conceptualize field trips as a source of curriculum. To understand how educators plan for and implement meaningful field trips that are interwoven with curriculum, the teacher participants’ beliefs and perceptions about taking children on field trips was explored. Additionally, the children’s social construction of meaning of their physical and social worlds was observed and documented. The data collected was analyzed using van Manen’s extensional categories of lived experience.



Author Information
Lynn Bagwell, New Mexico State University, United States

Paper Information
Conference: IICEHawaii2018
Stream: Curriculum Design & Development

This paper is part of the IICEHawaii2018 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon