Fidelity in Teaching Young Children: Two Stories of Professional Integrity

Teachers’ commitments, or what is often called fidelity in teaching, are of obvious importance in early childhood settings. Nonetheless, fidelity in teaching young children remains an undertheorized concept. Instead of appreciating the philosophical and socio-political complexities of practice, examinations of fidelity in teaching young children often narrowly focus upon teachers’ adherence to externally developed principles, rules, or even scripts. Rarely are the contextual insights and ethical agency that classroom teachers bring to their practice brought into account. In response, this study uses interview data to narrate two alternative expressions of fidelity in teaching young children. The findings illustrate two examples of how compliance is an insufficient basis for understanding the fidelity of capable teachers of young children.