Segregated Programs of Teacher Education in Early Childhood

This paper presents philosophical, legal, moral, economic, and empirical bases to support educating teachers who are qualified to teach both typically and atypically developing infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and to work with their families. Content for appropriately integrated teacher education curricula is proposed and certification standards are recommended. Efforts by three states to develop early childhood teacher education guidelines and certification plans that integrate the fields of general early childhood and early childhood special education are discussed.