Same teacher, different contexts: within-teacher variation in verbal interaction strategies in early childhood education

Abstract

This study examined within-teacher variation in verbal interaction strategies across everyday contexts in early childhood education. It is a secondary analysis of observational data collected with 13 teachers working with toddlers in four public early childhood education settings. Arrival, basic care and mealtimes, teacher-directed activities, and departure were examined. Nine strategies recorded in the original study were grouped into three categories: child-oriented, interaction-promoting, and language-modeling strategies. For each teacher and context, the relative contribution of the categories was calculated within the systematized records of strategy presence. Rates were not compared because observation duration was not standardized. The descriptive analysis was combined with episodes documented in field notes. Four cases were examined in depth because they represented contrasting configurations and had sufficient qualitative documentation. The findings revealed different forms of within-teacher variation, including relative continuity across situations, more pronounced changes, continuity restricted to part of the daily routine, and gradual redistribution across categories. Verbal interaction strategies did not constitute uniform teacher profiles and were not reorganized in the same way across similar situations. Considering teacher and context together contributes to understanding verbal interactions as situated practices and broadens the analysis of language-learning opportunities throughout the early childhood education day.