'Baby teachers': How pre-service early childhood students transform their conceptions of teaching and learning through an infant practicum

This qualitative study explores how working with infants changed pre-service early childhood students' thinking about important aspects of early childhood education. Through a qualitative analysis of four pre-service early childhood students' weekly dialogue journals during a required, one-semester infant practicum, the authors discovered how the course provided a context for challenging students' previously held notions about early childhood teaching and learning. Their findings showed that infants' ways of being were a powerful influence on pre-service early childhood students' sense of themselves as teachers and emphasized the value of hands-on experiences with infants as an important component of early childhood professional preparation.