The Literacy Beliefs of Child Care Professionals: Prerequisite Knowledge for Teacher librarian Literacy Leaders

Abstract

Teacher librarians can offer professional development, services, and programming to instructional leaders and care providers of young children; however, to optimize instruction, they should understand the general knowledge base of early care professionals. This study examined the literacy beliefs of the instructional leaders of child care facilities. Instructional leaders self-reported their beliefs through response to a survey that contained the Teacher Beliefs Questionnaire (Seefeldt, 2004). Results suggest that instructional leaders' beliefs are most consistent with research-based best literacy practice in the areas of book reading and writing and most contradictory in decoding knowledge.