SPECIAL ISSUE - CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF EDUCATION POLICY & DISCOURSE - Knowing and Interpreting Prekindergarten Policy

Oct 15, 2026

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Many state-funded prekindergarten (preK) programs operate through school-community partnerships promoted to expand access, meet family needs, and support program quality. Despite potential benefits, partnerships also create tensions between K-12 schooling and early childhood education (ECE) systems. Using Bakhtin’s concepts of authoritative and internally persuasive discourse, the paper analyzes how staff at an ECE partner site in Lakeville, Wisconsin framed assessment in relation to state and district policy, including how their persuasive discourse shifted over time.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages31

Reading Time1 h 18 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Study focus and framework

Findings on partnerships and discourse shift

SPECIAL ISSUE CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF EDUCATION POLICY & DISCOURSE education policy analysis archives A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal Arizona State University | Volume 25 Number 27 | March 27, 2017 | ISSN 1068-2341 | | --- | --- | --- | Knowing and Interpreting Prekindergarten Policy: A Bakhtinian Analysis Bethany Wilinski Michigan State University United States Citation: Wilinski, B. (2017). Knowing and interpreting prekindergarten policy: A Bakhtinian analysis. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25(27). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2211](http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2211 This)[ This](http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2211 This)[ ](http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2211 This)[article is in the second of a two-part Special Issue](article is in the second of a two-part Special Issue), Contemporary Approaches to the Study of Education Policy and Discourse, guest edited by Jessica Nina Lester, Chad Lochmiller, and Rachael Gabriel. Abstract: Many state-funded prekindergarten (preK) programs are implemented through school-community partnerships, which has been promoted as a way to increase preK access, to meet the needs of families, and to ensure program quality (Schumacher, Ewen, Hart, & Lombardi, 2005) . In spite of the potential benefits of such partnerships, there are also challenges to bringing together the K-12 and ECE systems (McCabe & Sipple, 2011) . In this paper I use Bakhtin’s (1981) notions of authoritative and internally persuasive discourse to analyze the discourse that staff members at a Lakeville, Wisconsin , ECE partner site used to situate their approach to assessment in opposition to state and district assessment policy. ECE partner site staff drew on their institution’s long history and strong sense of best practice in early education to characterize required preK assessments as unnecessary, too aligned with the elementary grades, and a duplication of other approaches to assessment that they valued. Yet, even as they resisted the assessments, ECE partners’ internally persuasive discourse shifted slightly over time; staff members conceded that some aspects of the assessment policy had a positive effect on their program. This discursive analysis provides insight into some of the challenges associated with bringing together the ECE and K-12 systems. It points to the need for policy to address the particular challenges faced by ECE partners as they encounter new mandates in public preK and for the need to ensure that partnerships are characterized by mutual understanding. Keywords: early childhood education; prekindergarten policy; discourse; assessment Conocer e interpretar las políticas de jardín de infancia: Un análisis Bakhtiniano Resumen: Muchos programas de pre-escolares (preK) financiados por el Estado son implementados a través de una escuela y una comunidad, que han sido promovidos como formade aumentar la educación, para atender las necesidades de las familias y garantizar una calidad del programa (Schumacher, Ewen, Hart & Lombardi, 2005) . A pesar de los beneficios potenciales de tales parcerias, también hay retos para los sistemas K-12 y de Educación Pre-Escolar (ECE) (McCabe & Sipple, 2011) . Este artículo, utilizó como nociones de discurso autoritario e internamente persuasivo de Bakhtin (1981) para el análisis del discurso de los miembros de la unidad en el sector de la educación, localizado en Lakeville, Wisconsin, Estados Unidos, usará suenfoque de evaluación en la oposición a la política de la estadística y del distrital. A equipe baseou-se en la historia de la institución y no hay un fuerte sentido de las buenas prácticas en laeducación infantil para caracterizar como las revisiones requeridas de “prek” comodesesperadas, con un gramo de elementos y una duplicación de otras estrategias de evaluación que valorizaban. Sin embargo, cuando se resistira a las críticas, su discurso internamente persuasivo mudou li

FAQs

How do state-funded prekindergarten programs commonly get implemented?

They are often implemented through school-community partnerships intended to broaden access, address family needs, and support program quality.

What theoretical lens does the paper use to analyze assessment policy?

It applies Bakhtin’s notions of authoritative and internally persuasive discourse to examine how ECE staff position assessment practices.

What change occurs in the partners’ internally persuasive discourse over time?

Even while resisting the mandated assessments, staff eventually concede that some elements of the assessment policy positively affected their program.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by ahduag