LAUSR

Few matters are of greater importance to high quality early childhood education than the content and mediation of curriculum. In spite of this, early childhood curriculum practices are rarely examined through the lens of curriculum theory. This research employs educational connoisseurship and criticism as a methodology to shed light upon the curriculum discourse and practices at one public elementary school in relation to one preschool classroom. The findings indicate multiple curriculum orientations subtly coexist at the school. We argue that identifying stakeholders' curriculum orientations and understanding how they operate in the context of a particular school provides a basis for more generative curriculum deliberations that make use of the strengths and recognize the limitations of disparate curricular traditions.