Deconstructing developmentally appropriate practice

Since its first publication by National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in 1987, Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) has been one of the most influential documents guiding the field of early childhood education. In response to a number of criticisms on the first DAP (e.g., heavy reliance on Piagetian developmental theory as its knowledge base, lack of cultural sensitivity, and on its didactic tone), NAEYC published its second edition in 1997. Even though the second edition put more emphasis on diversity and incorporated Vygotsky's sociocultural theory in order to expand its knowledge bases, it still continued to be presented as a common core of beliefs, values and goals, supported by scientific evidence and generalizable principles. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to identify and examine the underlying assumptions and forms of discourse that had shaped the DAP, leading to the construction of specific beliefs and forms of pedagogical practice in the field of early childhood education. In order to do so, the method of deconstruction was utilized, deconstruction that discloses the particularity and contingency of our knowledge and practices. Through the deconstruction of DAP, this dissertation found that DAP is based on modernistic images of childhood and understanding of child development, which consequently regulates children's development within its scientific gaze and disciplines women within its images of good teachers and mothers. In conclusion, this dissertation suggested that we have to reconstruct and deconstruct developmentally and contextually appropriate practices for specific young children in the particular, real contexts using ethnographic methods rather than try to discover universal principles of child development and pedagogy for faceless, unreal children.