Sisters of separate spheres: The kindergarten movement in a different voice

Limited affordable child care services in America is a perplexing one that engages political and philosophical debates (Beatty, 2004, Michels, 1986). Early childhood historian Barbara Beatty and Head Start pioneer Edward Zigler write of the "tragedies and complexities" of universal child care programs in the United States (Beatty, 2004, Zigler, Marsland & Lord, 2009). The kindergarten movement is a story of great success, with the rise of thousands of kindergartens established in the United States in only three decades (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2000; Michel, 1986; Youcha, 1995). This paper is an ideological study of the journal articles written by women of the kindergarten movement in America from 1860 to 1960. Beginning with the primary documents of The International Kindergarten Union archives, this dissertation answers the following questions: To what extent did the women of the kindergarten movement embrace the ideologies of maternal pedagogy, progressive education and social justice? Utilizing grounded theory methodology, a new question emerged: To what extent did the kindergarten training schools influence teacher education? The advocacy efforts of the "kindergarteners", the self-named pioneers of the kindergarten movement is an informative one, narrating how American women took a European man's pedagogy and transformed it into an American phenomenon.