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.

对于高质量的幼儿教育来说，没有什么比课程的内容和中介更重要的了。尽管如此，很少通过课程理论的视角来考察幼儿课程实践。本研究采用教育鉴赏和批评作为一种方法，以阐明一所公立小学相对于一个学前班的课程话语和实践。调查结果表明，多种课程取向在学校巧妙地共存。我们认为，确定利益相关者的课程取向并了解他们如何在特定学校的背景下运作，为利用优势并认识到不同课程传统的局限性的更具生成性的课程审议提供了基础。