Research and Policy: The Danger of Canonizing Research within Early Childhood Literacy Policies

This article examines the collective research that informs the current federal reform initiative, Preschool for All. The author specifically homes in on the conditions that led to the initiative, which has called for “rigorous curriculum” in the preschool years. The author offers a critique that suggests that the research that informs this policy can be viewed as a “canon” in which only select perspectives and methodologies are put forward. In so doing, there is a counterproductive effect that narrows what counts as language and literacy, as well as a positioning of academic deficits and poverty as synonymous. The author explores multiple interpretations of widely cited research studies and calls for a breadth of methodological perspectives within policy discussions.