Interview Protocol
To learn about participants’ belief systems about what they believe children should experience in preschool prior to entering kindergarten, we administered a standardized interview protocol consisting of open-ended questions and probing guidelines to elicit the sharing of ideas in the group setting. Thus, participants were asked primary questions, and, when necessary, we probed beyond the primary questions about teaching beliefs, how flexible their belief systems were, and whether they shared their beliefs with other teachers and parents. The primary question was: Tell me about your thoughts and ideas for working with children who are getting ready for kindergarten. Do you have a specific philosophy regarding the best way to work with the children in order to support their development, their growth? Prompts and probes helped to clarify the intention of the primary question. The following are examples of those prompts and probes: “I would like you to talk to me about your thoughts regarding what is the best way to work with children?” and “I’m going to ask you to think a little bit more broadly about your philosophy about working with kids this age and what you think is most important.”