An increasing amount of attention and public funding has been dedicated in recent years to the field of Early Childhood Education and the expansion of early childhood programs in the United States. Program quality in early childhood is evaluated based on program-level structural features and instructional support (e.g. problem solving, feedback, and language modeling), but quantifiable measures of structural and process features do not necessarily equate to quality instructional interactions. Questions remain about the presence and strength of socially constructed power dynamics found in pedagogic practice. This case study seeks to illuminate interactions between children and teachers in federally funded Head Start classrooms, teachers' views of children, and influences to novice project work using the Project Approach. The project work served as a frame for viewing interactions between teachers and children as mediated by varying degrees of power and control of teacher-child interactions at the classroom level (identified as "socio-structures"). Questions investigated were the following: (1) What are the socio-structures inside these Head Start classrooms before and during the implementation of the Project Approach? (2) How do existing socio-structures relate to teacher-child instructional language interactions during the implementation of the Project Approach?

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In the world of teacher education, the ability of teachers to adapt is associated with effective teaching. In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, however, teachers’ adaptability was put to the ultimate test. With this in mind, this article explores the journey of two preschool teachers as they embarked on the sudden move from face-to-face to online instruction alongside school administrators, parents, and young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a tripartite model of adaptability, the authors examine the cognitive, emotional and behavioral adaptations employed by the focal teachers, as they supported the learning process in a multilingual and multicultural early childhood program under unprecedented teaching conditions. The article highlights the lessons learned during this traumatic time and the innovative ways educators partnered with families to develop new means of collaboration. The paper ends by calling attention to the socioeconomic line of division that exists among various populations both locally and globally, which shapes the educational landscape in significant ways.

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