Among all levels of education, Early Childhood Education and Development (ECEd) is considered
to be the most critical level for social (relationship to others), emotional (self-image and
security), cognitive (thinking and reasoning) and physical development of children. Therefore,
the teachers of early years need to play a significant role in the teaching and learning process
through providing a friendly environment in their schools.
The study employed a case study approach. Information was gathered through a combination
of methods, which included classroom observations, field notes, document analysis, focus
group and semi structured interviews. The focus group participants and the interviewees were
selected from a variety of stakeholders, which included parents, students, teachers and head
teachers from public sector to get a comprehensive and representative analysis. Informal
conversations with different stakeholders and self reflections contributed to clarify different
aspects of the issues and findings. In this study I explored teachers’ role in developing child
friendly environment in ECE classrooms. Thus, two female ECE classroom teachers from a public
secondary school in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan were the primary participants of the study and
they taught in early setup.
The study revealed that institutional support and monitoring teachers’ personal propensity to
learning for improving pupils’ learning, the prior ECED learning experiences and pedagogical
content knowledge play an important role in engaging teachers in developing their thinking and
teaching practice. The contribution of this thesis is that institutional and socio cultural
influences are local, and derive from the Pakistani context, so have a particular significance for
designing teacher development programs.
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