Abstract:
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Research consistently points the role of knowledgeable preschool teachers on student’s latereducational achievement However, even though increasing recognition is given to the role
preschool teacher play on children’s overall development limited attention has been directed
toward studying the knowledge base of preschool educators especially in the area of language
and literacy. Therefore, this study is sought to fill this gap. The objective of this study was to
examine preschool teacher knowledge by analysing the curriculum courses they have studied
during their preparation based on different components of teacher knowledge and specifically in
the area of language and literacy. To achieve this purpose a preschool teacher educationcurriculum and ten pre-service preschool teachers were used as a source of data. Documentanalysis and structured interview were used as an instrument to collect relevant data. The
research design that has been used in this study was descriptive research design and the study hasadopted qualitative approach to collect and analyse the data of the study. Based on the analysis
the major findings revealed that, all the predefined teacher knowledge components are covered
as part of different courses in the curriculum and in a various extent, in addition the findingindicates the focus given for teachers’ language skill competencies than for literacy teaching
competencies in content knowledge area of language and literacy courses. Lack of pedagogicalcontent knowledge courses and absence of course related to assessment and intervention
strategies for children with reading and writing difficulty or learning disability are major findings
of the curriculum content analysis. On the other hand, the result of the interview revealed themajority of teacher’s satisfaction with the courses they are taken.At last, several suggestions are
proposed for curriculum developers and further researchers.It has been recommended that muchattention should be paid to the development of pedagogical content knowledge related courses,
curriculum should be well prepared in literacy teaching skills as it is in language skills, and thereis a need to add some contents or course related to teaching and intervention strategies forchildren with learning disabilities in general and reading and writing disabilities in particular.
Key words: Teacher Knowledge, Language and Literacy, Preschool Teacher