Understanding the availability of nonfiction books in child care center preschool classrooms: A mixed methods inquiry

Early exposure to nonfiction literature is an important aspect of literacy development necessary for future success in school. Previous research documents that classrooms for young children are deficient in providing adequate amounts of nonfiction books, yet this research fails to examine why there is a lack of this resource. Informed by social capital theory and social cognitive theory, the current study extends prior work on children’s early exposure to nonfiction literature in two ways. First, this study extends educational settings to child care center preschool classrooms. Second, this study explains the proportion of nonfiction books in classrooms by investigating the influence of structural and process factors. This study employed a parallel mixed methods research design in which quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through classroom observations and interviews with teachers.

The findings from the research show that the proportion of nonfiction books in child care preschool classrooms is more than that reported in other studies and accounted for nearly half of the books in the classroom. Findings also show structural and process factors indirectly, rather than directly, influence the amount of nonfiction books in the classroom. Most importantly, findings show that teachers do not intentionally chose nonfiction books for their classroom. Instead, teachers inadvertently select this genre because it is available within the center and fits other selection criteria they employ. The implication of these findings is a need to address the resources available to child care centers and teachers that enable teachers to select nonfiction books for their classrooms. Additionally, teachers’ inadvertent selection of nonfiction books suggests that teachers are not providing familiarity with text type distinctions that equip children with the foundational skills necessary to later be successful with nonfiction literature.