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Abstract enThis qualitative study examined whether or not childhood experiences of the early childhood education students affected their present personal beliefs and pedagogies. A digital survey was filled out by 58 students majoring in Early Childhood Education program. The participants were asked to identify and reflect on their impactful early experiences. The follow-up interviews with two participants were conducted to deepen the reflections on childhood experiences and explore their effects on the present lives of the early childhood educators. The theoretical framework for this study was based on the concept of the experiential continuum originated by one of the most influential American philosopher, John Dewey. The findings suggest that early childhood education students’ early childhood experiences are connected to personal and professional aspects of their lives. The results of this study suggest that despite the potentially changing interpretation of the past, childhood may continuously affect the lives of early childhood education students. These results support the importance of reflecting on students’ own childhoods in teacher preparation programs.  Another result of this study was that early peer experiences affected teachers’ present lives.  Based on the results, suggestions for the teacher education programs are made. Such suggestions included promoting students to facilitate their reflections regarding childhood experiences via the following questions: “Why am I reflecting on this teaching experience/knowledge the way I am? What within myself, within my own past experiences may be driving me to see what I am seeing, to conclude what I am concluding?” Keywords: childhood experiences, pedagogy, early childhood education, experiential continuum 

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