Education Commons^™

Stories From Three Native Hawaiian Alaka‘I About The Education Of Young Children, Charis-Ann F. Sole, M. Nalani Mattox-Primacio, Shin Ae Han

Occasional Paper Series

The stories of three alaka‘i wahine (Native Hawaiian women leaders) who are involved with cultural and linguistic early education environments that promote family and child interaction are featured here. Through interviews and interactions their stories and work are highlighted for stakeholders to glean from lessons they have learned. This work is framed through the lens of (re)imagining educational systems for Native Hawaiian children to experience education that is congruent with their heritage, their family, and their cultural ways of being. Contextualizing the experiences and wisdom of these island leaders’ voices, this weaving of stories highlights the significance of native ideas …

Introduction: Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care And Education With Equity At The Center, Mark Nagasawa, Cristina Medellin-Paz

Occasional Paper Series

Issue 51 of the Bank Street Occasional Papers Series is a response to Gunilla Dahlberg, Peter Moss, and Alan Pence’s 25-year interrogation of the concept of quality in early childhood education (ECE) (Dahlberg et al., 1999, 2013, 2023). Their groundbreaking work has called early childhood educators to question deeply held assumptions about the universality of childhood and how these shape the standardization of practices in early childhood settings around the world. They have argued that the homogenization of ECE practices is a factoryization of early childhood that undermines cultural pluralism and the field’s equity aspirations. This raises an imperative to …

Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care And Education With Equity At The Center

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Teaching Young Dual Language Learners: A Critical Review Of The Strengths And Limitations Presented In Alanís And Colleagues’ 2021 Book, The Essentials: Supporting Dual Language Learners In Diverse Environments In Preschool & Kindergarten, Jessica Summers

Journal of English Learner Education

The increase in dual language learners (DLLs) in the United States is shifting the way many districts, schools, and individual educators approach teaching and learning in order to better meet the needs of emergent bilinguals. Iliana Alanís, María G. Arreguín, and Irasema Salinas-González’s wrote The essentials: Supporting dual language learners in diverse environments in preschool and kindergarten (2021) to help early childhood educators, administrators, and instructional coaches understand guiding principles of bilingual education and implement evidence-based practices for working with young DLLs. This book review highlights five strengths and provides three critiques.

Reimagining Early Childhood Classrooms As Sites Of Love: Humanizing Black Boys Through Head Rubs And “ Playin’ The Dozens ”, Nicole M. Madu

Occasional Paper Series

Black boys in American schools are often subjected to crisis narratives that negatively impact teacher-student relationships. However, two Black male early childhood teachers in New York City have reimagined teacher-student relationships which can be used to inform the future education of Black boys post-pandemic. Central to their reframing of teacher-student relationships between Black male teachers and Black boys is a focus on the importance of nurturing social and emotional health. This manuscript highlights how these two Black male teachers foster positive relationships with their young Black boys, empowering Black boys to see themselves as capable learners.

The Best Of Both Worlds: Partnering With The Community To Create The Guttman Center For Early Care And Education, Robin Hancock

Occasional Paper Series

The Guttman Center for Early Care and Education was established in the fall of 2016 at Bank Street College with the intention of providing quality professional development and support to Family Child Care Providers (early childhood educators running small private daycares out of their homes) in Brooklyn, New York. Completely free to all participants, the Center seeks to attract providers, regardless of age, education level or years of experience, who were interested in deepening their understanding of early childhood development. Through a deep touch community engagement strategy and utilization of Bank Street's renowned Infancy Masters Program, early educators are encouraged …

Living A Philosophy Of Early Childhood Education: A Festschrift For Harriet Cuffaro

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

"Building Up": Block Play After September 11, Lisa Edstrom

Occasional Paper Series

Like most people in New York City, the children in Edstrom's class were affected by the events of September 11. However, not until five weeks later did these particular five- and six year-olds begin to make sense of what happened. Through the use of block play, they were able to explore the difficult emotions and questions we all had about the World Trade Center attack

Conversations With Children About Death, Molly Sexton-Reade

Occasional Paper Series

This paper emphasizes the need for conversations around death in the classroom. Today's children are exposed to information about death through a wide variety of media. Teachers have a responsibility to provide opportunities for children to process this information in ways that are developmentally appropriate - acknowledging children's "magical thinking" as well as experiences children may have surrounding death.

Wrong Place, Right Time, Rachel Mazor

Occasional Paper Series

Mazor recounts working in the three distinctly different environments during her first year of teaching: sixth-grade math, pre-school social studies, and first-grade reading. Each of these experiences taught her specific skills that she later applied to assignments; additionally, each experience helped her develop her own style as a teacher.

Racing To The Top: Who’S Accounting For The Children?, Celia Genishi, Anne Haas Dyson

Occasional Paper Series

The authors argue that teachers are accountable not to some narrow “top” but to the rhythms and rhymes of their developing students.

Selected Works By Harriet Cuffaro, Miriam Raider-Roth, Jonathan Silin

Occasional Paper Series

Selected works by Harriet Cuffaro.

When Unit Blocks Came To Gardaborg, Kristín Einarsdóttir

Occasional Paper Series

Unit blocks have probably been used in some Icelandic preschools since 1950 or 1960, but a turning point occurred when one of the author's teachers from the Iceland University of Education (Fosturskoli Islands), Jonina Tryggvadottir, returned from studying with Harriet Cuffaro at Bank Street College in New York City.

Thinking Through Early Childhood, Jonathan Silin

Occasional Paper Series

Working against the grain of history and contemporary assumptions about the nature of the field, the author makes a counterintuitive argument that decenters the child and brings forward the adult in early childhood education (ECE).

Introduction: Living A Philosophy Of Early Childhood Education - A Festschrift For Harriet Cuffaro, Miriam Raider-Roth, Jonathan Silin

Occasional Paper Series

This issue of the Occasional Paper Series is a Festschrift in honor of Harriet K. Cuffaro, a Bank Street College faculty member from 1968-1998. A Festschrift—a volume reflecting the values, theories, and passions of a senior scholar in a field—seeks to offer scholarship that builds on these contributions. Harriet Cuffaro has touched and shaped more lives of teachers, scholars, and colleagues than we can possibly count. A teacher in her soul, and an esteemed scholar of John Dewey, Harriet has “unfolded and connected” essential Deweyan ideas and made them accessible and meaningful in the lives of teachers. …

Time For A Paradigm Shift: Recognizing The Critical Role Of Pictures Within Literacy Learning, Beth Olshansky

Occasional Paper Series

Broadens the definition of literacy with the help of children’s drawings and conversations. The author shows how the social practices of literacy are enacted in and through the visual.

Theorising Through Visual & Verbal Metaphors: Challenging Narrow Depictions Of Children And Learning, Sophie Rudolph

Occasional Paper Series

Through a rich description of how young children use drawing to express their emerging understandings of the world, Rudolph disrupts narrow definitions of the child as learner.

Entering The Secret Hideout: Fostering Newness And Space For Art And Play, Shana Cinquemani

Occasional Paper Series

Describes the transformative nature of negotiated spaces between the school and children’s self-initiated drawings.

Introduction: Art & Early Childhood - Personal Narratives And Social Practices, Kristine Sunday, Marissa Mcclure, Christopher Schulte

Occasional Paper Series

In this issue of Bank Street’s Occasional Paper Series, we explore the nature of childhood by offering selections that re/imagine the idea of the child as art maker, inquire about the relationships between children and adults when they are making art, and investigate how physical space influences our approaches to art instruction. We invite readers to join a dialogue that questions long-standing traditions of early childhood art—traditions grounded in a modernist view of children’s art as a romantic expression of inner emotional and/or developmental trajectories. We have also selected essays that create liminal spaces for reflection, dialogue, and critique of …

Nature Preschools: Putting Nature At The Heart Of Early Childhood Education, Ken Finch, Patti Bailie

Occasional Paper Series

Describes nature preschools as places that go beyond the typical preschool teachings within the classroom. Activities at nature preschools may include child-centered outdoor investigations, unstructured play and exploration in rich outdoor settings, large, natural areas to explore, and special programs that might include making maple syrup or apple cider, meeting live animals, and discovering pond life.

Learning Naturally: An Inquiry Study Of Streams In Hawaii, Becca Kesler

Occasional Paper Series

Describes a teacher-guided, place-based inquiry curriculum.

"I anticipated that it would give my students opportunities for exploration, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and collaboration, while developing a relationship with the natural world. This is the story I would like to share. My hope is that it will provide other teachers with the inspiration to consider the rich learning opportunities available in their local environments." -- Author

Thinking Together: The Value Of Discussion In The Five Year Old's Classroom, Elizabeth C. Radens, Susan Schwimmer

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

Illustrates a kindergarten classroom where the teacher places a high value upon questions - child or adult generated. Discussion is the centerpiece of the program.

Creativity And The Reggio Emilia Approach, Duna Alkhudhair

The William & Mary Educational Review

The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education was developed in the city of Reggio Emilia after the Second World War under the leadership of Loris Malaguzzi. Today, Reggio Emilia schools stand as exemplars for the development of young children’s creativity. This paper provides an overview of the Reggio Emilia approach and examines how it aligns with current research findings related to the development of creativity in young children.

Squeezed, Stretched, And Stuck: Teachers Defending Play-Based Learning In No-Nonsense Times, Karen Wohlwend

Occasional Paper Series

Describes how playful and inquiry-based engagements in kindergarten and first grade classrooms eventually gave way to the demands of district-mandated teacher evaluation plans that called for targeted reading strategies, seatwork, and instruction using basal reading materials. Wohlend describes the resulting impingement on children's emotional lives and the professional authority of teachers in these midwestern classrooms.