Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Ecce Leadership Development: Supports, Barriers, And Identity Formation, Andrea Weidele

Open Access Dissertations

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) leadership development is not given the attention it deserves. Despite the proven link between high-quality ECCE programs and positive societal outcomes, leadership development within the sector is significantly under-resourced. Because program quality is inherently tied to leadership efficacy, there is an urgent need to investigate the supports and structures that foster effective ECCE leadership. This study addressed that gap by using a qualitative multiple case study to explore how six ECCE program leaders of licensed ECCE programs from a New England state describe their leadership development, including supports and barriers they encountered and how …

Seeing The Whole Child: Bridging Community Beliefs And Early Intervention, Grace Danladi Saleh

Graduate Research Posters

Background

The first five years of a child’s life are a very important time. What happens during these early years has a big effect on how the child grows, learns to communicate, and relates to others. When caregivers respond warmly and consistently, children tend to do better later on. However, most screening tools used to spot developmental concerns are based mainly on Western ideas of what is normal. These tools often don’t match what many families from different backgrounds believe about child growth, behavior, or communication. As a result, children from diverse communities can be missed or identified too late. …

People And Movement: A Unit Of Study On The Great Migration, Maria Arteta-Martelo

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This unit of study for third graders on the Great Migration was developed to fill a gap in a year-long immigration curriculum by incorporating Black history and the often-overlooked experiences of internal migration.

Child Care Directors' Perspectives On Inclusion And Classroom Performance On Quality Rating Observation Measures, Dana C. Childress, Kristen Ingram, Ann Maydosz, Jonna L. Bobzien

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This research examined child care center directors’ perceptions of inclusion, specifically related to staff’s knowledge and skills of how to care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with developmental delays and disabilities. They were also asked if their center’s ability to care for these children could affect performance on classroom observation measures such as those included in quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Two hundred forty-four directors in one southeastern state in the United States responded to a cross-sectional, electronic survey and provided the following insights: (1) staff were likely to have at least some knowledge of how to include and …

When We Are Alone (2016) By David A. Robertson, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story (2024) Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Secret Pocket (2023) By Peggy Janicki, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Walking Together (2023) By Elder Albert Marshall And Louise Zimanyi, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

I Am Not A Number (2019) By Jenny Kay Dupuis And Kathy Kacer, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

Red Bird Sings: The Story Of Zitkala-Ša (2011) By Gina Capaldi, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …

I Know A Lady (1986) By Charlotte Zolotow, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

“On our block, there is a lady who lives alone.” That line begins young Sally’s reflection on a neighbor friend, an elderly woman who is a comforting presence to the neighborhood. I Know a Lady gives us a model of a mutually supportive inter-generational friendship. Near the end of the story, Sally wonders “if some old lady she knew had a garden and cooked and smiled and patted dogs and fed cats and knew her name.” Sally’s thought includes a realization hard for children and adults to manage: that old people were once children. Sally then thinks that if she …

Shrek! (1990) By William Steig, Gareth B. Matthews

Picture Books

Shrek is a revoltingly ugly and repulsive ogre who, after a series of adventures, falls in love with an equally ugly princess. Many children have delighted in William Steig’s story of incredible ugliness and vulgar behavior--striking a blow for their own liberation against oppressive adult expectations. Why not actually discuss with them the way they (and many of us!) become fascinated with ugliness? Steig’s story also raises an important philosophical question about whether there can be anything genuinely attractive, even beautiful, that is also extremely ugly.

Take Time To Play! A Library, University, And Community Organization Partnership To Enhance Children’S Learning And Wellbeing, Carolyn White Gamtso, Karyn Isleb, Marisa Rafal

Faculty Publications

This lightning talk described the collaborative work of the Founder/President of NH Toy, the Head of Youth Services at the Manchester (NH) City Library (MCL), and the Professional Studies Librarian at the UNH Library-Manchester to coordinate a series of student-led enrichment events for local children and their families at the public library. The play days included an American Sign Language (ASL) story time presented by members of the UNH Manchester ASL Club, and an Earth Day craft event with recycled materials led by members of the college’s Student Government. This university/library/community collaboration provided all participants with the time and the …

Utilizing Visual Literacy In Thinking Critically About Children’S Cognitive Development, Andrea Gail Schafer

2026 Scholarly Teaching Conference: Poster Session Papers

Undergraduate coursework in child development requires college students to be proficient in their understanding and assessment of holistic development of young children as defined within the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional domains. Traditionally, undergraduate courses at the 100 and 200 level require college students to critically consider scenarios and evaluate level of child development based on traditional text-based scenarios describing child behaviors or engagement in tasks.

Specifically, considering Piaget's theory of cognitive development (Piaget, 1974), it's critically important in a course that covers early child development that college students (pre-service professionals) be able to identify and correctly assess level of …

Seeing Through Their Lenses: Perspectives Of Kindergarten Teachers On Implementing Purposeful Play For Children’S Academic And Developmental Learning, Subarna Basu

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of using purposeful play for children’s academic and developmental learning, and the benefits and challenges they perceive in implementing purposeful play. The study utilized a qualitative, visual arts-based, participatory action research (PAR) design, in the form of Photovoice methodology. This qualitative study focused on the kindergarten teachers’ lived experiences and voices on the importance of implementing purposeful play and employed Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and Constructivist theories. Utilizing this methodology, six kindergarten teacher participants collected photographs based on photo prompts, provided narratives to their photographs, and reflected and …

The Impact Of High-Quality Phonological Awareness Professional Learning On In-Service Teachers' Content Knowledge And Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Roberta S. Thomas

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This convergent mixed-method study examined the impact of high-quality phonological awareness professional learning on Montessori primary lead, associate, and team associate teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of phonological awareness. Eleven teachers (4 lead, 4 associates, and 2 team associates) from a private school in northeast Florida participated in four professional sessions with a content focus on the levels of phonological awareness, including word, syllable, onset and rime, and phoneme awareness. In contrast to previous studies that reported low levels of teacher content knowledge prior to professional learning, participants in this study demonstrated relatively high levels of content knowledge. …

They Don't Talk Very Good: Attending To Raciolinguistic Socialization In Early Childhood, Erin Quast

Faculty Publications - College of Education

In this article, I share experiences from my roles as a teacher, researcher, and parent to show how raciolinguistic ideologies take hold in early childhood. Specifically, I illustrate how children come to uphold English superiority, map language to belonging, and make judgments about whose language counts. In sharing these experiences, I call on educators and caregivers to attend to raciolinguistic socialization and work toward disruption so that all children's languages are valued in literacy learning. I suggest centering multiple languages, cultivating curiosity, and questioning curricular assumptions as ways to work alongside children in challenging hierarchies and creating learning spaces that …

Early Math Readiness And Later Achievement: A Longitudinal Study, Bailey Bontrager

Theses and Dissertations

The current body of literature provides much evidence that mathematics skills at the start of kindergarten are predictive of later mathematics achievement, and that students enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs are better prepared for mathematics at the start of kindergarten. However, the potential for children to develop mathematical skills prior to entering kindergarten relies on access to ECE programs and resources in families’ surrounding communities. Recent use of geospatial data collection techniques and measures of community resource availability have enabled researchers to examine specific localities for the ways in which community organizations and institutions support residents in particular …

Foreign-National Families, Education, And Parenting: Unpacking The Influence Of Cultural Transitions On Child-Rearing And Expectations, Yuqi Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines how highly skilled foreign-national parents navigate parenting and educational decision-making within the context of cultural transition in the United States. While existing research on foreign-national parenting has largely focused on socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, less is known about families who possess substantial educational and professional capital. Despite these advantages, these parents encounter unique challenges related to institutional navigation, identity negotiation, and social constraints. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory, Coleman’s social capital theory, Berry’s acculturation framework, and Yosso’s community cultural wealth model, this study explores how cultural background and migration experiences shape highly skilled foreign-national families’ parenting beliefs …

Not My Girl (2014) By Christy Jordan-Fenton And Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries American and Canadian government agencies and Christian churches established Indian residential schools where hundreds of thousands of children were “reeducated” in English and Christianity. They were not allowed to use their native languages or given names, to practice their religions, or to communicate with their siblings or parents. They were made to work in crop fields, kitchens, laundries, and industrial workshops. Many were physically and sexually abused. Many never saw their families again. The nine picture books reviewed here are accounts of survivors of residential schools from eight different Indigenous nations. In addition to …