Looking to the Past to Inform the Future: A Review of NAEYC’s Earliest Writings on Collaboration and Inclusion
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“Young children need a friend in [their] court. They need someone with the mantle of authority who can be their spokesman. We need someone in every state—professional workers with an adequate staff—concerned with child growth and development and with helping parents—who can be this spokesman for young children.”
James L. Hymes Jr., a professor of education in New Paltz, New York, wrote the opening excerpt in an article reflecting on the first 25 years of the National Association for Nursery Education, NAEYC’s predecessor. Now as then, young children need us, the professionals in the field of early childhood education, to be their advocates. But just as in 1948, we cannot do it by working alone. Collaboration, or the purposeful cooperation between stakeholders to address challenges and achieve common goals (Kinsella-Meier & Gala 2016; Hong et al. 2019; Mitchell et al. 2020), is essential to quality early childhood education (Del Grosso et al. 2014). This includes in advancing equity.
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Stacy Simonyi, EdD, is an assistant professor of education at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. Dr. Simonyi has been an educator for 20 years, working with students from infancy through graduate school. [email protected]
Leigh-Ann Leinhauser Brown, PhD, BCBA, is a special education professor at Vermont State University in Castleton, Vermont, with over 20 years of experience in special education. Her research focuses on outdoor education, family experiences, and creating joyful community participation through the principles of ABA. [email protected]
Kaitlin Northey, PhD, is an associate professor of early childhood at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. Her scholarship in early childhood teacher preparation, leadership, state governance, and policy implementation documents the complexities within early childhood systems.
Heather Duhamel, MEd, is an assistant professor of early childhood education (online) at Vermont State University in Vermont. [email protected]