Culture shapes child-teacher interactions and classroom practices in early care and education. It also shapes how to appropriately define and measure them. This webinar features program staff and researchers from two policy-research partnerships, one from a state and one from a Tribe. They share lessons learned about better supporting, defining, and studying child-teacher interactions.
The webinar includes:
- a presentation on fostering, measuring, and studying culturally responsive child-teacher interactions for Indigenous children in Alaska early care and education programs
- a presentation on fostering, measuring, and studying responsive child-teacher interactions to improve infant and toddler language and learning in Georgia early care and education programs
- a period of questions and answers with the webinar audience
This is the second in a two-part series of webinars on, Measuring and Supporting Policy Changes: Lessons Learned by CCDF Lead Agency—Research Partnerships.
The speakers include:
- Connie Wirz, Senior Director of Clare Swan Early Learning Center , Cook Inlet Tribal Council
- Brittany Suralta, Director of Employment and Training Services, Cook Inlet Tribal Council
- Thea Stevens, Infant Toddler Program Manager, Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
- Hattie Harvey , Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Alaska Anchorage
- Shayna Funke, Lead Policy and Business Operations Analyst, Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning
- Teresa Derrick-Mills , Deputy Director of the Center for Supporting Research on CCDBG Implementation and Principal Research Associate, Urban Institute
Research Questions:
- What is, and how do we measure, culturally responsive practice in an Alaskan and Indigenous early care and learning context?
- Did child-teacher interactions improve as a result of participation in Georgia’s Lifting Infants & Toddlers Through Language-Rich Environments (LITTLE)?
Purpose:
This webinar aims to support Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency staff to learn through real examples from their peers. It shows how policy-researcher partnerships can study culturally-responsive child-teacher interactions, key steps in the process of designing such a study, and preliminary lessons learned in carrying out this type of study and applying findings to early care and education practice.
Citation:
Child Care Research and Evaluation Capacity Building Center (2022). Measuring and Supporting Child-Teacher Interactions: A State and Tribal Story, OPRE Report #2022-262, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.