Early childhood education programs are expected to provide exemplary care for all children—poor and affluent, children of color and White children—while also adapting care to include children’s families and cultures. These two sets of expectations are often difficult for teachers and programs to meet. In this book, Carollee Howes shows how high-quality programs successfully adapt child development guidelines within cultural contexts, and why quality needs to be and can be measured in culturally specific ways. This important book: Closely examines ECE programs considered exemplary for low-income children of color. Shows how directors and teachers successfully use practices derived from their cultural communities to implement universal standards of child care. Identifies the commonalities in good early childhood programs that are shared across class, race, and ethnic communities. Offers best practices based on extensive assessments, interviews, and observations. “Will have immediate relevance for policy debates, for understanding the mechanisms of program effects, and for educators who wish to deepen their knowledge of practice.” —Robert C. Pianta, University of Virginia “I urge all higher education faculty, in-service teacher trainers, accreditation observers, researchers, text-book writers and policymakers of standards to read this book.” —From the Foreword by Louise Derman-Sparks

"Roots and Wings will open doors to beginners in cultural diversity education, and will enrich the more experienced readers. It is a grand tool for assisting early childhood educators to address the many-faceted and complex issues of cultural diversity and racial prejudice. . . . I recommend this book to any teacher, caregiver, or parent who wants to begin learning what it means to foster young children’s respect for themselves and others."—Louise Derman-Sparks, author, AntiBias CurriculumMore than a decade ago, Roots and Wings was published as the first practical resource for early childhood teachers on the then new topic of multicultural education. This invaluable guide is now completely updated to respond to present day anti-bias issues in educating young children. Roots and Wings provides a thorough, clear, and practical introduction to working with diverse children and families in early childhood settings. With more than 100 new and revised activities, practical examples, and staff training recommendations, the revised edition includes new chapters on bilingual education, culturally responsive teaching, and children and prejudice. Seamlessly blending theory and practice, Roots and Wings is an ideal resource for preschool teachers, early childhood programs at colleges and universities, and training workshops. Stacey York is an instructor in the Child Development Department at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Minneapolis, Minnesota. She conducts multicultural workshops around the country and is also the author of Big As Life: The Everyday Inclusive Curriculum.

Bridging Cultures in Early Care and Education: A Training Module is a resource designed to help pre-service and in-service early childhood educators, including infant-toddler caregivers, understand the role of culture in their programs. It is also intended for professionals who work with children and their families in a variety of other roles, such as social workers, special educators, and early interventionists, and for use in college courses focused on early childhood education and child development. The module explains and illustrates how early childhood educators can use the organizing concepts of individualism and collectivism as a means of understanding cultural conflict and difference. These concepts have been shown to be highly useful in improving home-school understanding across cultures. Based on real-life examples of cultural dilemmas in early care and education settings, participants engage the concepts of individualism and collectivism to solve a variety of scenarios in a dynamic and engaging manner. *Chapter 1 introduces the Bridging Cultures for Early Care and Education approach, provides a brief history, and explains the training module. It presents the conceptual framework of individualism and collectivism, which is at the heart of the training. *Chapter 2 provides the information needed for a two-hour workshop, including a script and notes to the facilitator. The script is not meant to be read word for word. Rather, it is offered as a guide, based on a pilot-tested approach. Appendices at the end of the book contain transparency masters for the overheads referenced in the script, and masters for suggested handouts. *Chapter 3 offers ideas for augmenting the basic two-hour training by expanding it over a longer time period. It also identifies additional diversity resources that can complement the Bridging Cultures training. *Appendices providing additional information, data, and bibliographic resources are included. This module originated as part of the Bridging Cultures Project at WestEd--a nonprofit research, development, and service agency working with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults.

This book illuminates play as a universal and culture-specific activity. It provides needed information about the behavior of children in diverse cultural contexts as well as about the play of children in unassimilated cultural or subcultural contexts. It offers readers the opportunity to develop greater sensitivity to and better understanding of the important cultural differences that confront early childhood teachers and teacher educators.

As societies are experiencing increasing levels of immigration from contexts outside of the Western, industrialized world, child care programs are experiencing, simultaneously, increasing diversity in enrollment. A question that has been raised by early childhood advocates and practitioners is whether the former articulations regarding definitions of quality, models of relationships, and peer relations in the child care context are accurate and relevant within the increasing racial, linguistic, and ethnic diversity of the United States. The Culture of Child Care provides a much-needed integration of research pertaining to crucial aspects of early childhood development-- attachment in non-familial contexts, peer relations among ethnically and linguistically diverse children, and the developmental importance of child care contexts during early childhood. This volume highlights the interconnections between these three distinct bodies of research and crosses disciplinary boundaries by linking psychological and educational theories to the improvement of young children's development and experiences within child care. The importance of cultural diversity in early childhood is widely acknowledged and discussed, but up until now, there has been little substantive work with a cultural focus on today's educational and early child care settings. This innovative volume will be a unique resource for a wide range of early childhood professionals including basic and applied developmental researchers, early childhood educators and advocates, and policymakers.

Written for use in Early Childhood Development courses, or courses in Cultural Diversity. This successful text is the first of its kind to take a multicultural approach/focus to child development. Using a hands-on approach, it presents both typical and atypical development while addressing all current and important topics and issues. The book is arranged within an ages/stages format from birth through age eight. The author continues to provide many practical multicultural/multiethnic cases and examples to implement research findings for working with children. This text is appropriate for development courses in early childhood programs.* NEW-Provides an observation/assessment feature. * NEW-Expands information on Vygotsky. * NEW-Updates relevant information on brain research. * NEW-Includes a companion website-So students can access the most recent information/ research in the field and be informed of any revisions to the text. * Focuses on multicultural applications-For early childhood educators. * Discusses key ideas in language development-Including second language learning and the acquisition of non-English languages. * Covers the unique play styles of children from other cultur