Transforming Early Years Policy in the U.S.

This timely collection provides an accessible discussion and analysis of some of the most urgent policy issues facing early childhood care and education in the United States: fragmented policy systems; broad disregard for early years professionals exemplified by low pay; standards that fail to increase equity; and overlooking the role community contexts plays in producing or ameliorating social inequalities among children. Contributors draw upon their deep personal experiences with these issues as educators, scholars, and advocates to advance practice-based recommendations for how the nation’s inequitable systems can be transformed. Their call to collective action is supported by an accessible and powerful advocacy toolkit that will grow with readers over time and with practice. The text centers the perspectives of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, with a clear focus on the effects of systemic racism, ageism, sexism, classism, and associated oppressions on early years policies and programs in the United States.

Book Features:

• Concise essays that acknowledge the demands on contemporary readers’ time.
• Authors that represent a cross section of educators, advocates, researchers, and leaders who are in dialogue with each other.
• Personal stories that illustrate how policies and systems affect people, making an urgent case for transforming early care and education policies.
• A call for action that includes tools for linking personal reflection to collective action.

Mark K. Nagasawa is director of the Straus Center for Young Children & Families at Bank Street College of Education. Lacey Peters is an assistant professor and graduate program co-coordinator for early childhood care and education at Hunter College, City University of New York. Marianne N. Bloch is professor emerita in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Beth Blue Swadener is professor emerita of justice studies and of social and cultural pedagogy in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University.