An Annotated Bibliography on Policy Levers to Promote Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity in Early Childhood

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Learn about our Social Inclusion & Respect for Diversity project.

This is an excerpt from the full bibliography.

This annotated bibliography includes research and policy books, articles, reports, and other resources reporting findings and lessons learned on the viability and effectiveness of various policy strategies to infuse a social inclusion and respect for diversity (SI & RD) perspective in early childhood education in the U.S.

There has been in the past two decades a proliferation of efforts to: 1) establish policies that promote teachers’ development of skills and knowledge to work with diverse children and families; attract a highly qualified, diversified early childhood workforce; 2) improve their working conditions and compensation; 3) equalize access to high quality ECE experiences; and 4) bridge the gap in child outcomes among racial, ethnic, and income groups. Equally important have been efforts to promote the formation of diversified leadership in the ECE field. These efforts are aimed in varying degrees at infusing a SI & RD perspective in ECE. Questions remain, however, regarding the quality of the research foundation in which those efforts rest; the extent to which their implementation is consistent with their underlying principles; their impact and cost-effectiveness at various levels (that is, child, peer group, family, teacher, classroom, organization, and community); their applicability and viability in different contexts; or how various policy levers are interrelated and could be used in a coordinated way to support SI & RD goals.

The bibliography presents each citation followed by a brief description, organized according to the following broad topical categories:

  • Policies that Impact on the Early Childhood Education Workforce: Training and certification; Training program accreditation; Professional standards of ethics; Recruitment and retention; Professional development;
  • Policies that Impact on the Early Childhood Education Setting: Provider program licensing; Provider program accreditation; Quality Ratings and Improvement Systems;
  • Policies that Impact on Early Childhood Education Outcomes: Early learning standards and guidelines; State assessments; and
  • Leadership in early Childhood Education.

Because of the complexities of the issues involved, this resource does not include the literature on policy levers related to language of instruction and home language, nor those related to access to and financing of early childhood education in the U.S.

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