Promoting Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity is a two-year action research study of the formation of regional coalitions of researchers, policymakers, practitioners, evaluators, advocates, and funders to promote social inclusion and respect for diversity (SI & RD) in early childhood education in the U.S.
The role of the regional coalitions is to support, strengthen and refine already existing SI & RD efforts with young children in the Northwest and Rocky Mountain West (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) and the Southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi), and develop infrastructure for a more purposeful, concerted expansion of work. The project also mobilizes national organizations and other stakeholders, synthesizes and translates research findings about promoting SI & RD in early childhood, and is implementing a web-based dissemination strategy.
Following an action-research approach, the project facilitates the collective formulation and implementation of an approach, strategies, a plan for action – which may cover the areas of research, practice, policy analysis and policymaking, training and professional development, and parent involvement – a timetable for implementation, and performance indicators.
Guided by a national Advisory Council, Promoting Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity is supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
Project Publications
Advisory Council
Sybil Jordan Hampton, EdD
Former president of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF)
Jacqueline Hayden, PhD
Programme Manager, Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity
Bernard Van Leer Foundation
Jason Irizarry, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Jane Knitzer, EdD
Director, National Center for Children in Poverty
Laurie Olsen, PhD
Executive Director, California Tomorrow
Robert L. Selman, PhD
Professor, Graduate School of Education at Harvard University
Christine Sleeter, PhD
Professor Emerita, College of Professional Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay