Abstract
The chapter situates the history and current practices of an early care and education program in a large urban center in the context of literature challenging hegemonic conceptualizations of early education quality grounded in restrictive understandings of child development. The chapter describes how an early care and education program in a large urban Midwest city serving predominantly African American children and families responded to an increase in the number of immigrant Latinex families they served. Administrators, parents, community, teachers, and staff organized and took actions that resulted in a reconceptualization of ‘best practices’ and ‘developmental outcomes’ to acknowledge early bilingual exposure as a desirable developmental pathway for all children.
To the children, families , teachers, administrators, and staff of CRCL, with deep gratitude.
—Luisiana and Sharon
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Notes
- 1.
Social stratification refers to the categorization of people into differential groups based on factors that include race , ethnicity , wealth, income , language , ability, and education.
- 2.
The term minoritized infers minority status as dependent on being subordinate to the dominant group politically, financially, and/or socially, rather than associating the size of the group identified as a minority and its classification as such.
- 3.
The term bilingual immersion program or BIP is used to name the particular program model adopted by the target center and meant to signify the equal standing of English and Spanish. As used by the center and throughout this chapter ‘BIP’ does not necessarily align with how this term is used in other literature. More detailed information about the BIP model is found in the Appendix.
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Appendix
Appendix
Description of the BIP Model
The center’s Bilingual Immersion Program or BIP refers to a distinct programmatic approach collaboratively designed by administrators , teachers , staff families , and members of the larger community . The following principles and beliefs guide the design and early implementation of BIP:
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A conceptual rationale for program that highlights the development and learning of the whole child, and intentionally sees children as capable of successfully learning more than one language from birth.
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Use of the continuity of care model in the infant and toddler classrooms and deemed essential for the sustainability of robust collaboration, responsive care, learning , and support of all infants and toddlers .
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Planned use of Spanish and English across oral and written modes of communication across the center.
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Curricula predicated on an understanding of empirical knowledge about early brain development, dual language development, and relationship -based practice that is purposefully responsive to the particulars of the context of the program.
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Classroom team teaching that includes a monolingual English-dominant teacher working in partnership with at least one bilingual teacher in each classroom .
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In the case of infant and toddler classrooms preferably two bilingual teachers . Dual language exposure for all children in the center, preferably from teachers who serve as native Spanish/English-speaking models.
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Balanced use of Spanish and English in classrooms aligned with following parameters:
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New concepts introduced in child’s home language
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Books and print material in the classroom in both languages
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Music and songs in both languages (including weekly music lessons taught by an outside instructor)
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Teacher talk and daily activities in both languages
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Continued support for the knowledge and skills of the teachers and other staff through professional development and supervision that promotes relationship -based practice and trust among administrators , teachers , families , and staff.
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Developing and sustaining strong venues of communication among staff and families /children.
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Implementation of BIP model as part of teacher and program evaluation and monitoring and part of recurrent opportunities to reflect.
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Meléndez, L., Syc, S. (2021). Rethinking an Early Care and Education Program: Responding to Linguistic Diversity. In: Kinkead-Clark, Z., Escayg, KA. (eds) Reconceptualizing Quality in Early Childhood Education, Care and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69013-7_5
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