by Heidi Given, Catherine Tighe, & Lisa Kuh
In 2010 Debbie LeeKeenan, Lisa Kuh, and Heidi Given received an SRI learning grant. At the time, Debbie, Lisa, and Heidi worked together at the Eliot-Pearson Children’s School at Tufts University where Debbie was the director (she has since retired), Lisa taught Preschool (now at the University of New Hampshire) and Heidi taught Kindergarten and coordinated the school’s professional development (she is still at Eliot-Pearson). They had been using protocols in their School-Wide Inquiry meetings to look at classroom documentation and student work, finding the protocols to be an empowering tool for viewing and discussing classroom dilemmas, as well as modifying and enhancing classroom practice towards more equitable and responsive teaching and learning. However, they knew there were early childhood educators who did not have access to this work either because their schools were not ready to adopt this professional development or because they, like many early childhood educators, worked in very small settings with only one or two other colleagues.
The grant was multifaceted and helped to achieve some important goals. First, we wanted to fund a summer institute for early childhood educators. This institute just completed its third summer with Gene Thompson-Grove facilitating and Lisa Kuh co-facilitating for the first two summers. We were able to offer over 12 people full or partial scholarships for the coaches’ institutes, made possible through the SRI learning grant funds we were awarded.
A second goal was to convene a range of early childhood educators from the greater Boston metropolitan area and beyond who wanted to come together to practice SRI-inspired work. We call ourselves the Early Childhood Professional Development Consortium. The consortium provides a space for public school, family childcare, private school, head start, childcare center, lab school, teacher training, and college level educators to share and discuss student work, documentation, and professional dilemmas. Early childhood educators are often not included in or able to bring the type of “student work”, shared in multi-grade level professional communities. We wanted to provide a forum for early childhood educators to bring many forms of classroom documentation such as video of children’s play, and professional dilemmas that speak to the reality of life in the early childhood classroom.
We meet at Tufts University over six Saturday mornings throughout the school year, gathering anywhere from 12-20 people who share food, conversation, and student work from 8:30-11:45, usually doing two protocols at each gathering. While the participants vary each month, there is a core group who attend regularly. As members have done summer coaches institutes and brought their friends and colleagues, the group has repopulated itself even as others have moved or left the area. In addition, with more coaches, the facilitation duties are distributed throughout the group. One teacher from the first summer institute, Catherine Tighe – a kindergarten teacher at the Healey School in Somerville, MA – is now a co-leader of the Consortium with Heidi Given and Lisa Kuh.
Our third goal was to collect data related to work with early childhood educators. Lisa Kuh, in her role as an assistant professor in the Family Studies department at the University of New Hampshire, recorded each meeting, collected written post-meeting reflection sheets, and surveyed participants after two years of meetings. This data is currently being analyzed.
This consortium model has enabled many people to be exposed to work who might not otherwise have experienced it. Early childhood educators, often a marginalized group, are not often part of ongoing professional learning communities as part of their regular work life. Participants report a renewed sense of agency and intellectual community they have not found in other professional development experiences. We will continue to meet as long as there are educators who need and want to engage in conversations that matter.
Want to know more? Heidi Given (Heidi.Given@tufts.edu), Catherine Tighe (catherine.tighe@gmail.com), & Lisa Kuh (lisakuh@gmail.com)
