Coming to America for the Good of a Deaf Child: The Case of Joy

Families of children with disabilities must make difficult choices about providing health and educational services that their children need and finding an environment where they can be socially accepted. In this study, parents from Kenya whose daughter is deaf weigh their desire to provide the best life for her against their desire to use their professional expertise to help people in Kenya. This article examines the role of cultural beliefs about disability in this family\u27s experience. It highlights issues that deserve further research to learn more about how to meet immigrants\u27 needs in special education, especially immigrant families from African countries with children with disabilities

Assessment and Curriculum Modification for Grade 1 Students with Disabilities in Tanzania: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this study was: 1) to analyze aggregated student assessment data from grade 1 students at a public government primary school in Northern Tanzania to determine the efficacy of a curriculum based screen tool, and 2)to examine current practices of inclusion for Tanzanian children in the early grades

The Early Intervention (EI) Scholars Program

The University of Massachusetts Boston has developed an integrated, research-based early intervention concentration in our Early Education and Care Inclusive Settings (EECIS) bachelor’s degree program. The program involves collaboration with partners in early childhood education (EC) and early intervention (EI) in the Greater Boston region; addresses the need for more high quality, culturally and linguistically diverse early intervention specialists

Cultural Beliefs and Attitudes about Disability in East Africa

This interpretive literature review of cultural beliefs and attitudes about disability in East Africa identified themes in four categories including (a) the causes of disability, (b) attitudes towards disability, (c) treatment of people with disabilities, and (d) language about disability. Referencing the medical, social, and pluralistic frameworks for conceptualizing disability, the authors sought to compare and contrast East Africa with perspectives about disability common in the developed world. Implications for policy and practice are discussed

Focusing a New Lens: STEM Professional Development for Early Education and Care Educators and Programs

The purpose of this groundbreaking grassroots report is to engage early childhood educators and policy makers in understanding the urgency and importance of early childhood educator professional development in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). This report focuses on the teaching of children birth to five years old and out of school time students. STEM…Science…Technology…Engineering…Math. These are not curriculum topics that early childhood educators traditionally call to mind when planning activities. However, the evidence supporting the importance and emphasis on STEM education in early childhood is overwhelming. Children are engineers, problem solvers, and collaborators at heart- with boundless potential for leadership, creativity and innovation. Filling their days building and creating with blocks and manipulatives, wooden sticks and Legos, finger-paints and clay, they naturally seek solutions to challenges, discuss multiple options and, when necessary, start over! Essential to supporting, extending and deepening children’s STEM learning is the presence in classrooms of well-prepared educators, in both content and appropriate instructional strategies. Thus, this report urges educators to view their role, the children they teach and the early childhood environment through a powerful “new lens,” one that focuses on STEM education and professional development

The Post Master\u27s Certificate Program in Early Education Research, Policy, and Practice

The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) has selected the University of Massachusetts Boston to lead this innovative initiative. The development of a Post Master’s Certificate Program in Early Education Research, Policy, and Practice will build much-needed capacity for advanced graduate study in early education in Massachusetts. This model program is designed to address the demand for new leadership in the rapidly advancing field of early education and care

The Development and Use of Online Modules for Professional Development in Early Childhood Education

The goals of this program is to examine the role of online training modules in professional development for early childhood educators, to understand the technological capacity of the early childhood workforce for using online professional development and to examine the challenges/barriers to the field in using online professional development and technology-mediated learning

The Early Intervention (EI) Scholars Program

The University of Massachusetts Boston has developed an integrated, research-based early intervention concentration in our Early Education and Care Inclusive Settings (EECIS) bachelor’s degree program. The program involves collaboration with partners in early childhood education (EC) and early intervention (EI) in the Greater Boston region; addresses the need for more high quality, culturally and linguistically diverse early intervention specialists

What You Can Accomplish in a Year: Head Start Teachers' Decisions about Teaching

This ethnographic study of teacher decision making in an Appalachian Head Start program suggests that teachers use personal and practical knowledge to inform their daily teaching while professional experiences appear less influential. Teachers are also influenced by their relationships in the community as they make use of community funds of knowledge to inform how and what they teach. Finally, external influences including administrative decisions and the social, economic and political circumstances in their community and in society influenced how they make instructional decisions. The importance of a deep understanding of how teachers make decisions about classroom practice is apparent. Findings from the study are discussed as they relate to Head Start policies and practice and how curriculum change may occur