Promoting Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity in Early Childhood

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