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This study examines the types of interactions and early literacy development that occur when non-verbal 4-year-old children on the autism spectrum engage with family members in read-alouds using authentic children's literature. Findings indicate the importance of quality children's literature for read-alouds. A key implication of the study is that teachers of young children with autism need to form partnerships with family members to encourage them to engage with their children in authentic read-alouds.

This study explores common themes in recruitment and retention practices of Latinx undergraduate and graduate students that emerged across interviews of faculty in leadership positions at Institutes of Higher Education (IHE). In-depth interviews were conducted of six faculty holding leadership positions in their early childhood education programs (i.e. program chair or ECE coordinator). Faculty were selected after initial identification of the IHE as serving high percentages of Latinx students and achieving high retention rates of Latinx students. Findings include IHEs implementation of key practices faculty believe as effective, including use of culturally sustaining pedagogy and accommodation for specific challenges and barriers that Latinx students may face. These findings add to a growing base of recruitment and retention practices for IHE faculty to consider when improving and developing programs that could attract and retain Latinx students into the early childhood education field.

As early childhood educators employ technology in their classrooms, it is important to have a process to ensure that learning needs are being met.

This study was inspired by the literary elements of "cuentos tipicos" (culturally-relevant stories). The book "Prietita y la llorona" ("Prietita and the Ghost Woman") written by Anzaldua (1995) is a good example of a "cuento" that provides information about medicinal herbs and also includes "consejos" (advice). The plot stems from a well-known Mexican story that is traditionally told orally and passed on through generations. Reading this book validates the parents' background knowledge of medicinal herbs and provides a forum for their animated discussion, enthusiastic contributions, and elaboration of shared information. This context thus inspired a community of learners, which in turn facilitated the parents' participation and performance of the protocol-based literacy tasks the authors assigned them. The Family Institute for Early Literacy (FIELD) is housed on two university campuses in Texas. FIELD seeks to examine how multiple literacies from home and school interconnect to increase support for the literacy development of young children. In this study, Mexican-American and Mexican immigrant parents were invited to attend a weeklong workshop with their three-to-four-year-old child. FIELD primarily seeks to hear what parents' perceptions are about the type of learning that the school requires for their young child as well as to identify specific family cultural practices that could support academic learning. The results of this study indicated that parents of Mexican heritage performed and shared a range of literate behaviors in relevant and authentic ways with their young children. While the findings are limited to this specific sample of parents and young children, the results highlight the distributive effects of using culturally-relevant literature to validate parents' background knowledge. (Contains 1 figure and 2 notes.)

Teacher beliefs are mediated and lived in the dialectic of teacher education and teacher practice. We reframe this dialectic of "teacher" preparation as "faculty" preparation, as many faculty are not prepared for the rigors of teaching, and most are not trained in the ethics of their profession. We propose a critical model of faculty development that primes teacher educators to cultivate authentic teacher beliefs and professional integrity. The model embraces five components that: 1) situate faculty development in professional and ethical standards; 2) align faculty diversity competencies with the institutional mission; 3) embrace guiding principles for undergraduate education; 4) contextualize faculty development; and 5) challenge through reflective discourse. (Contains 1 figure.)

Many young children of Mexican heritage enter U.S. schools with knowledge of two language systems and emergent biliterate abilities. Bilingualism in young children may go unnoticed when instructional practices favor English. This case study describes how Lucía's bilingualism and emergent biliteracy parallel competencies essential to literacy development. The language samples highlight the influence of adult-mediation interactions in everyday conversations as well as during playful dialogues, characterized by the incorporation of fantasy and symbolic play. The findings show how adult-mediated dialogues challenged the young bilingual to engage her metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness when positioned to meet communicative goals and to solve conceptual conflicts, both verbal and written. These opportunities guided the young child to also critically think about language and to expand her notions about literacy. We draw implications about how educators can leverage these metacognitive and metalinguistic competencies as educational resources.

Professional development, which results in sustained transformative change, requires that teachers engage in critical reflection regarding teaching practices. In this study, a group of five bilingual and generalist early childhood teachers engaged in a journey in which they elected to try to reconstruct their beliefs and practices about teaching and learning. In response to a school district's needs, these teachers were enrolled as a cohort in an early childhood graduate program that served as part of their professional development endeavor. The teachers used reflection and ongoing dialogue that bridged theory and practice as they raised questions about their daily practices in relation to theoretical perspectives. We provide a glimpse of these teachers' ongoing transformative journeys and provide suggestions for early childhood teachers to engage in sustained professional development.

The literature on autism describes many different types of therapy techniques and teaching strategies. Most are interventions that help a child with autism move from one developmental level to the next and learn to manage his or her behavior. Although important, such strategies and therapies do not examine how a family's cultural practices may help a child with the acquisition of language and social skills such as interaction, communication, play, and joint attention, which is the ability to coordinate attention socially with the caregiver or parent. In this article, the author shares her family's story with a goal of offering ideas for using families' funds of knowledge to help children on the autism spectrum develop language and social skills through playful interactions. She believes that children from all cultures and children with different abilities can benefit from their families' use of their cultural knowledge to support development of language and social skills. When teachers and therapists know and understand children's cultural background, they can provide experiences that capture children's attention, particularly the interest of those on the autism spectrum. Tips for working with families of children with autism are presented.

Given increasing numbers of young culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CLD) children across the United States, it is crucial to prepare early childhood teachers to create high-quality environments that facilitate the development of all children. The Early Childhood Ecology Scale-Revised (ECES-R) has been developed as a reflective tool to help early childhood teacher candidates examine their beliefs concerning classroom ecology. Using cultural responsivity and classroom management theories as the theoretical framework, the authors posit that the ECES-R identifies five dimensions that promote a high-quality, culturally responsive classroom ecology. These include the sociocognitive, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, socioemotional, and sociophysical dimensions. Evidence for reliability and validity was established. Factor analysis supported the five proposed dimensions, with the identification of an additional dimension: sociocomfort. (Contains 1 table.)

Spanish-speaking, Mexican American parents participated in a literacy workshop in which they created short, personal letters called "cartitas de carino" for their children. This paper reports on the content of their texts, which included drawings and messages that reflected the cultural norms and traditions of the families. Using a socio-historical lens, the authors show how the parents' "cartitas de carino" functioned as a tool of cultural and social mediation by communicating their affection and emotional support as well as the scholastic and behavioral expectations parents had for their children. This population (i.e., Spanish-speaking Latinos of the working poor class) is frequently relegated to studies on cultural, social, or educational deficiency. Based on the evidence from the "cartitas de carino," we affirm that Mexican parents, irrespective of their prior schooling or economic status, value literacy as a tool for cultural transmission as well as a form of self-expression, and they readily engage in literacy practices with their children when afforded the opportunity. (Contains 4 figures.)

This study identified Mexican immigrant and Mexican American families' common values and beliefs about preschoolers' socioemotional development in a low-income urban school, which offers a dual language program in South Texas. Approximately 65 families participated in the Family Institute for Early Literacy Development (FIELD), which focused on the social skills expected from children as they enter public preschools. Findings show five socioemotional values within the home that are aligned with research based prosocial behaviors needed for school readiness. Thus, findings imply the importance of supporting preschoolers' social development in school through funds of knowledge. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article describes the significance of 3 entities--the family, the school, and the university--working together to assist young Latino children succeed in school. In an effort to increase parental and teacher communication regarding school expectations, the Family Institute for Early Literacy Development was created. It uses principles of funds of knowledge as well as the ecological systems theory. Findings indicate that this type of collaboration promotes positive interactions and helps to decrease teacher candidates' and teachers' deficit-thinking beliefs regarding parental involvement in children's education. (Contains 1 footnote.)

With the increase of Latino preschoolers, it is pressing that early childhood teachers are prepared to create a high quality environment in which all children can succeed. Using the frameworks of cultural responsiveness and classroom management, we developed the Early Childhood Ecology Scale (ECES) as an observational and reflective tool to examine teacher candidates' notions of classroom ecology. We proposed five dimensions: sociocognitive, sociocultural, sociolinguistic, socioemotional, and sociophysical. Reliability and factor indices supported four of the five proposed dimensions. Mean differences are noted between the self-assessment and observational results. (Contains 3 tables.)

Building on the home cultural practices related to science can facilitate scientific literacy development of preschoolers. Using a sociocognitive and sociocultural approach and "funds of knowledge" as a theoretical framework, this article describes how Mexican American parents and young children identified the science concepts and knowledge learned from common activities found in their homes through the Family Institute for Early Literacy Development. Science skills and concepts were found in many activities related to Mexican American cultural practices such as gardening, cooking and home remedies. Parents were informed of the type of scientific readiness knowledge that schools expect children to bring from home, and in turn parents were able to explain to their children those concepts during the institute and at home. The success of the institute is founded on the opportunity given to parents to understand and implement school expectations for their young children. (Contains 7 figures.)

For Week of the Young Child, a Texas school offers a bilingual parent institute to nurture school-family relationships, demonstrate and build on school respect for home cultures, and foster community awareness of early childhood education. Families recognize the learning for children inherent in daily routines, learn teaching techniques, and feel a greater connection with school. Teachers gain new appreciation for parents' abilities, creativity, and knowledge.

A local university worked with a Texas elementary school serving mostly Mexican Americans to implement a two-way bilingual program, provide inservice and graduate course work for faculty, provide parent training, connect with the community, and provide field experiences for undergraduate bilingual education teachers. Test scores and community attitudes towards the school have improved. (Contains 61 references.) (TD)

Investigated Mexican American cultural traits displayed by young children during sociodramatic play in a bilingual preschool classroom. Cultural traits identified as funds of knowledge include language, values, beliefs, ways of discipline, household care, and value of education. Findings underscore the inadequacy of representing cultures through material symbols and the value of play as an indicator of children's cultural awareness. (JPB)

Describes a bilingual prekindergarten teacher's approach to oral language development with children who are Spanish-language dominant, considering the links between her approach and constructivist learning theory. Describes how children in the classroom interact socially with adults and peers to develop oral language skills. (JPB)

A microethnographic study examined the language functions and cultural traits of Mexican American children during sociodramatic play in a bilingual preschool classroom. Findings showed that children learn how to use social language by having the opportunity to practice it freely but with guidance. Suggestions were devised for evaluating children's social language. (Author/KB)

A study in a south Texas preschool found that Mexican American children, when given the opportunity to engage in sociodramatic play, displayed various language functions needed for the development of early literacy skills. The preschoolers created elaborate monologues and dialogue in their native language (sometimes in their second language), patterned after their cultural knowledge. (Contains 42 references.) (Author/SV)

Caretakers teach young children how to enact particular cultural practices (Heath, 2002). It is in this way that the three- or four-year-old Mexican-American child quickly learns from teachers and peers [...]

This article deals with the role of parents in early childhood education. To help children develop a healthy attitude toward school, relationships must be fostered between home and school. Teachers and administrators need to take the time to build and nurture relationships with children's families. To build collaborative relationships, schools must allow families to share their expertise. When there is incongruence between school and home, the child pays the price. Parents want their children to become successful in life and recognize the role of education in determining that success.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of COVID-19 successes and the failures.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several articles in the issue on topics including the power of early childhood teachers; and children's learning.

The article offers information on the continue advocating and educating the public on the importance of early childhood education.

An introduction is presented which discusses articles within the issue on topics about the importance of transitional objects in early childhood.

The article outlines the basic considerations of developmentally appropriate practice such as knowing about child development and learning.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including professional development of teachers through teachers book club, and guidance steps for teachers on minimizing children's challenging behaviors.