High-Quality ECE Practices in Low-Resource Settings: Lessons for all, by Junlei Li, Ph.D.

As someone who cares deeply about the work you do with young children, you might have wrestled with some big questions about how to offer the most impactful experiences, like:

Where do you look for high-quality early childhood practices? How do you know when you have found them? Do you rely on assessments on a clipboard or follow protocols in binders and manuals or do you insist on walking through a place where children and adults are and get a “gut feeling” about that sort of thing? And what do you do when the numbers and the “gut feeling” do not match – and what’s on paper and what’s in front of our eyes (and hearts) do not tell the same story about quality? Quality matters, of course; how we define and measure quality also matters, and where we look for and find quality especially matters.

These are big questions with which early educators, program leaders, coaches, policy makers, and consultants constantly grapple as they seek to do more than just right by young children. Join this practical and inspirational webinar presented by early childhood researcher, Junlei Li, Ph.D. to explore how you can identify the practices that support children even where/when resources are meager. In this session, you will:

• Re-examine long-held assumptions about the relationship between “resources” and “quality ( and quality ratings).”

• Introduce practical and theoretical approaches that help us identify and describe high-quality practices in low-resource settings.

• Explore what lessons we can re-apply to understand quality everywhere, support early childhood professions, and envision policies that appreciate people more than “stuff.”