Strengthening the Evidence Base for Culturally Relevant Interventions in Early Childhood Care and Education

Update on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and SRCD Meetings

#SRCDCultureEarlyInterventions

Early childhood care and education interventions are increasingly relied on worldwide to improve the health, language, play, “school readiness”, and caregiver relationships of children with diverse cultural, ethnic, economic, and linguistic backgrounds from low to middle income countries and communities with minority status.   These children are rarely represented in scientific research and discourse.  Are the best interests of these children and their families being served by these interventions? Are the theoretical and methodological assumptions regarding teaching, learning and early child development underlying the global proliferation of interventions valid, relevant, and useful? 

The workshop, hosted by the Society for Research in Child Development and supported by the Spencer Foundation, provides a collaborative platform for productive dialog about the strongest ways to conceptualize, design, implement and evaluate programs to serve diverse populations around the world -- ways that are culturally sensitive and responsive to community strengths and needs.  Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with experience and expertise in issues related to interventions and to cultural aspects of human development are participating from across the developmental, social and policy sciences and– especially important – from the countries and communities around the world affected by interventions.

This is a working meeting to prepare guidelines for future intervention efforts to serve children, families, and communities worldwide in culturally sensitive and meaningful ways. The workshop is organized to provide a coordinated consideration of topics across sessions. 

Workshop participants, because of their experience and expertise, are able to make significant contributions to issues taken up by the workshop as a whole.  For this reason, participants may be asked to take on different roles as speakers, discussants, facilitators, or resources.  It is important, as a result, for attendees to commit to participating fully and completely in the two-day event.  Session leaders will reach out to you directly to discuss these possibilities. 

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Questions? Email programoffice@srcd.org.