Building Family, School, and Community Partnerships

For courses in Parents/Home-School Relations in Early Childhood Education.

This text focuses on understanding different types of family structures, cross-cultural issues that teachers need to be aware of, and building strong family/school/community relationships.  It is designed to be practical, useful, and informative for many different professionals who work with and are engaged in professional development and implementation with children and their families.  Key changes to this edition include more guidelines and strategies for teachers; expanded content on working with children and families who are experiencing poverty, homelessness, and low socioeconomic status; and new case studies throughout.  Secondary changes include Guiding Questions at the beginning of each chapter and a new Instructor's Manual and Test Bank.

Kay Wright, EdD, is Professor of Child and Family Studies in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University.  During the past 26 years of work in the field of early childhood education, she has been a preschool and kindergarten teacher, a consultant with the Kentucky Department of Education, Director of the Child Development Center at Eastern, and an early childhood teacher educator.  She was instrumental in the founding of Ecumencial Preschool and served on its board for several years.  Most recently, Dr. Wright has been involved in the implementation of the Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education Certificate for teachers preparing to work with children from birth to primary school in Kentucky.  She has served as the president of the Kentucky Association for Children Under Six and has served in a variety of service capacities through professional organizations.  She has also coordinated several state training grants and written numerous publications for the Kentucky Department of Education.  Dr. Wright has conducted many workshops at the state, local, and national levels and has authored publications in the field of early childhood education.  Her professional interests include emergent curriculum, literacy and families, and exploring the ongoing needs of families through the lifespan. 

Dolores (Dee) Stegelin, PhD, is Professor and Program Coordinator of Early Childhood Education in the Eugene T. Moore School of Education,College of Health, Education, and Human Development, at Clemson University.  Dr. Stegelin's research interests are in early childhood advocacy and policy, early literacy, parent education, public school early childhood programs, and inclusion of children with special needs.  She is the author of three textbooks, and has published in numerous professional journals.  Dr. Stegelin is the co-director of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Project at Clemson University, an interdisciplinary initiative utilizing the National Center for Educational Statistics ECKL-S database.  She is public policy chair for the South Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children; serves on the research committeeof the Association of Childhood Education International (ACEI) and on the conference committee for the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators(NAECTE) and is active in the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Lynn Hartle, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education in the Department of Child, Family, and Community Sciences at the University of Central Florida.  After 10 years as a Montessori preprimary directress, her career in higher education spans 20 years at five universities, where she has taught more than 14 different graduate and undergraduate courses, many online.  Each class is taught with consideration of the role of technology in teaching and her research interest - how to differentiate learning experiences for children typically developing and those with special needs from culturally and linguistically diverse families.  She has also been involved in grant-funded projects, the most recent of which is the U.S. Department of Education 2005 Early Childhood Educator Professional Development (ECEPD) Program Grant.  These teaching experiences grounded in research are synthesized in her first co-authored book, and in various journals.  She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and holds board positions on Readiness Coalitions and the National Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators.  She is currently the president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Technology and Young Children Interest Forum.