Occasional Paper Series - Volume 2024 - Number 51 - Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity at the Center

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rhys

Occasional Paper Series Issue 51 reconceptualizes early care and education (ECE) quality by centering equity, with guest editors Mark Nagasawa and Cristina Medellin-Paz framing the collection. Building on 25 years of interrogation by Dahlberg, Moss, and Pence, the issue challenges assumptions about universal childhood and the homogenization of ECE as a “factory-ization” that erodes cultural pluralism and equity goals. It highlights the need for “beyond quality” praxis grounded in educators’ democratic ethics, supportive partnerships, and collective action to advance liberatory alternatives.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages100

Reading Time4 h 12 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity at the Center

Contributions

Learning Stories as Assessment for Liberation

Be a Tree: Reconceptualizing Early Education Through the Roots and Fruits Methodology of Teaching and Learning

Stories From Three Native Hawaiian Alaka’i About the Education of Young Children

Redefining Quality to Center the Capabilities of Young Children

“I Want to Say the Right Thing”: Developing Translingual Literacy Practices Through Early Care Educator and University Researcher Partnerships

“Pour Into the Teachers:” Learning From Immigrant Women of Color Through Conversationson “Quality” in Urban Early Education and Care

The Radical Refuge: Reconceptualizing Teacher Quality Liberated From the Historical Commodification of Latina and Black Women in Early Childhood Education

Occasional Paper Series Volume 2024 Number 51 Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity at the Center Article 1 May 2024 Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity atthe Center Follow this and additional works at: [https://educate.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series](https://educate.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series) Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, and the Educational Methods Commons Recommended Citation (2024) . Reconceptualizing quality early care and education with equity at the center. Occasional Paper Series,(51) . DOI: [https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1539](https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1539) This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Educate. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Paper Series by an authorized editor of Educate. For more information, please contact [kfreda@bankstreet.edu](kfreda@bankstreet.edu). | Occasional Paper Series | 5. 2024 | | --- | --- | | | 51 | Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity at the Center Guest Editors Mark Nagasawa Cristina Medellin-Paz Contributors Helen Frazier Virginia Dearani Charis-Ann Sole M. Nālani Mattox-Primacio Shin Ae Han Soyoung Park Sunmin Lee Nnenna Odim Jennifer Keys Adair Angie Zapata Mary Adu-Gyamfi Adrianna González Ybarra Seung Eun McDevitt Louella Sween Vanessa Rodriguez Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity at the Center 3 Mark Nagasawa and Cristina Medellin-Paz CONTRIBUTIONS Learning Stories as Assessment for Liberation Helen Frazier Be a Tree: Reconceptualizing Early Education Through the Roots and Fruits Methodology of Teaching and Learning Virginia Dearani Stories From Three Native Hawaiian Alaka’i About the Education of Young Children Charis-Ann Sole, M. Nālani Mattox-Primacio, and Shin Ae Han Redefining Quality to Center the Capabilities of Young Children Soyoung Park, Sunmin Lee, Nnenna Odim, and Jennifer Keys Adair 14 25 37 50 “I Want to Say the Right Thing”: Developing Translingual Literacy Practices Through Early Care Educator and University Researcher Partnerships Angie Zapata, Mary Adu-Gyamfi, and Adrianna González Ybarra “Pour Into the Teachers:” Learning From Immigrant Women of Color Through Conversationson “Quality” in Urban Early Education and Care Seung Eun McDevitt and Louella Sween The Radical Refuge: Reconceptualizing Teacher Quality Liberated From the Historical Commodification of Latina and Black Women in Early Childhood Education Vanessa Rodriguez 62 73 84 Introduction Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care and Education with Equity at the Center Mark Nagasawa and Cristina Medellin-Paz THERE CAN BE NO QUALITY IN ECE WITHOUT RESPECTING EDUCATORS Issue 51 of the Bank Street Occasional Papers Series is a response to Gunilla Dahlberg, Peter Moss, and Alan Pence’s 25-year interrogation of the concept of quality in early childhood education (ECE)(Dahlberg et al., 1999, 2013, 2023). Their groundbreaking work has called early childhood educators to question deeply held assumptions about the universality of childhood and how these shape the standardization of practices in early childhood settings around the world. They have argued that the homogenization of ECE practices is a factory-ization of early childhood that undermines cultural pluralism and the field’s equity aspirations. This raises an imperative to explore ideas and practices that go “beyond quality,” particularly through what Dahlberg and colleagues have called the “ethics of an encounter.” In essence, these ethical encounters are instances where early childhood educators practice democracy, including navigating conflicts, thereby creating equity-centered change through their small, day-to-day interactions and meaning

FAQs

What perspectives and questions guide the issue’s approach to defining quality?

The editors foreground questions about who participates in defining quality, whether multiple understandings exist, and how context shapes the formation of the quality concept.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rhys