Books

Goffin’s review of what she labels a ‘defining moment‘ for the care and education of young children in our country is indeed provocative. She convincingly argues that the time has come for all of us involved in this complex field to resolve those issues crucial to the future of early childhood education.”
-Lilian G. Katz, professor emerita, Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative, University of Illinois (2013 publication date)

Moving Beyond False Choices for Early Childhood Educators—A Compendium
By: Stacie G. Goffin and Laura Bornfreund

At a time when the importance of children’s access to high-quality early childhood education has gained national attention – across the states and in presidential debates – the early childhood education field is wrestling with the entangled issues of preparation and education, compensation and status, and workforce diversity and inclusivity. Over the past several decades, these issues have become ever more intertwined and competitive, creating a thorny knot increasingly difficult to disentangle.

To tackle how the early childhood education’s thorny knot might be disentangled, New America engaged early childhood education leaders, researchers, educators, and policy advocates to assess the field’s dilemma and propose new possibilities. In 2018, it launched Moving Beyond False Choices for Early Childhood Educators, a blog series that delved into the complexities, frictions, and mistrust embedded in the interplay of those issues. The series catalyzed a fieldwide conversation, prompting the opportunity for this expanded conversation in Moving Beyond False Choices for Early Childhood Educators—A Compendium.
Available from New America

Ready or Not: Early Care and Education’s Leadership Choices — Twelve Years Later

The first edition of Ready or Not: Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education (Ready or Not) made its mark in 2007 by boldly calling for a field-wide response to the question of “What defines and bounds early care and education (ECE) as a field of practice?” A dozen years later, this unanswered question remains pivotal to ECE’s understanding of its present and its aspirations for the future. Because the stakes for children and the ECE field have become increasingly urgent, Goffin and Washington reunited to revisit the field’s readiness to address its six field-defining questions. More than ever, these questions call for answers. Ready or Not, Early Care and Education’s Leadership Choices Twelve Years Later makes the case — yet once again — that the ECE field needs to tackle its adaptive and systemic challenges. Nothing less will enable it to shift the field’s developmental trajectory, fulfill its potential, and satisfy its obligations to children, families, and society.
Order from Teachers Colledge Press and Amazon or your favorite bookstore.

 

Professionalizing Early Childhood Education as a Field of Practice: A Guide to the Next Era

Where do you begin the important conversation about professionalizing early childhood education (ECE) as a field of practice? This book is the tool you need to advance the conversation and shape the future of ECE. Professionalizing Early Childhood Education as a Field of Practice provides an overview of the topic, a participant guide, a conversation workbook, and a facilitator guide to move the conversation forward. Each part supports deep thought and creative discussions to make the overall conversation meaningful and productive for the entire profession.

Don’t just sit back and listen – be a part of this important conversation!
Available from Redleaf Press and Amazon.

 

Leading for Our Profession — Early Childhood Education For A New Era

Presents a leadership manifesto. Contending that we are at a field-defining moment, it argues that early childhood education as a field of practice should: (1) assume responsibility for the competent practice of its practitioners and for facilitating positive results for children and their learning;(2) formally organize as a profession to realize consistency in practice across sites and program types; and (3) develop field-wide leadership, thereby diminishing reliance on public policy for defining the field’s purpose and structure – a dependency that has fostered programmatic and systemic fragmentation, uneven performance, and weak leadership capacity as a field of practice.
For reviews, go to Teachers College Record [http://www.tcrecord.org/] and Amazon.com.
Identified as a “best seller” by Teachers College Press Fall/Winter 2014-2015 Early Childhood and Elementary School Education Fall/Winter catalog.
Available from Teachers College Press and Amazon.


Ready or Not: Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education

This is a pivotal moment in early childhood education’s evolution. Does the field have the collective will to engage in the adaptive and transformative work required to guide its future? Ready or Not: Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education calls the question: “What defines and bounds early care and education as a field?”, galvanizing the field to seize this defining moment in ECEs history as a field of practice. And, now it’s joined by Early Childhood Education for a New Era: Leading for Our Profession!

Their “intervention itself is artful from a leadership perspective” from the Foreword by Marty Linsky and Ronald Heifetz.

July 2011: Ready or Not named book that “shaped our profession” by readers of ExchangeEveryDay.
Available from Redleaf Press and Amazon.

Goffin is comfortable with being provacative. She invites us to a challenging and perhaps difficult conversation. As you read, you can feel her passion and respect for the field and its history. You canalso sense the urgency. We need to begin these fieldwide discussions.It’s time. “
-Deb Flis, Director, Connecticut Accreditation Facilitation Project,Connecticut Charts a Course (2013 publication date)

Still More Publications

AVAILABLE NOW!
How the Roles of Early Childhood Caregivers and Educators Came To Be Marginalized:
The Influences of Gender and Race, Developmental Psychology, and Public Policy.
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