Leticia Angel is a bilingual kindergarten teacher in Chicago Public Schools. Studying for a master’s in early childhood education wasn’t on her radar – until she heard about Illinois State University’s Early Childhood Education – Faculty Preparation (ECE-FP) program.
A year later, she is in the first 25-student cohort. They will graduate in August with a master’s degree after completing the 15-month online grant-funded program.
“I had never heard of a program with that unique (early childhood) focus,” Angel said. “The academic support provided through academic advisors and a writing assistant has been tremendous. I never felt as if I was navigating this alone.”
More than 70 applied for the cohort made up of a diverse group of early childhood teachers and professionals. Last year, early childhood professor Dr. Miranda Lin was awarded a grant of more than $910,000 by the Illinois Board of Higher Education to support the ongoing education of early childhood teachers.
“The goal is to support talented early education teachers, so they can become higher education faculty,” Lin said.
With more faculty, more early childhood teachers can be trained. The program was designed to be inclusive, supporting those who are working in education full time. Along with covering tuition and fees, additional expenses, such as laptops and childcare, were covered.
The program attracted preschool and early childhood educators and professionals from throughout the state, along with those working in teacher preparation for school districts. One of the goals was to create a diverse cohort, said Dr. Erin Quast, an associate professor and instructor in the program. She taught the course, Student Diversity and Educational Practices, and is instructing the cohort in their master’s research projects.
“One of the overarching goals is to diversify the teaching force in early childhood,” she said. “We need more teachers of color, more teachers who speak languages other than English, and more teachers who teach in a variety of contexts throughout Illinois. We need more perspectives and voices in the field of education, and this is going to help at the teacher preparation level.”
The intention of the grant is to create a pipeline of teachers at the community college level. The seasoned educators are researching a wide range of topics this summer, from play-based learning to teacher recruitment and retention, looking at mentoring and teacher burnout. Those in dual language immersion programs or supporting multilinguals learners are learning more about how to cultivate writing and oral language skills. Some are looking at the experiences of newcomer students, those entering a community from another country.
Guadalupe Hernandez teaches second grade in a dual language program in Chicago Public Schools. It would have been impossible for her to pursue a master’s without an online program, she said. She hopes to provide the same kind of support she received from ISU faculty to her clinical and classroom students.
“I have clinical students and I knew this program would help me guide them. It was also important for me, as a Latina, to have minority professors. I hope that I can teach an ECE (early childhood education) class and be that support I received for other minority students.”
She would like to teach a course for future early childhood teachers, and Quast believes she’s ready.
“Lupe is doing some fascinating work around creating a more responsive curriculum, particularly among multilingual students, and newcomer populations,” she said.
All of the research being done by the cohort will help those in the field, from teacher preparation faculty to teachers in the classroom, Quast said.
“The reason their work is so interesting and important is it really lends credibility to research that is on the ground. They have a variety of experiences. They’re engaging with early childhood students and that really helps us as teachers.”
“I have learned so much given the wide variety of experiences the cohort members bring to the classes and coursework. It helps me think differently about the problems that I am interested in tackling in my own work. These master students have such valuable knowledge about education. They’ve been living many of the issues that we’re talking about, but their voices don’t always get centered.”
Cohort member Emily Weyl is a kindergarten teacher near Bloomington. She plans to continue teaching, but also work with student teachers and clinical students. Eventually she would like to become a clinical supervisor for student teachers or an instructional coach. “I have learned so much throughout the program,” she said. “I have learned that strategies for teaching adult learners don’t have to be complex, and many of the strategies we use with ECE (early childhood education) students can be successful with college students as well.”
