Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The path I pursue in my education is important because once I have earned my master’s degree it will give me the background, knowledge, experience, and credentials to inspire and mentor other early childhood educators in finding opportunities to incorporate positive strategies that promote diversity awareness into their classroom, and to show them ways to advocate for diversity and equity within their comfort zone. The purpose of mentoring is to accelerate development of new teachers; to ensure that new teachers are equipped with the knowledge and skills to meaningfully and purposefully engage children in their learning; and to have significant influence on the development of teachers as teaching professionals (Early Childhood Development Agency, 2016).

The Head Start program has always been dear to me. My girls attended Head Start and my involvement in Head Start as a parent lead to 24 years of employment within the Head Start agency.

Head Start’s goal is to provide all-inclusive safe environment that supports children’s diversity and that focus on the development of social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and linguistics domains. Children's preparation for their next environment or school-readiness is facilitated by professionals in the early childhood field and based on developmentally age-appropriate curriculums and the Early Head Start Model.

The Community Development Institute of Head Start offers career opportunities as a Mentor Teacher. The Mentor role is critical in guiding new teachers to further develop their planning, instruction, and content knowledge. Mentors help orient new teachers to their school community and to teaching in general. Mentor teachers will also serve as emotional supports for this challenging phase of a teacher’s career.

The Mentor role is critical in guiding new teachers to further develop their planning, instruction, and content knowledge. Mentors help orient new teachers to their school community and to teaching in general. Mentor teachers will also serve as emotional supports for this challenging phase of a teacher’s career. The requirement for this position are a BA in ECE , Child Development or other related degree with at least 2 years of experience working with young children and families (Community Development Institute, n.d.).

The North Carolina Early Foundation has a vison that each North Carolina child has a strong foundation for life-long health, education, and well-being supported by a comprehensive, equitable birth-to-eight ecosystem. Their mission is to ensure equitable access to opportunity and success for every child by the end of third grade. Their goal is to effectively communicating the importance of early childhood investments, focusing on racial equity and why it is critical to close the opportunity gap for children of color in their earliest years, lifting up community and family voices to guide decision making, and engaging businesses and elected officials to champion for early care and education. This website did not have an area for job or career opportunities but listed many options on how to join them.

• Support our work with your donation.

• Stay up to date on early learning developments by subscribing to our newsletter.

• Participate in our webinars. Archived webinars and other videos are available on YouTube.

• Host a business-focused presentation and discussion for Family Forward NC. Email us to get started.

• Become a Pathways Partner. Join a network of diverse leaders working across disciplines, sectors and systems.

SCRIPT-NC is a program that supports community colleges in North Carolina to better prepare early childhood educators to meet the needs of each and every child in their communities. The program partners with select North Carolina community colleges to enhance coursework and practical experiences in early childhood programs by incorporating evidence-based and competency based practices that support the inclusion of children with disabilities and who are culturally, and ethnically diverse (SCRIPT-NC, 2021). .

SCRIPT-NC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs and through a partnership with Frank Porter Graham Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, a team of technical assistance specialists helps the faculty “assess, enhance, and redesign courses” to better prepare early educators to work with children from diverse cultural, linguistic, and ability backgrounds. The focus is on incorporating evidence-based practices, the specific educational programs and intervention strategies that have been validated through research, into the courses and syllabi.

FPG's Technical Assistance (TA) Division is dedicated to building system capacity to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) and, ultimately, ensure optimal outcomes, for the most vulnerable young children. The technical assistance specialist sparked my interest because the technical assistants go into the school and redesign curriculum so that it addresses diverse cultural, linguistic, and abilities in early childhood programs. Applying for this position is through University of North Carolina Chapel Hill but there were no available job listing.

References

Early Childhood Development Agency. (2016). Mentoring matters. https://www.ecda.gov.sg/Documents/ECDA%20Mentoring%20Matters%20E-Book.pdf

Community Development Institute of Head Start. (n.d.). Our positions. https://www.cdihscareers.org/our-positions

North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. (2020). A commitment to racial equality. https://buildthefoundation.org/a-commitment-to-racial-equity/

SCRIPT-NC. (2021). Supporting change and reform in preservice teaching in North Carolina. https://scriptnc.fpg.unc.edu/