11th Cohort of Buell Fellows, 2018-2019
Stories from the Early Childhood Ecosystem
The Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program is a partnership of the University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development and Clayton Early Learning with Generous Support from the Buell Foundation.
The 11th Cohort of Buell Fellows are completing the 2018-2019 academic year with a celebration of their leadership learning and telling the stories of their community-based action research. Beginning in May, 2018 this group of 20 early childhood leaders convened from across the state of Colorado to embark on both an individual and collective journey of leadership growth and development. All 20 Buell Fellows share a commitment to the early childhood profession and to being leaders who will effect change within early childhood programs, policies, and practices to advance equity, excellence, and opportunity with all young children and their families.
The 11th Cohort of Buell Fellows are completing the 2018-2019 academic year with a celebration of their leadership learning and telling the stories of their community-based action research. Beginning in May, 2018 this group of 20 early childhood leaders convened from across the state of Colorado to embark on both an individual and collective journey of leadership growth and development. All 20 Buell Fellows share a commitment to the early childhood profession and to being leaders who will effect change within early childhood programs, policies, and practices to advance equity, excellence, and opportunity with all young children and their families.
As individual leaders, each Buell Fellow works within unique contexts and systems of the early childhood field touching the lives of children and their families birth to age 8. Eleven in the group work in early learning settings as teachers, coaches, and higher education instructors. Six others work primarily with families in community-based settings as librarians and family resource specialists; while four other Fellows are working broadly on system-level initiatives as early childhood council coordinators, data managers, or directing quality initiatives. A variety of professional settings, experiences, and issues of interest set the context for five groups emerged among the Fellows to illuminate different aspects of community generated knowledge and action.
Between January and June, each Buell Fellow facilitated a community-based action research process, that is described by Ernest Stringer as providing, “a flexible and practical set of procedures that are systematic, cyclical, solutions oriented, and participatory, providing the means to devise sustainable improvements in practice that enhance the lives and well-being of all participants…” (p. 5, 2014).
The community-based practices of action research invite Fellows to embrace working principles of relationships, communication, participation, and inclusion as they engage within their community around local issues and opportunities related to young children and families. Stories shared from the early childhood ecosystem represent a unique process of learning as a result of intentional and responsive participatory research methods and practices.
The community-based practices of action research invite Fellows to embrace working principles of relationships, communication, participation, and inclusion as they engage within their community around local issues and opportunities related to young children and families. Stories shared from the early childhood ecosystem represent a unique process of learning as a result of intentional and responsive participatory research methods and practices.