Learning From the Bumps in the Road: Insights From Early Childhood Leaders

Holly Elissa Bruno, Janet Gonzalez-Mena, Luis Antonio Hernandez, and Debra Ren-Etta Sullivan are accomplished professionals and respected leaders in the early childhood field. After a decade of speaking together at national professional development conferences, twelve of their most important topics are now available as essays. Each chapter presents dialog among the authors about a particular topic—from power imbalances to embracing technology in the classroom—and the lessons gleaned from facing and overcoming uncertainty and obstacles.

Merging each author's distinct voice, expertise, and life experiences with issues relevant to your daily work with children, their families, and your colleagues, this collection unveils the authors' personal and meaningful histories, insecurities, and insights. As you read about the bumps the authors have encountered throughout their careers, you will be encouraged and challenged to think more deeply and openly about your own practices and philosophies. You will gain a renewed sense of purpose as you help children reach their full potentials. And, you will discover—as the authors did—that every bump in the road is an invitation to grow and opportunity to learn.

Table of Contents

• Our Way to Sincerity: Affirming Civility and Tolerance in Our Daily Work
• Power Imbalances: Unwritten but Binding Social Contract
• Creating the Village: Building Relationships That Support Children
• From the Universal to the Uniform: Considering Cultural and Diversity Standards Across Our Personal and Professional Connections
• Tomorrow's Children Today: A Self-Assessment Approach to Multicultural Readiness Technology: Reflecting on Resistance and Habits on the Way to Dynamic Change
• CAT Spell Success: Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching for Quality Learning Environments
• Playing for Keeps: The Power of Laughter and Lightheartedness for Adult
• Social-Emotional Competence: Are You Smarter Than a Two-Year-Old?
• The Great Imposter: Unmasking the Burden of Self-Doubt in Our Professional Lives
• Intentionality for the Well-Intended
• Lessons Learned from the Bumps in the Road

"Often we speak only of our triumphs, put our best selves forward, and focus on our strengths. Inside, most of us have the tendency to be very hard on ourselves; we dwell on our mistakes, weaknesses, and perceived deficiencies. Strength and growth come from flipping these behaviors. We need to think well enough of ourselves and make self-talk positive. And with each other, we need to fearlessly share the challenges and struggles we all as celebrate the successes. We talk about being authentic with children, and we know how to do this. These authors become our mentors as their stories and strategies help us become more authentic with one another and within ourselves. This ability to be real will change our behavior and our practice. We could have no better mentors than Holly Elissa, Janet, Luis, and Debra."

--Bonnie Neugebauer, Founder and Executive Editor of Exchange magazine and Found and Director of Program Development at the World Forum Foundation.

"Learning from the Bumps in the Road is a unique and great read: at once stimulating and great fun. Haring four authors discuss their often quite different perspectives on central topics in today's early childhood education discourse encourages readers to also find their own voices on these same topics. It is a very thought-provoking experience to come across ideas with which you agree, with which you disagree, and which provoke you. I especially and highly recommend Learning from the Bumps in the Road to leaders in early childhood education who like to push the boundaries of their thinking on pressing, important issues in our field."

--Louise Derman-Sparks, international speaker and author and former member of the NAEYC governing board

ISBN: 978-1-60554-206-5