The Culture of Child Care

Kay Sanders, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Child Development at Whittier College. Dr. Sanders' research examines cultural and racial socialization practices in community-based child care programs. In particular, she examines how racial/ethnic socialization in child care programs contributes to child care quality, relationships, and children's social and emotional school readiness skills.Alison Wishard Guerra, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Wishard Guerra's research examines culture and development in early childhood, with particular focus on Latino children from low-income families. She examines the intersection of language and social development through an investigation of narrative interactions, social pretend play, attachment relationships as they relate to the development of critical school readiness skills among children growing up in poverty and in diverse communities.

"This volume brings together a stellar group of authors to underscore a critical point--relationships matter for all young children. However, it also pushes the field to move beyond this basic premise and asks pressing questions--what do these relationships look like, and how do they support children within an increasingly diverse cultural context? A fitting tribute to the outstanding contributions of Dr. Howes to the early childhood community over the years!" --Jason Downer, PhD, Associate Professor, Director, Clinical and School Psychology Program, and Director, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia"Carollee Howes and her colleagues continue to show their commitment to true scholarship and equity as they engage in collective inquiry to examine hard questions about the impact of race and culture on the accuracy and relevancy of decades of their own work." --Sharon A. Ritchie, EdD, Senior Scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Principal Investigator, FirstSchool Initiative"The Culture of Child Care celebrates the career of Professor Carollee Howes, a stalwart advocate and champion of culturally responsive, relationship-based, high-quality early child care. The book's integrated focus on early childhood development and education ensures its broad appeal to stakeholders--researchers, educators, and policy makers--invested in advancing best practices to promote the health and well-being of our nation's youngest, andincreasingly diverse, citizens." --Rashmita Mistry, PhD, Professor of Human Development & Psychology, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbout the EditorsContributors Part I: Laying the Groundwork: Connecting Social-Cultural Context, Teacher-Child Attachment, and Peer Relations in Child Care Chapter 1: Children and child care: A theory of relationships within cultural communitiesCarollee Howes Part II. Quality and Context in an Ethnically Diverse Society Chapter 2: Understanding child care quality and implications for dual language learnersSadie L. Hasbrouck and Robert Pianta Chapter 3: "But Mommy doesn't do it like that": Considering cultural congruency between home and child care in the development of African American children Kay E. Sanders Chapter 4: Where the children are: Exploring quality, community, and support for family, friend and neighbor child careEva Shivers and Flora Farago Part III. Relationships in Child Care: Beyond Risk and into Resilience Chapter 5: The fourth 'R': Relationships, shifting from risk to resilienceJennifer A. Vu Chapter 6: Relationships and social trust in early childhood programs: The importance of context and mixed methodsTom Weisner Part IV. Peer Interaction as a Cultural Practice in Early Childhood Chapter 7: Young children's peer relations with cross-ethnic peers: Implications, limitations, and future directionsLinda Lee Chapter 8: Playing pretend and ready to learn: Peer play as a scaffold for development among low-income Latino childrenAlison Wishard Guerra Chapter 9: The first peers: Sibling play interactions across African American, Latino and Asian childhoodsNora Obregon Chapter 10: Preschool peer play interactions, a developmental context for learning for ALL children: Rethinking issues of equity and opportunityRebecca J. Bulotsky Shearer, Christine M. McWayne, Julia L. Mendez, and Patricia H. Manz Part V: Methodological Implications for Applied Research on Child Care as a Context for Early Childhood Development Chapter 11: Large-scale evaluations of child care as a context for development: Implications for research and practiceMargaret Burchinal Chapter 12: Observation and interview methodology in ethnically diverse contexts: Methods and measurement of the contexts of early childhood developmentAllison Sidle Fuligni Part VI: Conclusion and Commentary Chapter 13: Putting the horse before the cart: Why diversity must be at the forefront of early education policy, and not remain a tagline on the back of the policy wagonKaren Hill Scott Chapter 14: Concluding commentary: The long & winding road towards a culture of excellence in early care and educationKay E. Sanders and Alison Wishard Guerra Index