Trust, Play, and Place: How Early Childhood Education Values Shaped Collaborative Research in the U.S. Southwest

Abstract

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) is not widely theorized in infant and toddler education, and home-based educators are not typically respected as early childhood theorists and curriculum experts. In this paper, we share findings from a community-based participatory action research project to theorize and curricularize CSP in infant/toddler education. Our team is made up of home-based educators, university faculty and students, and members of community organizations. We share what we learned about applying early childhood education values and approaches to collaborative research. Through the perspectives of diverse members of our team, we demonstrate that prioritizing trusting relationships, inviting a diversity of perspectives, learning through play, honoring routines and rituals, and planning interactions with the natural environment are early education values that should be applied to education research and wider problems of our times.