Beyond Degrees: Making Space and Policies for Generational Knowledge in the Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Current policies shaping the ECCE workforce prioritize formal degrees and certifications to determine eligibility and pay, often dismissing lived and generational knowledge. Many ECCE workers learned to care for children by watching grandmothers, aunts, and neighbors. These intergenerational practices, rich in skill, wisdom, and culture remain unrecognized in professional standards. This symposium challenges narrow definitions of expertise by featuring four practitioner-community perspectives: 1) Black teenage girls in Georgia blending family-based and formal training; 2) informal providers sharing generational caregiving practices and policy needs; 3) survey data on a local policy displacing veteran caregivers without formal credentials; and 4) Black women’s traditions of care reshaping early childhood education. Presenters offer alternatives to better integrate generational knowledge into ECCE policies.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Early Education and Child Development

Chair

• Zoelene Hill, New York Academy of Medicine

Papers

• “Learning at the Knee”: Intergenerational Practitioner Knowledge of Black Girls in ECE - Morgan Faison, University of Georgia; Stacie Abdallah, University of Georgia

• Generations of Care: Unlisted Home-Based Care Givers Describe the Policies They Need - Zoelene Hill, New York Academy of Medicine

• Beyond Certification: Uplifting Hispanic Caregivers in Fragmented Early Childhood Systems - Maria Mavrides Calderon, Hunter College - CUNY

• Black Matriarchal Pedagogy: Reimagining Teacher Education Through a Radical Ethos of Care - Crystasany R. Turner, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Session Organizer

• Zoelene Hill, New York Academy of Medicine

Discussant

• Porsche Boddicker, Howard University