StreetScenes
2010
Celebrating a new Bank Street textbook: Early Childhood Education: Learning Together
Bank Street faculty, staff, and friends gathered at Bank Street on the evening of December 4 to celebrate the publication of Early Childhood Education: Learning Together, a textbook from McGraw-Hill Higher Education. The book, developed in conjunction with the Bank Street College of Education, is aimed at beginning early childhood educators.
The authors are Virginia Casper, of the Bank Street Graduate faculty, and Rachel Theilheimer, '74, who chairs the Teacher Education Department at Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY. Their collaboration brings together the talents and perspectives of a small private graduate school and a large public community college.
Bank Street and BMCC faculty were involved as advisors, chapter reviewers, and writers. Members of the early childhood community in New York City and beyond helped to shape the book in a variety of ways as well.
Sara Wilford, former director of the Early Childhood Center at Sarah Lawrence, examines Early Childhood Education with help from authors Virginia Casper and Rachel Theilheimer.
Early Childhood Education: Learning Together provides a comprehensive overview of Early Childhood education that uses developmental interaction as its primary lens. Drawing on the latest research, theory, and practice, this text encourages students to understand the need for flexible approaches in their work with children. The authors note that early childhood education is not a "one size fits all" proposition, and therefore this text provides students with multiple ways to reflect upon why they are doing what they are doing. Early childhood practice comes alive through case studies, vignettes, stories, and essays from real people living and working on the front lines.
Bank Street Graduate faculty professors Peggy McNamara, Nancy Nager, and Susan Goetz-Haver examine the new textbook.
Many students are using their first Early Childhood course to explore their interest in the field - perhaps to discover a new profession or a second career. This text speaks directly to them, raising questions in thought boxes placed throughout each chapter and offering them a picture of the complexities of early childhood education.
Early Childhood Education: Learning Together addresses the topics of an Early Childhood introductory course with many new elements. For example, the book helps readers to gain a deep understanding of the wider contexts of Early Childhood education, such as globalization, immigration, and the history of early childhood in non-western cultures. Students explore the roles they will play in children's relationships, attachment, and self-regulation. Separate chapters address assessment and policy. Examples of diversity and social justice run throughout the text, as does learning how to partner with families.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education publisher David S. Patterson approached Bank Street's Publications and Media Group (P&MG), in the Division of Institutional Advancement, in 2006. Previously, P&MG had collaborated with the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Division on several Early Childhood Education curriculum programs. For Early Childhood Education: Learning Together, MHHE's Director of Development Dawn Groundwater and Senior Sponsoring Editor Allison McNamara worked with Virginia and Rachel and P&MG.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education Senior Sponsoring Editor, Alison McNamara on the far left, and Dawn Groundwater, McGraw-Hill Higher Education Director of Development on the far right, with the authors.
Click here for more information on Virginia Casper's Online Course, Better Understanding Your Child through the Study of Child Development.
Elizabeth D. Dickey, President of Bank Street College, with authors Virginia Casper and Rachel Theilheimer.
Virginia Casper
Virginia Casper is a developmental psychologist and teacher educator who has worked for over 30 years with children and families in early intervention and research. She is on the Graduate faculty at Bank Street College of Education and has published widely on attachment, gender, and teacher-parent relations. She is the co-author of an earlier book: Gay Parents/Straight Schools: Building Communication and Trust (1999), Teachers College Press. Virginia has also worked internationally and, for the past decade, in South Africa.
Rachel Theilheimer
Rachel Theilheimer, BSC 1974, has worked with children, families, and teachers in public and private and settings. For the past twenty-five years, she has taught adults at the pre-GED, community college, bachelors, and graduate levels and conducted numerous professional development workshops. She is professor of early childhood education at Borough of Manhattan Community College, where she chairs the Teacher Education Department. She has published articles and book chapters about teacher education, social justice issues, and infant care.
