Fostering Global Citizens: Innovative Early Childhood Education Strategies

Have you ever wondered how the seeds of global citizenship are planted in the minds of our youngest learners? Kennesaw State University professors Dr. Raynice Jean-Ségur and Dr. Douglas Bell join us for an enlightening discussion on the intricate tapestry of early childhood education. They guide us through the conception of global awareness in children, from infancy to kindergarten, with six robust frameworks at the core. Together, we unpack the critical role educators play in weaving multicultural literature into the curriculum, fostering a generation of students who see themselves as integral parts of a diverse and vibrant world.

Navigating the complexities of teaching environmental stewardship and respect across cultures can be a formidable task for educators, especially when met with resistance. Yet, this episode tackles these challenges head-on, providing teacher candidates with actionable strategies to cultivate a reverence for nature and instill agency in young learners. Our guests offer a treasure trove of methods to embolden children to view their actions through the lens of environmental impact, while also arming them with the necessary skills to thrive in an interconnected global society.

Reflect with us on the personal journeys that have shaped us into the educators we are today. The episode concludes with stories from our guests, celebrating the milestones that led them to champion early childhood education and the moments of transformation and growth within the field. Join us for this intimate look into the world of early learning, where each day is a step toward shaping the compassionate global citizens of tomorrow.

0:40:   Going Global in Early Childhood Education (check out the full paper)
3:27:   What does global citizenship look like from birth to kindergarten?
5:52:   The 6 Frameworks for Global Citizenship
8:03:   What does this look like in practice?
12:08: Changing the culture: preparing and valuing early childhood educators
16:13: State of the planet awareness
20:05: Nurturing Kid Scientists
22:43: How do we use system connectedness to foster strong early childhood experiences?
28:50: The role of technology in early childhood education
34:15: Centering Children: Creating options for participation
38:44: Adventures in Learning -- backstories for Dr. Raynice and Dr. Doug
43:55: Hope 

Transcript

00:05 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So welcome to the Adventures in Learning podcast. You all are in for such a treat. Today. I have two professors from Kennesaw State University on, and I am so excited about their work and the implications it has for early childhood and elementary school in terms of really making teaching exciting, hands-on and connected, and so I want you to welcome to the show Douglas Bell and Renice Jean-Ségur. Did I get that right? 

00:37 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
You did, you did, you did, perfect, perfect, thank you. 

00:40 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So I met Raynice at the SECA conference in Atlanta and I was so impressed. They were doing a workshop about going global in early childhood and as soon as I heard them I was like you have got to be on the show, and so I was hoping maybe you all can start by setting the stage and telling people a little bit about the paper and its implications. And then I want to dive deep into how we can bring these to life. 

01:07 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Sure. So Doug and I worked together in the Bagwell College of Education and our Birth Through Kindergarten program, which we started, was it 2-2011, Doug, maybe. 

01:20 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
That sounds right. 

01:22 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
So we started our program and we've always been a part of looking at birth to kindergarten from a larger aspect as well as the microscopic aspect, if you will and we realized there's a whole bunch about early learning through an international perspective international perspective and so what we decided was we wanted to do some research and some information about looking at the global aspect of early learning, and we actually have a course in our program that focuses on global learning. I think we're one of the few people in the country that has that course, and from that course, Dr Bell, Dr Kim and myself developed an article, because, of course, there wasn't anything that we found that would be reflective of what we wanted to teach in that course, and so that was the beginning of the article, and, Doug, you want to add anything to that? 

02:14 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Sure, yeah, when we first started the Birth to Kindergarten program, the university, one of its major tenants was global education, and so it was really a nice alignment to explore the global aspects of early learning with, you know, combining it with what the university's mission and purpose was. And you know, each of us brings a really big strength to the Birth through Kindergarten program and to this exploration of global concepts. And the article itself got started because Raynice and I were at a state level conference at Gacy and we were working a table and we decided to just pull out our laptops and start writing the research in between meeting with people, of course, because sustainability has a big role in global education, we, of course, roped in Dr Yanghee Kim pretty quickly because she's strong in that area, but it was really a nice way for us to find out what's going on everywhere and what is it that we need to help our children become global citizens, and that's really what we started the exploration with. 

03:27 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So let's start with the idea of global citizens. If somebody's not familiar with that term, what does that mean and what are we envisioning when we're talking about? You know, basically, birth to kindergarten. How are they global citizens? What does that look like? 

03:46 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
You could start that one off, Doug. 

03:47 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
I was going to say I'll grab that one. So when we think of the term global citizen, we're really looking at us as individuals being part of the bigger whole. And when you think about the whole purpose of early learning, our whole goal is to learn to live together, love each other and learn together without eating each other. So that's really what a global citizen is. But it's more than just behaving for lack of a better term in a community, but really seeing that my community expands beyond the community that I see. And that's what a global citizen is. 

04:28 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
It's the ability to work with, interconnect with, provide resources for, get resources from everyone around the world as one world to make it a better place for everyone to be one world to make it a better place for everyone to be, and it sounds like that notion really ties in beautifully to the work that Dr Rudine Sims Bishop has done in terms of windows and mirrors and sliding glass doors. That that's where sort of the multicultural picture books pair beautifully with what you all are doing as well. 

05:02 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yes, yes, yes, and we've done some looking into that with some of our students and looking at, and what I wanted to add to Doug's statement was a lot of people don't think children as young as infancy have this capability. But when we think about a baby, they're always looking at the world and looking how they feel and how they are part of this world, and as teachers and as educators, it's our role to help them see themselves as a part of that world but also see others' worlds and see how they fit into that whole scheme of things. And so, yes, it does fit nicely with the windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors framework as well with the windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors framework as well. 

05:52 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, and I noticed that you all have sort of six different frameworks that go within being a global citizen and I'm wondering should we just take it down and go through each one of them and talk about their importance and maybe talk about some practical connections for a teacher, Because I'm all in practical connections for a teacher, because I'm all in. I 100% believe that we've got to do a better job of preparing children to live in the world together and I know that when we talk about the 21st century learning skills, we're talking about, you know, collaboration, critical thinking, communication and creative problem solving. It starts in early childhood, it starts with the littles, so let's talk about how we go from there to you know, from starts in early childhood. It starts with the littles, so let's talk about how we go from there to you know, from the start to there. 

06:31 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Yeah, sure, so this has actually been around for a while. These six components. They just really haven't been packaged in a way that was really cohesive Some work by Hanvey, some work by Brown and some work by Anderson all kind of fed into this. And when we think about the components of global education and what global education is, it always talked to older people, people. So it really it really was. It was really aimed towards people in high school and middle school and those kinds of things. 

07:12
And Rainey, he and I really kind of thought about well, we have a role to play too, because we're building these global citizens as teachers of very young children and care teachers of infants and toddlers. And so we kind of took each of those components and broke it down to what would this look like in the early learning environment? And so the six, just as a very fast overview. The six components are perspective, consciousness, cross-cultural awareness, state of the planet, awareness systems, connections, utilization of technologies and options for participations. And what we found in our research is each one of those are isolated things that we can teach in the classroom, but they also interconnect and build on one another so that you can build a full set of global competencies. 

08:03 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
So here's a question. Then let's paint a picture. If I'm in an early childhood center, what would this look like? What would a day look like that was really focused in on connecting these tenants for global education? 

08:21 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
So what we did is we kind of looked at both activities and strategies how can we integrate these principles or these components throughout the day of just living life with young children in an early learning environment, but also, what can we very intentionally teach, what activities and experiences can we design to foster these concepts? 

08:46
And so it's really what it looks like. 

08:49
Is it looks like really being thoughtful about how you live and learn together, just from the time the children get there till the time the children leave, and also being really, really thoughtful about learning experiences that are crafted so that the children will be able to do a little bit of a deeper dive and experience each of the components. 

09:10
So, with perspective consciousness, which is really just knowing the views of other people, to put it in a very short and easy way to understand, being aware that other people have thoughts and ideas, we, of course, align it with diversity, because people from different cultural backgrounds have different ideas, and so we point out oh, you know, maybe during the day, while children are playing look, marcus decided to build his tower with smaller blocks and Mary, you decided to build your tower with larger blocks. It's really nice that we think different ways, so that would just be an interaction that would happen during the day, but it's not a planned activity. And then we also have planned activities like music and dance from another culture. So we'll have maybe during song time we'll have a song from Jeremy's home culture that he sings with his family at home, that kind of thing. 

10:09 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Just to add to what Doug is mentioning too. I think it's really important for teachers. And what we did when Doug and I were doing this Doug Young, he and I were doing this research we actually had three articles to come from this, because one of the articles that we focus on is the philosophy of the teacher or the teacher candidate. And when you go in to build this classroom or create this classroom, looking at these six concepts, it's a mindset change, it's a paradigm shift, but you have to have that philosophy as a part of your school in order to make this happen. 

10:43
And, as Doug mentioned, looking at prospective consciousness what does it mean to look at someone else's world and how do we bring that in? How do we include our families in this process? All of that is a conscious action that you have to take as a part of a preschool or early learning center, and including the site director and your curriculum specialists and your teachers and your custodians and everyone is a part of this so that they can actually see that this is something we celebrate and we believe in. And so, going to the next one, about cultural awareness, it connects to perspective consciousness. So not only do we see other worlds. 

11:27
But what is our world? How do we define ourselves and how do we fit in this world? And that includes the teacher, that includes the custodian, that includes the director, that includes the parent, that includes someone that might be a visitor to the school. And how do we bring that to life? How do we help our children to know that? And so in the article we have some activities, and we love to include children's literature, because books do a great way of helping us to do this work, and so having that in the classroom is very important, and having different activities where the children can actually learn about themselves, but also the other children in the classroom and other people that may come to the classroom. 

12:08 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well and you just said something that I think is really critical in terms of prepping the teachers, but not just prepping the teachers involving the whole community in this work and I think that with early childhood, that's one of probably the most neglected areas is that support and that structure, that value. How do we change that culture so that our teachers are feeling valued and they have the training to be able to do this good work? 

12:40 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Well, I smile because and looking at Doug because we both know that hard mountain to climb, that we've been climbing it for for quite a while. But I, for me, I think one of the things is, as teachers, we have to own our professionalism and know that we, we are the experts we tell our students all the time. You are the child development experts. You know this work Like a doctor knows how to perform a medical procedure or a pharmacist knows about medications. You know children better than anyone. 

13:13
You study children, you understand children and you also study families. So we have to advocate for ourselves and know that we know this work, in particular, the brain development of young babies. But we also know what's best for young children and we have to advocate for that and celebrate that and promote that and communicate that to everyone. I think that's so important in this work because a lot of times people are still thinking that we aren't professionalized and I think that's important for us to say that we are professionals in this work and we've studied this craft and we know this craft, and then also have our administrators to also support that and recognize that and celebrate that as well. Doug, do you want to add something to that as well? 

14:00 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Yeah, I think so. What we've found is, when we talk about these concepts with our teacher candidates, they are very, very attuned to it. They're really they understand the importance, they understand the value. They, they you know they're pretty quick to come up with experiences that would support each of the components, would support each of the components. Those are some of the assignments that they do in the teacher prep program. 

14:28
But then they go out into the community and they find resistance, and I think that that's where the challenge comes, because we're trying to build global citizens and our young children, because, you know, we're just in a different place now, with the technology that we have at our fingertips, we no longer just talk to the people on our street, we talk to people all over the world, and that's a skill set that is a needed piece of communicating in our world for commerce. 

15:02
There are a lot of benefits to our children growing up being able to do that, and so our candidates are really surprised. Teachers are really surprised at the resistance they meet from people who aren't in education or maybe who are on the outside looking in, wondering what in the world you all are doing and what do you mean? You're going to teach three-year-olds how to take care of the planet, you know. Or to see one another's perspective, you know. Being nice to each other is pretty well accepted by the community, but when you go just a little bit deeper about being fair with each other, that creates all sorts of conversation. 

15:42 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, it sounds to me like those's those conversations, and I know, speaking from somebody who ran a preschool as well. You kind of wonder what happened to the parents' early childhood experience. Did they get the same experience? And you're right, you have to advocate for yourself, absolutely. So we've talked about perspective and cross-cultural awareness, and both of those are so important and, I would imagine, are sort of the foundation for everything that comes next. What else is included? 

16:13 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
So state of the planet awareness, and I like our little subheading that we use. It's our earth, let's take care of it. I can't remember who came up with that it was probably Rainice because she's the boss of the group. But this is where we struggled the most with both practicing teachers, because we took all of these to real classrooms and got ideas and shared thoughts with practicing teachers and pre-service teachers as we developed this work. And this was the one that got the most resistance with working with young children because they felt like it's too abstract an understanding to take care of things. 

17:01
But one thing that I have found personally in my work is, if you ever wonder if something's fair, ask a four-year-old. Four-year-olds know what's fair and not fair and they can be pretty objective about it if it's not their situation. Now, when a four-year-old wants the bigger piece of candy, that is the only fair result. But when he's helping two other people find out who gets the bigger piece of candy, they're much better at identifying what fair is. And that's kind of what taking care of the planet is is. 

17:31
It's making it fair for everybody so that we can care for our resources and make sure everybody has those resources to share for a long time and what we found is we can put this in ways that young children do understand. And young children get a really important sense of agency and empowerment when we help them see that they're doing good for the people around them and for themselves. And so we've done little things like help them collect recyclables and help them plant gardens. And you know plants make more oxygen, so we're helping the air to get cleaner. You know, when we kind of give those descriptions and explanations, they get more buy-in and of course they're always willing to do the fun stuff, do the digging and the dirt and the planting of the beans. 

18:26 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
And to add to that too, a lot of times when we think about these concepts, it doesn't have to be costly. When we use recyclable paper in our consumable areas and when we do that kind of work even crayons and showing how to recycle crayons those are things that can be done instead of throwing things away. We recycle just to recycle, bin and just using those words and those terms, it doesn't cost a lot, but it's something that we're teaching our children to appreciate the planet. Doug mentions in the article about adoption, adopting trees, adopting pets, adopting things that it may not cost a lot, but we show respect to our animals that we see outside and you know our bugs that are in the classroom. 

19:09
That may just crawl in or whatnot, but just having those letting that butterfly out the window, you know if it came into the classroom, things like that is showing respect for the environment and that's things that very young children grasp very easily, and so I think we can do that. Even our toddlers that pick up things and say you know what? This needs to be thrown away, because toddlers are really good at picking up things. That's an example of respecting the planet and respecting each other and saving the planet. So those are little things that you probably do every day as teachers and don't even realize that you're really teaching that concept probably do every day as teachers and don't even realize that you're really teaching that concept. 

19:50 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
I love that. One of the rules that I had when sorry, one of the rules that I had when I taught two-year-olds is if you didn't make it, you don't get to break it, and so that really helped them understand we don't pick flowers we didn't plant, we don't kill bugs that we see, and that just kind of garners that spirit of respect for nature. 

20:05 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, and so much of that is the groundwork for kids scientists as well. You're fostering their natural curiosity, that natural sense of wonder and joy, but you're channeling it into a very practical way, as you're connecting it to something bigger than themselves you're connecting it to something bigger than themselves. 

20:26 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yes, yes, and that's a great point that you mentioned, because a lot of when we talk about science and young children, we're thinking about stethoscopes and beakers and thermometers, and science and young children is so natural. They're naturally born scientists and the wise and the focusing on the small details of an insect, or digging in the mud and looking in the mud, which some teachers may feel it's fearful because they may get dirty, but that's actually exploring and understanding. How do I make this as a part of that natural scientific process? So that's a great point. 

21:00 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Yeah, one of the things I used to love doing with kids in the classroom is we had hula hoops and we would take them outside and the kids would put them down on the playground and I gave them each a microscope and or not a microscope a magnifying glass, and they would literally sit there and observe their hula hoop and we would make lists of all the things that they saw and discovered. And it's amazing what you see when you can zero into a bug's eye view. You know, and you're teaching observation, you're teaching scientific processes, you're doing that, but you're doing it through that wonder and discovery and play. 

21:38 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yes, yes, yes. 

21:40 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Absolutely, and a close look for young children. They're really good at it If you just give them the moment to do it. One of the things that we find working with very young children is adults are very, very much in a hurry. We want things done quickly and in order for them to really get the most out of a moment, we have to slow those moments down. To really get the most out of a moment, we have to slow those moments down. So by handing them a hula hoop and a magnifying glass out on the playground or in the yard, we're slowing things down because we're sending the message take a look and tell me what you see. And adding that tell me what you see part builds interconnectedness between the learner and the guide and it also creates a stage where we're learning together, which is part of that respect that we talked about. We're all kind of here together learning and that really helps children to get by and to support and sustain their environment. 

22:40 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
That makes a lot of sense. 

22:42 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Go ahead, Raynice, I'm sorry. 

22:43 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
No, no, no. I was going to say that's a great segue for our next concept, which is systems connectedness and how we all are part of one system and of course, this comes from Bronner's theory. But, coming in and understanding why we are all together and how we all come together, we work together, we live together, we breathe together and we play. We are all together and how we all come together, we work together, we live together, we breathe together and we play together and learn together, and so that's one of the things that we help our children to understand that we're part of this big, larger community and that we need to understand how to live in it and respect it for other children, and so we do have activities in that article to support that as well. 

23:27 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
What would be some examples of how you would build system connectedness? 

23:32 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Do you want to start, Doug? You want me to start? 

23:34 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Yeah, I'll start From a programmatic environment. My candidates always fuss at me what the heck is a programmatic environment? The programmatic environment is everything that goes on within the walls. It's the stuff you can't visibly see. It's the atmosphere, the routines, the schedule, the interactions, the curriculum. 

23:53
But from a programmatic environment perspective, it starts with the idea that we belong to each other, right and so when you sit down on a carpet with four-year-olds and you say, okay, look next to you and make sure your friend has space and make sure you have space, you're building that system, connectedness, and you're building that belonging to each other idea. 

24:17
It's in the way that we talk to each other, it's in the way that we notice things. You know, when we point out that somebody picked up a toy and that was helpful because now we can walk safely together, we're building this idea that we're not an island in ourselves and we're not all alone here, and that creates a place where we can ask for help when we need it and we can offer help when it's needed, and that kind of makes the world go in a smoother way. I have found resistance to this too, by outsiders looking in, because you know, we're in the United States and we're an independent society and we want our children to be independent. But we definitely know that systems work better when they're interconnected and there's a strong bond between the people in the system and there's a strong bond between the people in the system. 

25:05 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned that, doug, because that was one of the things I wanted to share that it is a cultural concept that we found that believing that we work interconnectedly is a cultural concept, especially when you come from an independent culture where you stress independence and as a culture we do that. I mean when babies are first born, we put them in independent, you know, cribs, whereas some cultures they're immediately with the parent for a long period of time and we stress you know when will they be living on their own or when will they be, you know, be able to sit up and walk. So we stress independence and that's a good thing. We know developmentally we need to do those things. But also teaching that interdependence and realizing that we need each other and we are stronger when we work together. 

25:52
And teaching those language words of help thank you, no, yes, all those words to help our young children to understand AI. Those words help to get that interconnection language together. Teaching those things are very important. Doug is very humble because he always does these wonderful songs that build interconnections with our adult learners and you would be surprised to see how they respond and build that community. But he always does these wonderful songs about building community, wellness songs, and it helps and I say that's a great thing to do with our children in school. Music is a great way of doing that and making that connection. 

26:34 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Absolutely. Do we get an example, Doug? 

26:38 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Well. 

26:38
I will say, the one that we mentioned in the article is the we Wish you Well song, which I did not write. Becky Bailey wrote it as part of her conscious discipline approach, but it goes we wish you well, we wish you well all through the day today. We wish you well. And what we do is we have our children who are in the class sing that to the children who are absent, so that we're sharing love to people that aren't even in our presence. We have their pictures, but it shows that we belong to one another and it really this particular component takes that cultural competency component, where we know we're alike and we're different and we respect that, and it kind of takes it up a notch to not only are we alike and different, but we can connect with each other over the ways that we're alike and we can respect each other over the ways that we're different. We can still show care and belonging to each other. 

27:34 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I love that and you hit on the music as well. I know that music was such a central part of my day as an early childhood educator and I'm sure for many of the teachers listening it is as well. We have our songs for cleanup, we have our songs for circle time. You know all of the things that we use to motivate, to go from one thing to the next, and I like the idea of infusing that sense of connectedness and thoughtfulness into what we're singing and doing as well. 

28:04 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
I learned a long time ago as a teacher trainer. We used to do these really long drawn-out get-to-know-you activities where they all introduced themselves and told three things about themselves, which were all wonderful, but it took up half my teaching time. So what I learned really quick working with young adults in the college is if I just make them sing and dance together at the very beginning of every session, they let their guard down and they share with each other for the rest of the day. So that's what we do now. 

28:50 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
So technology, technology is the next component and I imagine that one is fairly controversial in terms of do we or don't we use technology in the early childhood setting. I think we cannot not use it. Sorry for the double negatives, but it's here. It's here to stay. I think as teachers, we have to figure out how do we use it appropriately and engage our children in an appropriate manner with that. It would be wrong to say that they can't see and utilize technology because it's surrounded in their environment. But I think it's really important and this is where including families, including the other people that are engaging with children to let them know how to use this appropriately. 

29:24
When we start talking about global connection, technology is amazing for this. Utilizing Zoom and some other web-based interconnection area media helps our children connect with grandparents, other family members, aunts, uncles, cousins that live around the globe. So using that effectively is helpful in building that systems connectiveness and also understanding others' perspectives. But we also have to be careful in that it doesn't become something that hinders a child from learning about the world and is just sitting in front of them as a for lack of a better word babysitter. So we teach our teacher candidates how to utilize technology effectively with young children. We also talk about that screen time and how much a child should and should not have for their brains and for their development, but also utilizing technology as that medium to help build connectiveness among others and with others, and share some ideas of doing that, such as connecting with the grandmother that's maybe in Africa or Asia or Europe or one of the countries in those continents, or just in the United States and another state. And then what are some things that you can do to build perspective and understand. Maybe they could be sharing a recipe or cooking together utilizing that technology. But another way that we use it is we also like to talk about pen pals and having friends in other centers possibly, if that's possible, or other areas where they actually do some pen pals as another way that we do it. 

31:10
Doug, you want to add? 

31:11 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Yeah, sure, definitely. The pandemic really shifted our awareness of technology and its power right. And with young children, I completely agree with Rainice. It's here and we're just going to have to find a way to integrate it in ways that are responsible, respectful and appropriate. What we're finding is we don't really have to teach young children how to use technology they know. What we do have to teach is the adults how to guide that use so that it is helpful and not hurtful. 

31:46
So I,think, Raynice, she came up with all of the best ideas that we've seen. You know, it's so powerful when Wei Ming's grandma lives in China and he's able to Zoom to her during class time so that his class can meet his grandma and she can read a short story or sing a short song. Those kinds of things really help make the world a smaller place for young children so that it's accessible and reachable. And you know we have with technology, we go from no tech to low tech, to high tech, right. That's the continuum and all of those are valuable and we just have to make sure the most important thing with technology selection is it should be meeting our learning and social emotional goals and it should be done in a way where the child is active in the technology use and not passive in the technology use. 

32:41 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
And I love the idea that you're centering the child in this use, and I love the idea that you're centering the child in this. And, renice, I love the idea of building connections, like making the world smaller. I think that's beautiful. I was also thinking that we're modeling, as the educators, how to use technology and so that critical thinking if you're trying to find an answer to something, how am I going to go about finding the answer? And so to be able to model and to demonstrate to children what it looks like to do a search for research and who's reliable and you know we might go to Nat Geo, but we're not necessarily going to go to Reddit for this. 

33:22 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely yeah. And just to add a little tidbit to this too even with our children that have medical needs or can't come to school because of medical needs, technology has been extremely beneficial for them to connect with their peers and their friends at school. And so, thinking about ways of utilizing technology in that regard for our littles, sometimes it's just a wave or a high from a, from an iPhone, to let them know that they're still engaged and connected, and it doesn't have to be a long thing. Or for our older children, it can be a game that they play using utilizing technology while they're home and they're at school, of course, getting parent permission first, but having that connection is great for not only the child, but for the child that's ill, but the children that are in school as well. 

34:15 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I am loving the fact that you all, within the Going Global, you've really got the kids all kids centered in their learning and you're looking at adapting these things no matter what their circumstances are, and I think that's absolutely beautiful. So I think that probably segues beautifully into the last tenet, which was options for participation. 

34:36 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, go ahead, Doug. 

34:39 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Well, so for this one, we're really trying to help the children understand that we all have something to do right, we all have a role to play in making the world a happy, healthy place for us. To love that agency and almost activism, as we talked about a little bit earlier, to be really thoughtful about ways to make positive change, and we did name a couple of things, such as recycling and things like that. But this is easy and we got a little bit of pushback from teachers on this too. Oh, that just sounds like a lot of work, but when we helped them look at their practices, they were already doing it. They were having people come in and do class visits to talk about important things. 

35:32
I remember when I lived in Florida, we had manatee specialists come and talk to our children and they adopted a manatee and then every week, or I think it was every month, they wrote a letter to the manatee and sent it off to the manatee caregiver, and we were very blessed that that manatee caregiver would write a letter back telling us how our manatee was doing, because that was really beyond the scope of the program. Right, they were just raising money, but they made it where it was a meaningful experience for my two to five-year-olds and you know having field trips to go see how places are and what things that we can do to help. Food drives during November are very popular. You know canned goods drive where they bring it in and they do counting experiences about how many cans they've collected and you know they either video the dropping off the box or, if it's a close enough center or site, they can walk together to drop off the box. It's really about getting the children to understand that they have the power to make the change. 

36:41 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Yeah, and I think one of the things going back to your beginning question about what does the classroom look like or what does this look like I think one of the things that I would recommend is, when you think about the six concepts that we developed, it's not to change what you're currently doing from that is, to do an inventory of what you're already doing and see how it matches to those six concepts and, as Doug mentioned, you probably are going to find a big laundry list of things you're already doing and that our article will just maybe give you some additional ideas or maybe verify what you're already doing so that you can get a better understanding of what you're you say. I'm committed to this. I'm going to do this not just for our center but for the children, because it's what's best for them. We feel that they are part of the bigger world that we live in and that they are hopefully going to be global citizens where they actually learn and grow and work together. And you're already doing this concept and you're already doing this concept. So when you have that staff meeting or when you have that conversation with families, or when you're thinking about that curriculum, make that list of what you're already doing with that and say you know what I'm going to be a part of this. 

37:57
I've seen centers where not necessarily our six principal concepts, but they have some sort of statement at the beginning of their center saying these are the things that we believe in and that our children believe in and our families believe in, and you may go back to that and see how that matches and looking at becoming a global citizen or enhances what we're already doing, Because I think that's the big thing is having that commitment and being a part of that and finding that peace. And you don't have to do everything all at once. If you're doing one major project and it continues, that's great and then it may go into something else. So there are different ways of looking at it, but just really being a part of this and participating is a great way of looking at that. 

38:44 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
I love that and I'm going to drop a link to the article in the show notes so that people will be able to use that as the basis to start doing exactly what you said, that you don't have to make change on everything. Start with one thing Make that list and surprise yourself with how many things you're doing, because I think you're going to find, as you said, it gets back to that we're professionals, right, and we need to own our profession, and we're doing so many of these things, but it's, how do we add that layer of thoughtfulness and intention to the things that we're doing? So I love that. I'm going to shift gears now for a moment and I want to ask you guys a question that I like to ask all of my guests. I can tell you have a passion for early childhood. How did you get to where you are today? What were your adventures in learning that brought you to Kennesaw State? 

39:33 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
Oh, wow Do you want to go first, you go first. 

39:38 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Okay, so I will say that I've always wanted to be a preschool teacher as far I think three years of age, as early as I can remember which was very weird or different because everyone around me wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or something else, but I've always wanted to be a preschool teacher not just a teacher, but a preschool teacher and so that was my pursuit all of the years. I'm originally from New Orleans and so I went to college there, went to universities Ava University there and one of the few people that majored in what, quite frankly, I was going to major in special education, an early child education, but my advisor wasn't in her office at the time. So the special education advisor was there and she advised me. So I got a degree in special education but still got my certification at the time, was called nursery and decided I was going to teach a little bit. So I taught with two-year-olds besides adults my favorite age to teach two-year-olds and went to pursue my master's in human development and family studies, with emphasis in child life, and still kept my foot in the door with very young children and play. 

40:53
And I knew this guy who's my current husband, who was in Georgia, and he said you got to come out here. And so I came out here in 1999 and I've been here ever since and when I came to Kennesaw State there was not a birth to kindergarten program. So they we myself, along with my two colleagues, Dr Loretta Howell and Dr Emily Johnson, worked extremely hard to put this together, with some other colleagues as well, and unfortunately they moved on. But and I stayed and helped build a program and we found the wonderful, amazing Doug Bell, who I cannot tell you is just amazing and very honored to work with him, and he came along and that was it. Our program started rolling from there and so I'm going to toss the ball to Doug. 

41:47 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
I'm blushing for you listeners. I have a similar but different story. My very first day of kindergarten I decided I wanted to be a teacher. I had so much respect for that teacher and she just knew how to interact with us and I just loved it. I went home and told my mother I want to be a teacher and they spent the next 10 to 15 years trying to talk me out of that as a family. And when I got into high school there was a child care vocational program that I joined because I figured I didn't know what grade level I wanted to teach, but I figured they'll do child development and that's helpful for any teacher. And when I got there I found home. 

42:32
The early years were the years that I loved, and so after I graduated I went to technical school or a community college and got my two-year degree in early childhood education and management college and got my two-year degree in early childhood education and management and I refused to go to big college until I could get a program that focused on actual early childhood. 

42:54
We only had elementary in my area at the time and then I found they finally came up with a program and I joined it and then I went to Florida State for my master's and my doctorate because I refused to get an early childhood degree. That wasn't truly birth through eight. And my major professor, Dr Charles Wolfgang, sat on a plane with some higher up here at Kennesaw State and they got to chatting and he found out that they were interested in starting a birth through kindergarten program. And he looked at me and he said out that they were interested in starting a birth through kindergarten program. And he looked at me and he said, doug, you need to apply. And I applied and I fell in love. And now, even sometimes when they don't want me, I must stay. 

43:38 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
I can't imagine that Doug we have, we Doug and our team we are. I have to say we have an amazing team and we work well together. We work very well together. We have an amazing team and just very honored to work with Doug and our colleagues. 

43:55 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, and the idea of having a birth to kindergarten program. That's rare and extraordinary and probably need to duplicate what you're doing at universities across the country, because that's part of what you were saying about creating that culture of respect for the profession. But I honor you all for having created that. I think it's an amazing program. So very last question for the day what brings you hope? 

44:23 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Ooh, you go first this time, Doug. I want to think about this one. 

44:28 - Dr. Douglas Bell (Guest)
There are two things. I call my candidates world changers, and I do that very intentionally, and what we find is, you know, we kind of drag our candidates from child care classrooms to the college classroom and tell them that they can do this and by the end of the program they believe us and they become world changers. And then the second thing that gives me hope is every time I interact with a little child that's under the age of five, I realize things aren't as bad as they seem and this person can make it better. So that's what gives me hope. 

45:12 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Oh, I love that and I have to echo Doug in that our students give me hope every day. I'm getting a little emotional thinking about some of our students. The things that they do, the things that they create, the things that they say they're amazing. I know early childhood is in great hands with our students. They are just, they are world changers. And the things that they tell us every day, the things that they're doing, and that mountain we referenced earlier, they're climbing it every day and they are chipping away to try to make this a professional experience and a profession that we know it is. And so they do give me hope every day. 

45:51
And I have hope for young children as well, and families. When I talk to families and their young children, I see them, I get hope because they do know in their heart what's best for children. Sometimes they just need guidance and they come to us just to answer questions that they already know is the right answer. I think they just need validation, saying am I doing this right, like yeah, you're doing this right or this is a good thing, so that I do feel helpful about the future in both of those areas. 

46:25 - Dr. Diane Jackson Schnoor (Host)
Well, Raynice and Doug, it has been a joy to speak with you today. You truly are world changers yourselves, and I am so excited to share your article with our listeners. So thank you for joining me on the Adventures in Learning. 

46:38 - Dr. Raynice Jean-Sigur (Guest)
Thank you. Thanks for the invitation.