In part two of our series on strengthening California’s early educator workforce, we focus on a critical component of educator preparation: clinical practice. This episode explores the role of mentoring, coaching, lab schools, and fieldwork experiences in preparing future early childhood educators for success. Hear from educators and program leaders about the partnerships and hands-on learning opportunities that help candidates build the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to effectively support young children and their families.
Episode 7: GYO Part 2
Hilary: [00:00:00] Everyone, and welcome to the SPARK EC Voices podcast, the place where knowledge meets action in early childhood education.
Lindsay: We're so glad you're here. This show is brought to you by the SPARK EC Hub, and that's the California State University system-wide partnership for advancing research and knowledge in early childhood education
Hilary: Well, welcome back to the CSU Spark EC Voices Podcast.
I'm Hilary
Lindsay: And I'm Lindsay. This is part two of our conversation on growing your own early educators
Hilary: In part one, we explored the pathways that bring people into the early childhood work profession, and the partnerships that connect community colleges, CSU programs, and early learning settings across California
Lindsay: Today, we're [00:01:00] focusing on another essential piece of the educator preparation clinical practice.
We'll talk about mentoring, coaching, lab schools, field work experiences, and the partnerships that help these future educators develop the skills and confidence they need to support young children and families So let's
Hilary: jump back into our conversation. Clinical practice is such a key part of preparing early educators.
It gives them the real authentic experience of what it's like. I mean, we could read about all the children we want, but it's very different when you're actually sitting on a rug and they're trying to sit on your lap or running around the room or doing something else. So lab schools really sit in the heart of that experience.
Brittney, can you share how your lab school models high-quality teaching across birth to five age spans, and how do you support, the child development students, and students that maybe are moving into the PK-3 credential program, how do you support them?
Brittney: Okay. I think that is a [00:02:00] wonderful way to explain the uniqueness of our program.
At Fresno State we have three different child development sites, and they're equipped with observation rooms for anyone trying to see what it looks like in a high-quality location. And when I say high quality, we're a part of NAEYC and our local quality, improvement program, which is Early Stars for Fresno County.
So we started with child development students, and because of our success with those students over the year, it made sense for us to be the first placement for the PK-3 credential students. So I'm gonna start a little bit with our child development students. It kind of goes back to the whole grow your own concept.
I myself was a child development lab student for the program I work in right now, which is another full circle moment, and when I was completing my master's, program here at Fresno State, we did a lot of our classroom [00:03:00] sessions here at the Huggins Center where I'm the program director of. So it's just a full circle moment back to that whole grow your own, and it kind of showed me what high-quality education looks like and how it should be, displayed in any early education setting So our teachers, when we get these lab students, we divide them through our five preschool classrooms.
Some of our infant classrooms, have observers, but not inside of the room, and our toddler- classroom have lab students placed in there. So we try to keep the lab students, with a max of four in each classroom. But our primary goal is to make sure that they feel like they're getting that hands-on training.
So it's making them feel like they're one of the teachers in the room, even though their time is very brief, since they're placed in the classroom once a week for three hours a day just so they can have [00:04:00] that, component that's required that Ona mentioned for their permit. Their, time is limited, but we want them to get the full experience, so we include them in the curriculum.
We include them in, the assessments that we complete. We include them in how we conduct our family engagement. We go over the class talking points so they know, what appropriate conversations look like with children. We provide a toolkit for them to have access to view, to see, what developmentally appropriate, interactions look like.
We try to give them the full experience almost as if they have been hired for a position to become a teacher in that room, so they see what high quality, interactions look like. When it comes to our PK-3 credential students, they... I think their experience is a little bit better because they get to come to the classroom every day, and we are a full day, full year program, so that uniqueness allows us to have child development students in the [00:05:00] fall and spring, and then our PK-3 credential students during the summertime.
And because of that, our students in our program are already used to having a lot of adults around, which is a benefit to them, but it just makes it an easy onboarding experience for that coaching and mentoring to happen naturally And of course, our master teachers in each classroom provide feedback to each candidate that's in the classroom.
And they kind of try to see, where their desired age group is, um, because it's different for the PK-3 credential students.
Hilary: Well, thanks, Brittney. Uh, it is really exciting for me to even imagine the child development lab and the student experience and having, different types of opportunities in that from observing the, with, behind the mirrors to being in the classroom with the children.
I know I can even remember I did all of that when I was in a child development program up at Chico State, and I worked in their child development [00:06:00] lab, and that probably was one of the most powerful experiences for me, growing into an early educator. It's like those actual hands-on things are what make it real for our students.
So Lindsesy, maybe we could move this towards cross-system partnerships. How, how our three entities that we have here in the room kind of work together?
Lindsay: I think we, we have opportunities and challenges already built into our strong PK-3 workforce and also our systems, right? System-wide and systemness, we need to align, all of those as, community colleges and CSUs and on-the-ground providers and lab sites, to really get to where we need to be.
I'd love to hear from each of you what does strong alignment look like between community colleges, CSU, and, and early learning settings? Kathleen, we can start with you.
Kathleen: Sure. So I think alignment is an interesting word, that I'd like to dig into just a bit. In the San [00:07:00] Francisco Bay region, of the 28 community colleges, 26 offer ECE and EDU courses.
About 21,000 students participate in our courses, and it's the fifth highest, sector with, in terms of student enrollment. So interest is there, job, uh, relativities there, students are able to get jobs. They, they know kind of, what courses ... Well, they hope they know what courses they need. But when it comes to transfer, only, not even 3,000 students earn, a degree, or a certificate that could lead to being transfer ready.
So 20,000 students, 3,000. And I think that's kind of the data we have to look at when we're looking at alignment. What are the barriers for students, for these 21,000 students? What are their barriers that prevent them from [00:08:00] earning, either a degree or a certificate that could lead to transfer?
And for our students, barriers are as simple as when are courses offered? Are they, offered online? Are they offered on the weekends? Are they offered,- enough of them offered at night for working students? We offer bilingual courses taught by bilingual instructors.
So are they offered in, both a language and by someone that understands cultural competency? Do students feel comfortable learning both English and their content, in child development at the same time? Do we have hybrid courses, virtual courses? And then do we provide, in terms of online learning, the instruction many of these students need to, learn online?
Because that's a whole other type of learning, and many of our students don't know how to maneuver in an online course. So It's not just a [00:09:00] matter of having the counseling and advising needed and the mapping, but it's also these, just these basic things that allow for clear transfer alignment.
And are our counselors and advisors, aware of, what's needed. Finances are most certainly a barrier to transfer. Obviously, when you have 21,000 students and such a small number transferring, you've gotta look at all the factors, which include finances. But even if you had free tuition, it's also what are you not doing when you're in school?
And many of our students have multiple jobs, and they're parents, and they're caregiving. And so it's when do they do homework? Between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. How are those things built in so that students who are working two jobs and have young children, are supported? And at the community college level, the majority of our students are female, and I think we have to look at gender and gender [00:10:00] inequity, wage and salary inequities, and responsibility, home responsibility inequities, if we're gonna move this needle and encourage transfer, and, articulation, and matriculation.
I would say that improving the ADT is a strategy, but, Many students don't get an ADT. They don't even get an AA or an AS degree. There's a few things we need to pay attention to before, you have a student, who's at that door, knocking on the door to transfer. The-- We brought up apprenticeship earlier, and I would say it's a promising practice because you have an earn and learn strategy.
You also have a clear pathway. Ideally, you would have a job that you can keep from, high school to community college to, the CSU, and you would have tuition paid for. And ideally, you would have an employer, which is another [00:11:00] element, that supports your, academic journey, and not all employers do.
So you need an employer that can flex schedules and an employer that can give you time off for your final and an employer that understands that you need some support. Maybe an employer that provides childcare, or tutoring. It's a whole community's responsibility to get folks, to bridge these gaps so that we really have a true partnership.
And it's the academic institutions, the community, agencies that support students, and, employers. So, I would say that, it's all hands on deck if we're gonna increase these transfer numbers and really pay attention to the teaching shortage and fill these jobs with folks from the community who, will stay.
And we haven't really talked about turnover, but we have very high turnover in this field. So, I do believe that GYO addresses turnover. If you're serving your [00:12:00] community, you're working in the school you attended and your kids are going to, you're gonna be less likely to leave. But we have to use more creative strategies to keep folks on this pathway and to collaborate at institutional levels.
Lindsay: Kathleen, thank you for that, those insights. And I think keeping equity in the lens, right, at all times is going to be essential. Ona, from the community college perspective and thinking about the partnerships we've talked about and the supports that we need to be, having available for students, is there anything you'd like us to know from, from that perspective on the ground with child development students that you're seeing right now?
Oona:Yeah. Based on what Kathleen was talking about, right, we do have this aligned ADT, and we do have, articulation with our early childhood courses with community college. But she brings up important points, that if students don't see themselves as in this transfer pathway, it won't happen, no matter how much [00:13:00] alignment we have.
So one thing that our department chair in child development does is has a really strong partnership with our five to six community colleges that are in our local region. And she goes to meetings, at least once a semester, sometimes more often, to meet with advisors, to meet with faculty, and to meet with students, and to talk about our degree program, and to talk about the concentrations that I mentioned earlier and what can you do with this degree, and what do courses look like here, and are they offered online?
Are they offered hybrid? What does that mean? Is it in person? What will the time commitment look like? Um, and answer those questions and be that face for that person so that it feels like, oh, that's something I can do. I'm gonna set my, goal to go to that campus because I know that person there and I know these are options for me there.
And so that way students are getting that up-to-date information. And, thinking about that, we also develop partnerships with our [00:14:00] local, early childhood centers and schools. So when I talked about our practicum course that students do, a lot of times, there are students that are already working in preschools in the area.
So if it is, a, a school that we have or a center that we have a, we can build a memorandum of understanding or an MOU with, we will actually try and see if we can partner with a school where a student might already be working, right? So they're not duplicating that. So it's another way for them to get credit for the work that they're doing and strengthen the partnership that they have and strengthen our partnership with local, early childhood centers and schools
Lindsay: Thanks, Ona.
Brittney, you've talked about your pieces as being the bridge before. Just wrapping up that partnership alignment piece, what do you wanna make sure that our audience understands about where the lab sites or where, sites fit in that are being used for clinical practice? What's, the most essential [00:15:00] things for us to understand there?
Brittney:
I believe the most important part for our program playing a role in the clinical practice is making sure that the students that are planning to be educators in our community see what play-based learning looks like. Being a Reggio-inspired program, many people don't know what that means, or they look at play as just play and not a pivotal part of the learning process for our youngest learners.
So if they have that experience, that hands-on experience in the class and seeing how it actually works, how it connects to the preschool learning foundations, how it connects to actual curriculum, they see that it can be done. They see that they, that the youngest learners here at our program show unexpected things in the preschool classrooms.
I think it's [00:16:00] mind-blowing for a lot of them, especially those who've had experience with those rigid programs that gave them, these themes to follow or these worksheets to pass out to students, and then to come to an experience, in our program where everything is uniquely designed to the children based off of their interests.
It shows how learning can be elevated, and it can be fun for the children, and it's just, I think it's just a different world down here. And teachers who have that experience go in the districts and make their room more welcoming, make learning fun, and I think it's just a better experience for the children.
So I think I take great pride in us being a part of it just so we can change how early education looks out there. And when I say early education, I'm meaning up until third grade.
Lindsay:
So Hillary, we've talked a lot, here about what do those partnerships look like and why each [00:17:00] piece is important and why they need to connect with one another.
So I'll hand it over to you to kinda think about what strategies strengthen GYO for us Yeah. Thanks. So, we're starting to wrap up our conversation. We've heard about, some of the strategies that you're currently using in your own programs. But if we were to kinda think forward, how do we, fix this or make it better?
Hilary: What types of strategies, maybe you're doing some of them already, and I'd love to hear more maybe about that apprenticeship model. What other types of things could really make a difference? So Kathleen- what are you seeing
Kathleen: apprenticeships are growing.
In our region, we have 29 unique pathways now. In 2017, we had one, so, , in our sector, uh, in the ECE and EDU sector. We've obviously had apprenticeships in plumbing and electrical, electricians for decades, but in our sector we're up to 29. [00:18:00] So they're growing and they're, popular, and there was funding available to grow them, which is a big deal.
But what's missing, and we have pre-apprenticeships at the high school level, but what's missing is upon transfer, we don't have continuous apprenticeships. Right now there are two possible apprenticeships that are in hearing right now. They're being, reviewed at the Department of Apprenticeship Standards.
One is Tulare County has one pending, an apprenticeship for credentialed teachers, and another is at Santa Clara County Office of Ed. They will probably be approved in the next two weeks, but that's two in the whole state that, are beyond the community college level in this sector.
So we need to look at growing apprenticeships for the juniors and seniors who are at the CSUs so they can keep earning and learning, and also for that credential year to grow that, kind of the stackable apprenticeship. And I think that's, something we can work on. I love [00:19:00] the idea, Brittany, that all, all of the students and all of the children in California have access to the high-quality programs that lab schools tend to offer.
I absolutely agree with you, and I agree with all of your comments that that is what students need to see. And for some, that's the first time they've seen developmentally appropriate, practice, that they've seen play-based learning. And, all of our children deserve those kinds of settings.
But I know, in California that all of our children are not getting those settings. So I think, we have, a job in front of us providing more opportunities, and growing our own from a vast range of, childcare providers. So really targeting family childcare providers, those working in their homes and providing pathways for them.
Providing, small, mom and pops with, academic pathways and opportunities to, [00:20:00] learn and continue their education. And all those folks that -- don't see themselves as transferring, don't see themselves as continuing their education. And really targeting, the gender inequity.
So really reaching out to women and looking at what they need to stay in school, and what women who are low to moderate wage earners need to stay in school, and to look at women who are English language learners and look at what they need to stay in school. And so I think if we really look at all the populations that are in our classrooms, we'll come up with some strategies that both include new folks entering the field, but also the incumbent workforce.
Oh, there've been some hopes, so some counties, Alameda County, San Francisco, Sonoma, have passed, tax measures that provide some funding for both childcare for parents, but also for workforce incentives and to support wage enhancements in the field. And I think those kinds of [00:21:00] efforts are gonna be needed, tax incentives and, enhancements that really raise salaries and tie it to, academic achievement are, community efforts that would help, with this, you know, challenge.
Hilary: Well, Kathleen, I think you've offered some really good strategies that actually would apply to all of our settings. I don't think they're unique just at the community college. Mm-hmm. , I'm t- thinking more and more about this apprenticeship model, and I think maybe that's a whole nother episode of just digging in-
like, what does an apprenticeship actually look like in education? Because it is different than if you're a welder, electrician, or something else, but it is a really great grow your own strategy that takes baby steps and really helps raise the, the field, in a lot of ways. So I think I'm gonna move us to the very end, and let's start thinking about your final reflections or a call to action, [00:22:00] which may include work you're already doing, it may include work you hope to do, it may even include policy changes or other types of things.
I'm not sure. So let's just close with one final thought from each of you. What is your call to action from your perspective, where you're sitting, of how we grow the early childhood workforce? Let's begin with Brittany.
Brittney:I think my call to action is just to keep doing what we're doing. It's a reminder that the work that we do matters.
I think for a long time, early childhood has been looked over, has been referred to as daycare, and it's just, this is reassurance for me that to keep inspiring teachers with the heart to do this, to keep doing it, and to make sure that we're highlighting the unexpected things that happens in our field and modeling it and being open to share what we do and how we do it with others.
Hilary: [00:23:00] Great. Thank you. How about you, Kathleen?
Kathleen: Oh. I-- we've kind of slipped backwards lately. So my call to action would be to regain some of the ground that recently been lost, ensure that we have things like loan forgiveness and financial supports for students that need it the most, and, that we have welcoming environments for students that don't, um-- are afraid to go to school for a variety of reasons, and that, we look at the real barriers for, students and, see that this impacts our field, and , it's a generational impact.
It impacts their children and their children's children, and what we do is just so central to, having a healthy child population. I think we have to center this sector more, see it as infrastructure as opposed to just another thing, and really look [00:24:00] at the generational impacts that we provide.
We're helping future generations become more informed, more educated, more playful, more, appropriate, better parents. We're helping them be better parents. We just impact so much of, our society, and we have to center what we're doing. Um, we have to keep speaking out. And I also think we have to really fund the journey better.
If this is really a central, commitment from the state of California, we've gotta fund teacher recruitment and growing our own in development at the high school level, at the community college level, and upon transfer. And we have to fund all the people that it takes to keep this wheel going. And that is not the case right now.
This is a complicated pathway, and we have a lot of folks who are just giving of their time, continuously to stay informed, and to stay on top of, all the changes. So I think really, a call to action would be to increase the value [00:25:00] of what we do , and put, funding where the value is.
Hilary: I completely agree with all of that, Kathleen, and hopefully the Spark EC Hub can help elevate this work a little bit. So we're all doing a little piece of that, hopefully. But Ona, let's hear from you. What is your final reflection or call to action? Um, when I think about a call to action, I kind of think about two pieces.
Oona:
One is, and it's also based on our conversation today, is really how do we build support and a sense of belonging for students to complete their education? So it's not about just registering for classes or a program plan or, something like that. It's that how do they feel that they belong, and they matter here?
And so what kind of supports can we build in, in your program, wherever you are, [00:26:00] you're listening, however you're in- you have influence on that, how can you build those, , initiatives that build that sense of belonging? The other piece I think that is important for our California context is how do we incentivize the process, right, to obtain a degree?
How do we see that that's important? How do we, advocate for grants or stipends or other kinds of programs, that are incentivizing our early childhood educators to obtain their degree? So Brittany was talking about the importance, right, of seeing play-based learning, going to a Reggio Emilia constructivist-based center to really listen to children's voices.
So we want, our early childhood educators in California to have those experiences, and a lot of times they're having them through the courses that they take, through the practicum, through the clinical field work. And so, how do we as a state, incentivize and reward folks [00:27:00] for, doing that coursework, obtaining those degrees?
And so I would love to- us to see how do we do that, in our state specifically.
Lindsay: As we wrap up this two-part conversation, one thing is clear: growing our own early educators is truly a collaborative effort. It takes strong partnerships among community colleges, CSU programs, lab schools, school districts, Head Start programs, childcare providers, and the countless others working together to support educators through their professional journey.
Hilary: From these entry points into the profession to clinical practice and ongoing mentorship, every stage of this pathway matters from the community college through the CSU. So we wanna thank our guests for sharing their expertise, their experiences, and their commitment to strengthening California's early childhood workforce.
Lindsay: And thank you to our listeners for joining us for this special two-part series on [00:28:00] growing your own early educators.
Hilary: If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website and join the movement to transform early learning through collaboration and innovation because every great idea begins with a spark