Reviews
Sharon Kagan, Ed.D., Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University and Child Study Center, Yale University - December 5, 2023
"Compiling a compendium of the nation's best scholars, McWayne and Gadsden have edited a path‐breaking volume that purposefully centers research on equity within the integrated family–school–community eco‐context. Anchored in a host of trenchant issues facing contemporary early childhood practice, the volume is both practical and intellectually audacious, honest, and bold. A brilliant conceptualization, superb scholarship, and enriching commentaries combine to render this collection a stunning tribute and a prescient prescription for the diverse ways scholarship can and must advance policy and social justice. Nothing could be more timely, more useful, or more important—for our time and for the ages."
Dennis Culhane, Ph.D., Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy, University of Pennsylvania - December 5, 2023
"Tackles many of the critical sociocultural dimensions of implementing a range of evidence‐based practices in early childhood education. The expert chapters reflect how these sensitivities are expanding the reach of successful approaches to the children and communities who need them most."
Michael Cunningham, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Africana Studies, Tulane University - December 5, 2023
"Advances developmental science theory, interventions, and practices. The contributors go beyond typical descriptions of challenges—they also advance solutions. This edited volume is a welcomed addition to the extant literature and will be foundational for future scholars examining ecological linkages between challenges and solutions that are based on theoretical and applied processes."
Robert Pianta, Ph.D., Batten Bicentennial Professor of Early Childhood Education and Founding Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia - December 5, 2023
"I am one of hundreds of academics influenced by John Fantuzzo's ideas. I consider my contacts with John—his work and his person—to be among the most authentic and valuable points in my career. John's boundless and enthusiastic energy for how the best science can and should make positive contributions to the lives of children, families, and educators is evident across this volume's chapters and in the careers of the authors. John is a visionary: he knew to appreciate and study child development and education from an assets-based perspective long before we used that term; he demonstrated the promise of community‐level data systems and their value for decision‐making; and he has been unrelenting in articulating that an ecological‐developmental perspective is relevant for a wide range of stakeholder groups. Above all, John embodies what service to the public means as an academic. Like John, this volume is a valuable resource advancing human development."
Michael Guralnick, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Pediatrics, University of Washington - December 5, 2023
"Relationship‐based developmental principles provide the core of a systems approach in this important volume…guide[s] communities to optimally and equitably support children's development and the aspirations of their families."