Advancing Racially Equitable Research Practices
Research Agenda to Advance Racial Equity
In 2023, the Educare Network, including the national coordinating office at Start Early, adopted a Research Agenda to Advance Racial Equity. The goals of the Research Agenda were:
- to elevate innovative research questions, methodologies, and practices with broad implications for practice, programs, policy, children, and families;
- to guide continuous quality improvement and provide both learning and celebratory opportunities; and
- to impact the early care and education field by informing practitioners, policymakers, funders, researchers, and advocates about Educare’s efforts and findings that show promise for improving access, program quality, and outcomes of children, families, and the ECE workforce.
Inventory of Racial Equity Topics
Below is a description of the full set of workshops conducted with the Educare National and Local Evaluation Partner Community of Practice. The slides for several workshops are hyperlinked. They are available in both Spanish and English. Please reach out to us if you are interested in learning more about any of these topics (ademarco@unc.edu).
| Year | Month | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | September | Racial Equity (RE) Goal-setting activity |
| October | Report back on co-creating racial equity outcomes; introduced baseline survey | |
| November | Presentation of baseline survey results | |
| December | White Supremacy Culture Workshop | |
| 2021 | January | 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge & Processing |
| February | Co-creation of community commitments; started RE report-outs with Flint, Clayton, & Miami | |
| March | Presentation and discussion of community commitments; Strategies for responding to racist incidents in the moment; RE report-out from Winnebago | |
| April | Presentation by Dawn A. Yazzie of the Navajo Nation; RE report-out from Chicago | |
| May | Anti-racist research workshop/Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework + action planning, RE report-out from Atlanga, Central Maine, California-Silicon Valley | |
| June | CRT refresher and discussion of current state and planning, RE report-out from Kansas, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Lincoln | |
| July | Anti-racist research and equitable data use, report out from Milwaukee, New Orleans | |
| August | Processing RE work, RE report-out from Omaha, Pheonix | |
| September | Presentation by Paul Gorski, Equity Literacy Institute | |
| October | Power/influence analysis from Heather Krause, We All Count, RE report-out from Tulsa, West DuPage November: Data Camp session on equitable research methods and debrief | |
| November | Catch up on site reports + action planning | |
| December | 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge & Processing | |
| 2022 | January | Wahington, DC & Oklahoma RE report-outs, time to complete wave II survey |
| February | Report out on FPG’s RE work, summary of wave II survey data | |
| March | Tulsa team sharing on equity work | |
| April | Sharing wave II qualitative responses | |
| May | Dr. Fabienne Doucet talk on anti-racist research methods | |
| June | Seattle Educare shares about their racial equity work. | |
| July | Follow-up discussion of Dr. Doucet’s presentationPositionality StatementsMetrics to track our progress | |
| August | Positionality Statements Tools and metrics to track our progress | |
| September | CARES Update | |
| October | Presentation from FPG Language Summit (Dr. Travis Albritton) | |
| November | Dr. Fabienne Doucet talk on anti-racist research methods (Part 2) | |
| December | Follow-up on racial equity topics from Data Camp | |
| 2023 | January | Framing CARES work – parent responses to race and cultural socialization questions |
| February | Social identity mapping and research/evaluation | |
| March | Discussion of measurement of race | |
| April | Brainstorming for Educare DEIB statement and recommendations | |
| May | Revisit group norms, discuss accountability, create guide | |
| June | ECTA guest presentation on core competencies for equitable practice | |
| July | Practices for accountabilityTrohanis workforce competenciesGuiding Educare documents | |
| August | Continue to action steps from July discussion: Where to begin Level to engageHow this fits with Educare Network’s Research Agenda: Advancing Racial Equity and DEIB recs?Co-create Logic Model | |
| September | Review Educare Network’s Research Agenda: Advancing Racial Equity Logic ModelsContinue co-creating Logic Model | |
| October | Continue co-creating Logic Model | |
| November | Conversations on implementation of Educare Network’s Research Agenda: Advancing Racial Equity, principles 1-3 | |
| December | Conversations on implementation of Educare Network’s Research Agenda: Advancing Racial Equity, principles 4-6 | |
| 2024 | January | Conversations on implementation of Educare Network’s Research Agenda: Advancing Racial Equity, principles 7-9 |
| February | Finish conversations on implementation of Educare Network’s Research Agenda: Advancing Racial Equity, principles 10 & 11Brief survey on demographics & equitable practices | |
| March | Report out on LEP Demographic & Equitable Practices Survey | |
| April | Dr. Kristin Black – CBPR Primer | |
| May | Network meeting follow-up | |
| June | RPP-focused discussion with equity lens | |
| July | Town Hall Discussion & voting on proposed activities | |
| August | RPP reflection tool discussion and report back on town hall | |
| September | Report on Logic Model progress | |
| October | Planned: Research Program Partnership (RPP) work | |
| November | Presentation from Dr. Amber Sansbury on her dissertation: Racial Identity Development of Black Young Children: The Relationships Between Early Care and Education Teachers and Families | |
| December | Cancelled | |
| 2025 | January | RPP work |
| February | Revisit community commitments, accountability, and white supremacy culture | |
| March | RPP work | |
| April | Discussion about current work and strategies for moving forward | |
| May | Network Meeting | |
| June | Critical Hope Activity | |
| July | Discussion of Tableau reports and closing out the year | |
| August | Pre-empted for leadership conversation, to pick up in September | |
| September | Language revisions for our current times | |
| October | Storytelling activity | |
| November | Workshop with Dr. Anjali Ferguson on cultural humility in practice with children and families. | |
| December | Data Camp | |
| 2026 | January | Trauma-Informed Social Justice Research Framework |
| February | RPP toolkits & community-engaged research accountability systematic review opportunity | |
| March | Paper group reports | |
| April | Introduction to the REACH Tool: Report of Engagement in Community Research | |
| May | RPP practices | |
| June | Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) to document impacts of CoP activities | |
| July | Share back of REM findings and discussion |