Lessons Learned from Work with International Partners to Inform Rural Practices for Early Childhood Intervention.

AbstractThe United States is becoming increasingly diverse with the largest growth in Hispanic populations. Diversity also is increasing in rural America. This diversity is reflected in the participants in early care and education programs and K-12 students. Unfortunately, demographics for college and university teacher education programs do not match those of early childhood participants and K-12 students. This lack of diversity, especially in teacher education programs, compromises the ability of personnel preparation programs to adequately prepare graduates to work and interact effectively with diverse populations of children and families. Therefore, intentional and planned multi-cultural community-based experiences are vital and necessary to promote the scholarship and citizenship of our teacher-education graduates. The purpose of this article is to describe strategies program faculty in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education (IECE) at the University of Kentucky (UK) have used to support IECE students to understand, appreciate, and value the perspectives of Hispanic children and families with whom they will work. Through travel and exploration of how languages and cultural traditions are practiced in Hispanic home countries, IECE students gain a greater understanding of where Hispanic roots begin and how these influence education in rural early childhood programs and schools. This article will describe two program activities that have a significant global component and represent two different ways in which students are involved in a global experience. One is in-country (Guatemala) and focuses on curriculum and assessment while the second is focused on curriculum materials developed by students on campus for use in a rural tribal community in Ecuador.Keywords: international experiences, early childhood education, diversityAmerica is becoming increasingly diverse. In 2011, for the first time in America, more children of color were born than White, non-Hispanic children; almost 47% of all children and more than 50% of children under the age of one were children of color. Furthermore, population experts project that by 2019 the majority of children in the United States will be children of population groups historically considered minorities in this country. Children of color are already a majority in 10 states and the District of Columbia. In 2012, of the 3,143 counties and county equivalents in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 591 (19%) counties reported more (greater than 50%) children of color (traditional minority) than White (majority) children with another 300 counties reporting minority membership of between 4050%. As minority populations grow, those populations groups previously in the majority will become the new minority.This growth can be largely attributed to an increase in the number of Hispanic or Latino families now living in the United States. Hispanic and Latino "refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race" (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Among U.S. Hispanic subgroups, Mexicans ranked as the largest at 63%; following Mexicans were Puerto Ricans (9.2%), Cubans (3.5%), Salvadorans (3.3%), Dominicans (2.8%), and the remaining 18.2% were people of other Hispanic or Latino origins (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).This growth of Hispanic and Latino populations has not been unexpected. The number of Hispanic children has increased every year since 1980, rising from 5.3 million in 1980 to 17.4 million in 2010. At the same time, the number of White children in the U.S. has decreased every year since 1994 while the number of Black children has remained steady at around 10 to 11 million over the past two decades. Data suggest that, of the almost 74 million children in American in 2011, 53.2% are White non-Hispanic, with 23.6% Hispanic (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Census data reveal important information about these groups of children entering rural schools and communities. …