Introducing the Updated Multicultural Principles

Vanessa Maañao-French: We'll go into our first section, which was thinking about taking a step back and thinking about the history of the Multicultural Principles. What's important to know is that the idea, the vision, the purpose, behind Head Start has always been centered around equitable practice. It's truly woven through our history and our mission statement. 

As Head Start continued to expand, we kept finding more and more ways to bring more and more children and families into our program. Whether that was creating Early Head Start, to be able to have infants and toddlers, to have a very specific region focused on AIAN, or our American Indian Alaska Native Tribal programs to make sure that they had their own place and space within Head Start. Migrant seasonal Head Start, our Early Head Start partnerships, consistently opening the door wider and wider to Head Start programs.

It's a commitment that we have to affirm what we believe to be best practice as we serve culturally and linguistically diverse children and families and the staff that work with us. In terms of our mission statement, this is what grounds us. We are here to promote the school readiness of young children from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social, and emotional development. I would encourage you to go into ECLKC.

There's some links on the Viewer's Guide that'll walk you through the history of Head Start. Because you'll see this mission play out consistently, and in particular, the timeline is super fascinating to take a look at. Really going through year by year all the innovation that Head Start has come through in the 50 - plus years that it has been around. It makes me proud to be a part of Head Start knowing where we've come from, and where we're going, and that that solid base of equitable practice has always been there. 

Here's a little bit of a specific history kind of lesson in like a minute or less about the Multicultural Principles. Back in 1991, the Office of Head Start published the original principles. It was an information memorandum and a resource handbook that really took a couple of years to create. It was a multicultural task force at the Office of Head Start that helped hold them together. Since the beginning, since 1991, it was like our promise to programs, to children, to families, to staff, that we would individualize our approach to be culturally responsive. 

Then in 2008, we had the revisiting and updating of the Multicultural Principles. I'm not sure how well this is going to show up on screen, but if this shows up on your screen, this is kind of what the book looked like. Remember this book? It was beautifully printed because it had English on one side. You'd flip it and you had Spanish on the other side. But what was most important was what happened when you opened up the book. This version, this edition of the Multicultural Principles expanded the work of the 1991 version. It included reflection questions. It included some examples. 

This was the first time in the Multicultural Principles that we had the community voice come through with examples of what happens when you implement these practices, the outcomes for children, families, and staff. Then finally, we come to our 2023 version. A lot has happened between 2008 and 2023 when we wrapped up the writing of the Multicultural Principles. 

You probably can all list them off for those who have been around for a bit. But it includes having a new set of Head Start program performance standards. We integrated those throughout. The one thing I do want to reiterate is from 1991 until 2023 that the core of the principles have remained the same. Which I think speaks volumes to kind of the vision of the Office of Head Start in creating these Multicultural Principles in the first place. We still have room to grow and we'll talk about that a little bit, but this has been the journey of the Multicultural Principles to this date. Katie?

Katie Miller: The Multicultural Principles, I really want to repeat what Vanessa said and then someone actually emphasized it in chat, too, we're thinking along the same lines. What was inside what the most important, and one of the goals along with that was to think about what is our foundation at Head Start. The MCPs are a reflection of those high - quality, effective practices that we all do as educators and staff to promote positive outcomes for children, families, and our staff.

I just referred to it as its acronym, so I'll say it - the whole thing, the Multicultural Principles. We do often call it the MCPs. They complement our existing Head Start resources that currently exist. In part because they align with what our national centers, like a DTL that we are from, our joint working definition on equity, and they do require an equity - focused mindset. I think it's that really nice combination of where we came from and where we want to go. That foundation is always forward - thinking and equity - focused. Speaking of that equity definition, when we talked - talk about this together, here's how we define equity with the Office of Head Start.

Equity means fair and just treatment to all children, families, and those who support them. Equity enables everyone to achieve their full potential. It promotes consistent, systemic, and equitable access to comprehensive services and systems for everyone. That's our goal. A rising tide lifts all ships. Our working definition is very broad and can be used as a guide to promote all of the work that we do and equitable practices for all. You can see those in their pieces here. When we say for all, we do want to talk just a little bit about who we include and who we specifically want to lift up.

We include people who are African American, Black, Latino, Hispanic, Indigenous, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian American, Pacific Islander, or other people of color. Members of religious minorities, people who are LGBTQIA2S+, people with disabilities, people who live in rural areas, and people adversely affected by persistent poverty or other forms of inequality. But we always understand that this list is iterative. It's always changing and growing as we change. 

Each community and/or changing times will expand who should receive fair and just treatment or who we support in particular to even this out. We talked about that equity mindset, this forward - thinking abilities. We just want to talk just a little bit about what that looks like, as well. It means being committed to action to disrupt inequities within our spheres of influence so that children and families can thrive. Using those strength-based languages and approaches that center the joy and brilliance of all children, particularly children of color and those with disabilities. 

Creating learning environments where children and their families' home language, their racial and cultural identities, their family structures, etc. Are all supported as valuable parts of children's development and learning. We always want to talk about children learning in the context of their families, their community, and their entire identities. Advocating for greater equity in children and families' access to high-quality education, to positive and fair experiences and to outcomes so that they are not predicted by demographic variables within one's sphere of influence. 

That was a lot. I'm just going to pause and breathe for just a minute. As we go through any of these, just a reminder if you have questions or requests for clarification, please include that in our chat, as well. Let's keep moving and think about what does it mean to take action to disrupt inequities. In part, that means leading for equity with the Head Start Multicultural Principles. When we were really reviewing this, we took some direct actions to look at how we do that. 

Let's follow our map and talk a little bit about where some of these influences and actions came from. In the 15 years since the last publication, research literature in child development in equity and inclusion has grown significantly. However, we know that identity formation in young children and their families inclusive of diverse cultures, genders, and life ways, still remains somewhat limited. The influences of early learning experiences and a child's developmental sense of identity and belonging is still a really growing field of study. The 2023, we're calling it 2023. It's kind of in transition into 2024 now. 

The Multicultural Principles for Early Childhood Leaders, while they are updated to reflect current research and practice, still do not quite yet encompass fully all aspects of identity of young children, their families, and program staff. For example, socioeconomic, social class, and gender identity development in young children are not deeply explored in this updated MCP. But nonetheless, the underlying principals and purpose that are carried throughout the 1991 edition remain the same. 

Here we are, again, saying what's inside still really counts. We want to challenge programs to individualize services so that every child and family feel respected and valued and can grow in accepting and appreciating differences. How did we get here? We want to reassure you that we did a lot of work not just in the research that I was just mentioning. But also in really affirming with those who are in doing the work who are practitioners to get a balanced amount of information about what was working, what was not working. How they understand the MCPs or how we could continue to lift the work.

We did a lot of interviews with Head Start staff from every single role and we also talked within our Research with Equitable Practice Advisory Group, quick shout out to that group. And I think I saw a couple of names in our chat that are here with us today, thank you for being with us today from that rep group. And that Research with Equitable Practice Advisory Group included representatives from every Head Start region in a variety of roles. It included some T and TA staff, training and technical assistance staff, and also, researchers who are at the forefront of the work on early childhood. 

We also have review and feedback from the Office of Head Start training and technical assistance specialists and from all of our national centers. All of this work, all of these discussions, the kind of back and forth about what we wanted this to be, was really to ensure that the Multicultural Principles are relevant, memorable. And in my opinion, the most important, that they are both practical and action-oriented so they don't just stay on the page. They make their way into the work that we do with our children, our families, and our staff. Back to you now, Vanessa.

Vanessa: Thanks, Katie. I'll take each of those points kind of one by one. And again, I want to emphasize what Katie just mentioned about really hearing from people like you out in the field who work with children and families every single day. And use the Multicultural Principles or maybe don't use the Multicultural Principles. What could we learn from their experiences to make this addition more user - friendly? To address the priority for relevance, we attach each of the Multicultural Principles to specific strategies that are then connected to the Head Start program performance standards. 

That helps us link up, right, to high - quality practice as described by the standards. The next thing that we did was we wanted to be sure to make the Multicultural Principles memorable and this may be where you see the most noticeable shift in both how they look and how they sound. This was a key feature that came through from our research with Equitable Practice Advisory Group. It was to really kind of get to that stuck place we got with the Multicultural Principles kind of sounding a lot the same. 

Because we're really trying to create a system - wide approach, but sometimes it was hard to - "Was that Number 8 or was that Number 10? Was that 7 or was that 6?" We introduced this - the concept of tag lines. Think like bumper stickers. Something you could say in a short sentence that kind of captures the essence of each of the principle statements and lets you know more about what's inside that chapter. The other thing we did is kind of organizationally we created three action categories and we'll dig into those in just a little bit. But that's important to know that this was about a strategy to make the principles more memorable. 

You can kind of put those tag lines into each action category and you'll see more in just a moment. And then finally, we wanted to be sure that the Multicultural Principles were something you could take action with. It's not a book that's going to be on your shelf. It's going to be like the 16% or so of you who use the principles daily, or weekly, or an ongoing way that is - has, you know, it's dog - eared. It's highlighted. It's got all the notes in it and it's one of your go - to resources. To do that, we created example indicators. Here's the principle. What's an example of what that would look like in my program? I work with home visitors. What would that look like on a home visit?

Practical strategies that go along with the indicators. This is what the home visitor's doing. Useful resources, connecting you to resources that already exist on ECLKC so it becomes a bit of a one - stop shop, if you will, for that principle. And then finally, an action planning form. If you see a strategy that you'd like to take on the run with you, pull it into your classroom. If you're a coach, you want to be able to use that right away, we have an action plan that's simple for you to try out and practice for a month, and we'll talk about that in a moment, too.

But before I move to the next slide, we did get a question that came through QA. It may have actually come through chat. And that is we know that it's on ECLKC and thank you for that. You're welcome. The other question is will there be a print version. The answer to that is yes and a print version will be available in one of two ways. We're creating a version that will be printable, I mean, downloadable. You can print it on your own. But that would be a really big document and we recognize that.

We are making plans now to create a print run in which we'll send out a copy of the Multicultural Principles to programs. Stay tuned. There will be more information. Look out for an e - blast. All that in the coming months as we finalize the Spanish version on ECLKC, the print version, and get the Multicultural Principles into your hands. Katie mentioned this a little bit ago but this is something just to emphasize, you know, that we recognize that we could take the Multicultural Principles this far.

We're trying to stay on pace with what we know about what's in the research, what you as practitioners, as teachers, coaches, directors, are learning about practice. To feed them into the Multicultural Principles. We know that research continues to grow, and we continue to learn. These are our opportunities to grow in future editions of the Multicultural Principles. All that to say this isn't the end point of developing the Multicultural Principles. We know that we will revisit this resource in the future and continue to be responsive to what we know and what we learn and to make it better each time.

Katie: Vanessa, can I pause for a second on that previous one?

Vanessa: Of course.

Katie: We've had a lot of questions in QA and chat and just want to acknowledge these specific areas. I just want to take a second to let people know that we are hearing them and that there's not a simple answer in the amount of time we have with this. But we don't want to let those conversations and those concerns go unaddressed. Please look for this kind of conversation to continue, perhaps to some degree in MyPeers and then perhaps to some degree as we continue to look at these MCPs for future versions.

Vanessa: Thank you for that powerful pause, Katie. Yes, and if you have more things that you would like to share with us. You would prefer for it to be just between you and us as presenters as a national center to communicate to other national centers in the Office of Head Start. Please feel free to use either the Q&A widget to send that directly to us, and/or if you feel comfortable sharing in chat, that works, as well.

This is the first time we're taking this out in a broad way to the Head Start community, we value your feedback and would love to learn more as we roll this out. Thanks, Katie. I'll talk a little bit more. Katie kind of mentioned this a bit, I'll do a little light touch on kind of what has been updated. Within the Multicultural Principles, the research, of course, has been updated to reflect what's more current. And we looked at both peer-reviewed and gray literature, things that aren't necessarily published, right? Dissertations, reports, things of that nature.

Of course, we listened to Head Start staff like you between our Research with Equitable Practice Group, talking with regional T and TA specialists. Talking with programs when we're out doing training to gather that information. Of course, those more structured interviews to kind of learn and build out the Multicultural Principles to be as reflective of our current practice as it can be. The other thing, again, that is new is incorporating the Head Start program performance standards. What may be notable, too, in the structure is that we remove the numbers.

We used to say Principle 1, Principle 2, through 10, but then we had feedback that this - the numbering kind of gave a prioritization. Like the first principle is the most important, the last one not so much, right? Like they would do them in order. When, in fact, we felt like they go together hand in hand. The numbers have been removed, and instead, we have action categories. Then we also have the indicators, practical strategies for all of them, and let's actually show you this instead.

Maybe this is clearer than my rambling, this is the structure of the Multicultural Principles. There are three action categories. Beneath each of the action categories, there are either three or four principles. We do have a total of ten. And then, within each of those chapters, there's the Why it Matters. That's the research part. Example Indicators, and again, these are examples. This isn't everything you could possibly do. It's to get you started.

Then, Connections to the Standards, Practical Strategies, what you can do, and what you should be maybe hearing, seeing, and feeling, even in your classrooms, home visits, and within your program walls. Voices from Head Start Community returns. These are real examples from Head Start programs implementing equitable practice and then, finally, the useful resources that we chatted about just a bit ago. The action categories are super - exciting to me.

This is the new organizational structure and we have Explore, Nurture, and Grow. We'll walk through each of these to give you a little orientation, and while we do the orientation to the action category and its respective principles, we'll also highlight one of the key features of the Multicultural Principles.