This case study is an investigation into the ways a powerful professional education organization, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), historically constructed and promoted pedagogical discourses about social identities, social problems, and social change. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze a dominant early childhood pedagogical discourse that is constituted by public position statements published by the NAEYC between 1991 and 2014. Using a critical, intersectional, and sustainable framework, this study revealed a complex, detailed narrative of the ways the NAEYC position statements constructed images of social identities and social groups in relation to social issues relevant to early childhood education practice and policy, particularly those that the NAEYC identified as eliciting “controversial or critical opinions” for the purposes of “promoting broad-based dialogue on these issues” (naeyc.org). This study worked to reveal the ways that the NAEYC position statements promoted harmful discourses about historically and multiply minoritized social identity groups and supremacist discourses about white and affluent children. This study also emphasized the significance of positionality and reflexivity in educational research about equity, justice, and sustainability for recognizing the potential for both harm and healing throughout the research process. The findings of the study highlight the need for layers of reflexivity at the institutional level, the disruption of deficit narratives in education, and the need for re-mediation of traditional signifiers of quality and professional development in the early childhood profession.

For many years, community colleges that chose to offer community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs were looked upon in a negative light (Rice, 2015). However, as the need for specialized baccalaureates within specific fields and job markets have continued to grow (McKee, 2005), CCB programs are becoming more widely accepted throughout the United States. In spite of this paradigm shift, Mississippi is one of the remaining states that have not embraced the idea of CCB programs, in spite of its statistical deficiency in regards to baccalaureate degree holding citizens (Williams, 2010). The focus of this study was to explore the perceptions of community college administrators in Mississippi with regards to the influence of CCB programs to the community college mission of institutions in their state. This study indicates that administrators in Mississippi recognize the benefits of offering CCB programs, but do not want CCB programs to take away from the well-established statewide higher education system through mission creep. Many of the strong position statements received overwhelmingly neutral responses. In contrast, Administrators who chose to give their opinion indicated that they are not familiar with how CCB programs are implemented, and do not believe that Mississippi is ready for CCB programs across the state. However, respondents felt that the community college mission is always evolving, should meet students’ needs, and varies from location to location. The findings also show that administrators are favorable to the piloting of CCB programs at a few (1-2) institutions, even though they believe the programs will take funding away from current programs and do not want community colleges evolving into 4-year institutions. The study also concludes that there is a significant difference between institution size and survey questions #18 and #20. There is also a significant difference between length of time in the community college sector and survey questions #15, #17, and #18.