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Early Childhood Education

The Early Childhood Education program offers Masters and Doctoral degrees.

Courses in Early Childhood Education

EDCI 640. Language/Literacy for Bilingual/Multiculutral Young Learners.

Critical multicultural perspectives on the acquisition and development of communication skills by young children who represent bilingual and multicultural backgrounds; critique of language development practices as applied in education settings with young children. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 650. The Bilingual/Multicultural Young Child in Family and Culture.

Bilingual/multicultural notions of family/culture as foundations for learning/anthropological investigation including cross-cultural comparisons of western concepts of "child" and "parenting"; critique of various constructions of child as learner within family context and monocultural perspectives of "developmentally approppriate" educational practice. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 651. Bilingual/Multicultural Early Childhood Education.

Historical/current models of early childhood curriculum/methodology as a foundation for the more critical analysis of curriculum as social construction, grounded within values of a particular society or culture; bilingual/multicultural views of early childhood education, curriculum and teaching strategies requiring constant examination. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

The following courses are in development:

EDCI 689.Learning Theories for Teachers of Young Children.

Students in this course will be expected to achieve the following objectives: understand the varying nature of learners and the learning process; Examine theory and research that has direct implications for educational practice; Analyze the educational applications that have developed from This theory and research; Comprehend the processes of learning, which include: (a) learning from a behavioral perspective, (b) learning from a cognitive perspective; (c) learning from a constructivist perspective; (d) social cognitive theory; and Explore development as it relates to learning which includes cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development. (Tentatively schedule for Spring 2008.)

EDCI 689. Research Issues in Early Childhood Education.

EDCI 689. Cognitive Development.

EDCI 689. Development and Learning: Psychosocial Perspectives.

EDCI 689. Language Acquisition in Young Children.

EDCI 689. Foreign Language Learning in the PreK-Elementary Years.

EDCI 689. Education of Language-Minority Children: Psycholinguistic and Policy Perspectives.

EDCI 689. What's Happening with the Family?

EDCI 689. Methods of Interviewing Young Children.

EDCI 689. Policy Issues of Early Childhood Education.

Early Childhood Education Faculty Members

Hersh C. Waxman, Professor - In 1983, Dr. Waxman received his Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis, Educational Research and Evaluation from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and then received a postdoctoral fellowship in 1983 and 1984 from the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He formerly served as Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Educational Research Center at the University of Houston. He also was a Senior Research Associate at the National Research Center for Education in the Inner Cities, and a Principal Researcher in the National Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence. Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked for the State of Illinois as a program evaluator in the Bureau of Planning and Evaluation and as a classroom teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.

Dr. Waxman received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Education at UIC, and Outstanding Research Awards from the American Educational Research Association, Southwest Educational Research Association, and the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. He also has received the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award, College of Education Alumni Service Award, and the College of Education Research Excellence Award. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 research articles in journals such as the International Journal of Educational Research, Learning Environment Research: An International Journal, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Research and Development in Education, Bilingual Research Journal, Urban Education, Journal of Educational Computing Research, and Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. He has co-edited several books such as: Preparing Quality Educators for English Language Learners (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006), Observational Research in U. S. Classrooms: New Approaches for Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (Cambridge University Press, 2004), Research on Educational Resiliency: Student, Teacher, and School Perspectives (Information Age Publishing, 2004), New Directions for Teaching Practice and Research (McCutchan, 1999), Students At Risk in At-Risk Schools: Improving Environments for Learning (Sage, 1992), and Effective Teaching: Current Research (National Society for the Study of Education, 1991).

Dr. Waxman has extensive experience in program evaluation and he has been involved in many national, regional, and local program evaluations of early childhood programs/initiatives. He was the evaluator of a five-year longitudinal evaluation of the Greater Houston Collaborative for Children that focused on (a) helping low-income parents improve their parenting skills and their children's success in school, and (b) improving the quality of child care centers across the Houston metropolitan area. He also completed a six-year evaluation of Child Advocates Inc, an organization that helps children and parents who come from abusive family situations. In that study, they focused on a number of indicators of healthy parenting such as family functioning measures, social services obtained by mothers and fathers, and placements of children back to their families. Recently, Dr. Waxman has been involved in several evaluation projects with the Children's Museum of Houston.

Tracy Collins, Assistant Professor - Dr. Collins has worked with practically every early childhood age group from infants to preschoolers. This experience working with children from a wide range of settings and contexts also support her teaching and research. For her doctoral thesis, Dr. Collins interviewed parents and home visitors, asking them to talk about their parenting practices and beliefs, and how they each build relationships in intervention work. She received her master's in education in 1998, and her doctorate in 2004; both degrees are from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Collins gained valuable experience working with young children and their families in a variety of settings, including home daycare, summer camp and residential programs. This early work led her to Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts, where she earned a master's of science degree in Child Development and Early Childhood Education. Dr. Collins continued working with young children, teaching infants, toddlers and preschool aged children at Radcliffe Child Care Centers, Inc., one of several affiliate childcare centers at Harvard University. "I bring a long standing love and enjoyment of working with young children to my current work teaching A&M students. My past experiences are a big part of who I am, both as a teacher and researcher," states Dr. Collins.

L. Quentin Dixon, Assistant Professor - Dr. Dixon earned her Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology, specializing in Language and Literacy, from Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 2004. While doing her doctoral work, she was selected for the highly competitive 3-year Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant. Her dissertation employed multilevel modeling techniques to examine the English oral language and early literacy skills of kindergarten children in Singapore. After completing her dissertation work, Dr. Dixon worked on large-scale educational program evaluations at Abt Associates for clients such as the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. For the national Reading First Impact Study, she took a lead role in designing an instrument for classroom observations and in training 170 field staff to use the instrument reliably to conduct observations of reading instruction in 250 schools located in 13 different states. Dr. Dixon's research interests focus on the language and literacy development of young bilingual children, and in using rigorous quantitative research methods to study educational questions. Prior to her dissertation work, she taught English as a second language in public elementary schools near Seattle, WA.

Blanca G. Quiroz, Assistant Professor - In 2005, she earned her Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. While doing her doctoral work, she served on the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review where she edited a special issue on Immigration and Education. Prior to her dissertation work, she worked as a bilingual teacher in Los Angeles School District and as a research associate at UCLA where she completed her BA and MA. She has authored and coauthored multiple articles and chapters in the area of cross-cultural psychology and home-school interactions in the education of minority children. Some of these articles have been published in New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Aztlan: The Journal of Chicano Studies, and Handbook of Educational Psychology. She has also coauthored books and other materials for teacher training in cultural sensitivity for WestEd Laboratories. Dr. Quiroz has extensive experience in conducting research with immigrant Latino populations, especially with Latino parents and their children. Currently she is conducting research on the language development of Spanish speaking children in the home and its impact on early language and literacy skills. She is also interested in studying the role of language on learning math and science for ESL students and other cognitive aspects of bilingualism.

Robin A. Rackley, Clinical Assistant Professor - Dr. Rackley received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Texas A&M University in 2004. Dr. Rackley teaches graduate courses in creativity and intelligence, techniques of research and curriculum development. At the undergraduate level she has taught courses in educational psychology, early childhood education, child and adolescent development, curriculum development for early childhood, community and culture, science methods and math methods. While working on her doctorate, Dr. Rackley was affiliated with the Center for the Study and Implementation of Collaborative Learning Communities. She has a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Gifted and Talented Education. Dr. Rackley taught in public schools for eight years and focuses her research on early childhood teachers. In particular, she is interested in the development of teacher leadership among early childhood educators. Dr. Rackley has published on topics in educational psychology and human development. Dr. Rackley has also held workshops for numerous Texas school districts on topics such as integrating technology into the classroom and teacher leadership.

Radhika Viruru, Clinical Associate Professor - Dr. Viruru received both her Masters degree and her Ph.D in early childhood education from Texas A&M in 1988 and 1990 respectively, and currently also serves as the Coordinator for the Early Childhood Undergraduate Program.

Dr. Viruru's interests include postcolonial theory and its application to international early childhood education. She is the author of "Early Childhood Education: Postcolonial Perspectives from India" published by Sage Publications in 2001 and the co-author of "Childhood and Postcolonization: Power, Education and Contemporary Practice" along with Gaile Cannella, published by Routledge in 2004. She is also the author of numerous journal articles, edited book chapters and conference papers in the field of postcolonial theory, early childhood education and qualitative research. She serves on the editorial board of both the Journal of Education as well as the International Journal of Educational Research, Policy, and Practice: Reconceptualizing Childhood Studies.