Breakout Session

Listening to Nebraskans: Community-Based Research for Creating New Pathways in Early Childhood

Breakout Session F
Wed, Jun 17, 2026 | 10:20 - 11:20am CDT

Session overview

Track:

Early Education

Audience level: 

Enhanced

Intended audience:

Anyone who interacts directly with young children and/or their families, Anyone who works with young children in early childhood education, Childcare providers, Early childhood educators, Early Head Start personnel, Educators, Family support workers, Head Start personnel, Parents/caregivers, School administrators, School representatives

Session materials: 

This session does not have any session materials currently.

Session Description

The RESPECT across Nebraska project is a partnership among multiple colleges, universities, and communities dedicated to strengthening the state’s early childhood workforce. One of the main goals for the project is to center community voices in designing and implementing new pathways for teacher preparation and pathways into the profession. To achieve this goal, the project has engaged in community-based participatory research to center the voices, experiences, strengths, and needs of various communities across Nebraska. This includes several rounds of focus groups with Nebraska’s diverse communities, representing both geographic diversity (rural communities) and racial/ethnic diversity (Hispanic, Native American, Black and immigrant communities). The focus group data were analyzed using qualitative research techniques within a multiple case study design. In this session, participants will hear from community members themselves as they describe the research process, share findings from each community, compare similarities and differences across communities, and offer their key takeaways for future pathways in early childhood education.

Learning objectives

  1. After this presentation participants will be familiar with the processes of community-based participatory research employed by the RESPECT project, including collaboration between university and community researcher partners to recruit participants, collect data and interpret findings.
  2. After this presentation participants will understand various Nebraska communities’ perspectives on:
  3. Their strengths and resources to support young children’s development and early childhood education.
  4. The types of experiences young children need in order to grow and learn in healthy ways.
  5. What early childhood educators need to know and be able to do, as well as the personal qualities that are important for educators to have.
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