EP 64: Building Equitable and Inclusive Early Childhood Environments with Alicia Highland

Alicia Highland and I talk about ways to make environments more inclusive and also touch on what that can look like in nature based settings. Alicia completed her Master's in Curriculum and Instruction, with specializations in Environmental Education and Nonprofit Management, and a Master's in Elementary Education. Now that she is taking a break from the classroom to raise her two littles, Alicia is focusing her energies into creating a nature-based education community online and in her hometown.

Key Takeaways: 

1. Equity and Inclusion: Alicia and Kristen talk about how to create environments where all children feel safe and have equal access to opportunities by addressing systemic barriers and ensuring inclusion.
2. Challenges: They talk about how early childhood education faces issues like low wages, lack of funding, and insufficient support, which hinder creating equitable educational spaces.
3. Nature-Based Education: Kristen and Alicia cover ways to also help make nature-based education accessible to all children.
4. Actionable Steps: They talk about how educators should educate themselves, use toolkits, have courageous conversations, and be open to feedback to create inclusive learning environments.

Find Kristen here: @kristen.rb.peterson or at KristenRBPeterson.com

Find Alicia here: @tinygreenlearning or at www.tiny-green-learning.com

Find the implicit bias test: Project Implicit

Find the NAEYC toolkit here: Guide