SPECIAL ISSUE: Examining Contemporary Approaches to the Preparation of Early Childhood Education Professionals for Inclusion

The aim of this special issue is to showcase the contemporary landscape of early childhood preparation for inclusion and highlight how higher education and community partners currently respond to the varied programmatic, licensure, clinical, and other contexts observed across the field. In essence, the purpose is to help update our aging literature base on blended and other approaches to the preparation of early childhood educators for inclusion. We received a strong response to the call for papers and the result is a robust collection of articles spanning multiple contexts and including descriptions of programs and program development processes, empirical studies, and a call to action. Readers will undoubtedly benefit from the experiences and wisdom included. It is with great pleasure that we bring you this issue. We hope it will lead to further collaboration in pursuit of providing clear guidance for contemporary programs, and that it will spur more research to develop a strong empirical foundation for our efforts as inclusive early childhood teacher educators and preparation programs.

Ann M. Mickelson, PhD

Editor - HS Dialog