Innovative Pedagogies in Early Childhood

Erika Thulin Dawes is chair of the Language and Literacy Department and Professor of Language and Literacy in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. Erika also serves as the program director of the graduate Early Childhood Education program. 

A former elementary classroom teacher, reading specialist, and district literacy administrator, Erika now teaches and mentors courses in early childhood literacy, children's literature, and elementary literacy methods. Prior to Lesley, Erika taught literacy methods courses at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Along with Mary Ann Cappiello, she is the co-author of Teaching with Text Sets (Shell, 2012) and Teaching to Complexity: A Framework for Evaluating Literary and Content-Area Texts (Shell, 2014) and a forthcoming book with Stenhouse Publishers in 2019. She is a co-author of a book on writing instruction, Learning to Write with Purpose: Effective Instruction in Grades 4-8 (2009), and the author of ancillary materials for the well-established textbook Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature, now in its tenth edition, authored by her mentor Dr. Barbara Kiefer. In 2016, Erika was appointed chair of the Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children committee of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), for a two-year term.

She blogs about children's and young adult literature currently at "The Classroom Bookshelf," and reviews children's and middle grade books for Language Arts.

Dana Frantz Bentley is an assistant professor in the early childhood programs at Lesley. She is also a classroom teacher in the early childhood program at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has been an early childhood teacher for over fifteen years, working with young children from infancy to age seven in diverse, urban settings in Boston and in New York City. Dana has a particular background in rethinking creativity and artistic practice with young children; she uses this perspective in the constantly evolving curricula in her emergent, child-centered classroom. 

In her teaching and writing, Dana focuses on social justice work with young children, studying children’s emerging political literacies, as well as her own pedagogy as an anti-bias educator. Dana is particularly inspired by the work of Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE), and seeks to question and disrupt traditional assumptions about early childhood education in her research and practice.

Dana’s writing has been featured in a wide range of early childhood journals, as well in as her book Everyday Artists, from Teachers College Press. Her role as a scholar/teacher, working both as a practitioner and an academic, allows her to operate from a unique perspective. This dual role allows her to question and investigate theory in practice in the ever-evolving realities of today’s young children.

I have worked in the field of Early Childhood Education for over 40 years, beginning as a preschool teacher in a Headstart program in Somerville. In August of 2015, I retired from my nearly 20 year tenure as director of the Infant Toddler Children’s Center in Acton, MA, a large non-profit community early care and education program. The center has a reputation for offering an individualized and flexible program reflecting a strong belief in the competency of every child to use exploration and experiences both in the classroom and in nature, to grow and learn.

I have always been fascinated by the learning process in both children and adults. I have approached my work with a strong sense of curiosity about how children, parents and teachers develop skills and knowledge. I encourage adult students and teachers to learn by using their questions, observations, and reflections in coursework and in interactions with children.

In the past few years, I have used writing as a tool to help me understand and articulate the process of learning and change in individuals and in communities. I spent a year documenting and writing about the process of change in the early childhood center I was directing. I followed the complex and emotion filled conversations, arguments, reflections and struggles of teachers and parents as we attempted to make our practices around food meet the needs of growing children and yet be respectful of family culture in a diverse population.

I bring to my work at Lesley experience in classrooms, in managing a community non-profit, and in supporting and coaching the work of teachers and students. I am a board member of the Boston Area Reggio Inspired Network. I also serve on the planning committee for the Annual Child Care Symposium sponsored by the Boston Psychoanalytical Society.  I am married to Will Twombly, have two grown children, and live in Watertown, MA.