Discovering Our Strengths and Capacities

What Works!

Strengths-Based Approaches to Early Childhood Education

Panel #1: Discovering Our Strengths and Capacities
What strengths can we draw upon to create uplifting experiences in our preschool classrooms? Instead of looking beyond our classrooms, how can we energize the strengths that already exist within ourselves, our colleagues and the extended families of the children under our care?
Practitioner:
		Linda Fiddler Linda Fiddler has lived in Bakersfield CA for more than 20 years, teaching cooking at the Panhandler and elementary school for the Bakersfield City School District. She now works with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools as a nutrition consultant for the Healthy California Network grant and enjoys introducing four- to seven-year-olds to a variety of fruits and vegetables through the magic of cooking. She has lived all over the world and enjoys travel and the adventure of learning something new. This last January Linda created Hope 4 Kern, an organization that encourages volunteerism and community service throughout Kern County.
Policy Maker:
		Delaine Eastin Elected in 1994, Eastin served two terms as California's State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), a nonpartisan constitutional office. As the highest-ranking official in California's elementary and secondary public school system, she was the first woman in the state's history to be elected State Superintendent. In 1997, Eastin was the first statewide elected official to call for universal preschool for all three- and four-year olds as well as for full-day kindergarten. A day care center in Fremont was named in her honor and, in 2002, a K-5 elementary school bearing her name opened in Union City. A high school art gallery in Healdsburg is also named for her. While serving as SPI, Eastin was an ex-officio Regent of the University of California and an ex-officio Trustee of the California State University. She was President of the National Center for Learning and Citizenship and still serves on their board. Prior to her election as State Superintendent, beginning in November 1986, Eastin served four terms in the State Assembly. In February of 2003, Eastin joined the National Center on Education and the Economy as the first Executive Director of the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) in Washington, DC. NISL offers a professional development program for leadership training in education. From 2004 to 2008, Delaine Eastin was a member of the faculty of Mills College in Oakland, California, serving as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Educational Leadership. In 2007 Eastin became the Director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Women's Leadership (CCEWL) with oversight of the Institute for Civic Engagement, the Women's Leadership Institute, the Upward Bound Program and the Educational Talent Search program. Today she continues to do some writing, speaking and consulting on a part-time basis.
Researcher:
		Alan Daly Alan J. Daly is a professor of Education at the University of California, San Diego. He graduated from Clark University with a BA in Psychology, received a MS in Counseling from San Diego State University, and a MA and Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Educational Leadership and Organizations from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Over the last 15 years, Alan has held a wide variety of positions in public education ranging from classroom teacher to district psychologist to educational leader. In addition to his K-12 public education experience, Alan has most recently been the Program Director for the Center for Educational Leadership and Effective Schools at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he collaboratively supported the delivery of high quality services and research to 5 school districts focusing on the rigorous examination of strengths, building leadership capacity, and facilitating the potential of systems for transformation. Alan has presented at the local, state, and national level around conflict mediation, the creation and maintenance of positive school cultures, and the impact of current accountability structures. As a licensed educational psychologist, he has also provided consultation to school districts working to build and sustain systemic leadership capacity, district reform, and implementation of adult and student conflict resolution. Alan's research interests include the intersection of leadership and trust, district coherence, strengths based processes, and social network theory and analysis.
Moderator:
		Lindsey Godwin Lindsey Godwin is an Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business, Morehead State University and received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, where she studied with the founders of Appreciative Inquiry. She has worked on AI projects with the UN, World Vision, Houston Schools, Weatherhead School of Management, and other organizations. In collaboration with David Cooperrider, the leading thought leader on Appreciative Inquiry (AI), she has been a partner in the development and facilitation of OvationNet, which provides online experiential workshops that focus on teaching the foundations of AI. She is currently a knowledge manager for the AI Commons and served as content manager for the 2007 International AI Conference in Orlando, FL and is the Co-Chair for the 2009 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference in Nepal.