RECAP: 2023 Crane Lecture Series

A special thank you to Ohio State’s College of Education and Human Ecology/Carol Delgrosso for the photos.

PHOTO CAPTIONS

  • Picture 1: Dr. Valora Washington presenting the Crane Lecture Series
  • Picture 2 (from left to right): Dr. Laura Justice, Dr. Valora Washington, and Tanny Crane
  • Picture 3: Tanny Crane gives opening remarks
  • Picture 4: Dr. Laura Justice welcomes the audience to the 2023 Crane Lecture Series
  • Pictures 5-8: Dr. Washington delivering the Crane Lecture Series
  • Pictures 9-10: Reception following the Crane Lecture Series

Crane Lecture Series delivers compelling roadmap for advancing the early education field

At the 2023 Crane Lecture Series, Dr. Valora Washington delivered a powerful presentation on four strategies to help advance the field for early educators and their advocates. These included alignment of practices across the field, imagining sustainable innovations, creating pathways for long-term funding, and ensuring the field, as an essential workforce, offers good jobs.

As a nation we have been too reluctant to invest in early childhood education… [Do parents and policymakers know that] the people you’re leaving your child with are probably living in poverty?

– Dr. Valora Washington

At the core of these strategies, Dr. Washington was clear that there must be a fundamental shift in how the field of early care and education is viewed and treated with professional respect, and that any solutions must be centered in respect for early educators and for the critical role they hold.

She also described the need for these solutions to be based in adaptive leadership that is responsive to the challenges facing the field and garners energy and creativity for innovative – and long-term – solutions. It’s hard to quickly recap the depth and expertise that Dr. Washington shared in laying out the case for how we actionably move the field forward, so we encourage you to watch the full lecture below.