Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start: Revisioning the Hope and Challenge

Ellsworth, Jeanne (Editor)/ Ames, Lynda J. (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0791439283 / ISBN 13: 9780791439289

Published by State Univ of New York Pr, 1998

About this Item

1st edition. 352 pages. 9.00x6.25x1.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # zk0791439283

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Critical Perspectives on Project Head Start: Revisioning the Hope and Challenge
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791439283
• ISBN 13: 9780791439289
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.51 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Considers how Project Head Start, the federally funded preschool program, has operated (sometimes effectively and comfortably, sometimes not) with families, in communities, and with other institutions. An important look at the intersections of poverty, social programs, and education.

This book offers critical perspectives on the complex dynamics of politics, class, gender, power, race, and ethnicity in Project Head Start, past and present. Moving beyond the literature on Head Start's effects on children's achievement, this volume considers how the program has operated-sometimes effectively and comfortably, sometimes not-with families, in communities, and with other institutions. Contributors address historical background, parent involvement and governance, cultural diversity, and relationships with other institutions. The research reported is rich with the voices of parents, community members, and staff, and is complemented by first-person chapters written by participants themselves. Head Start's appeal and its reputation for success are both championed and critically questioned in this book, with an eye toward where Head Start might be going, where it should be going, and how we can better understand poverty, social programs, and education.

About the Author

Jeanne Ellsworth is Associate Professor, Center for Educational Studies and Services and Lynda J. Ames is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, both at Plattsburgh State University of New York. Their previous book is Women Reformed, Women Empowered: Rural Mothers and the Endangered Promise of Head Start.