Dual Language Early Childhood Education Concentration

As young children develop oral and literacy skills, they benefit most from an early childhood program that integrates their native language into the curriculum. Goddard College’s Dual Language Early Childhood Education Concentration offers educators the vital tools and training required to meet these needs in a dual language classroom, or other setting, where students can learn in, and have pride in, their native language and culture.

The Dual Language Early Childhood Education Concentration is offered in Goddard’s Bachelor of Arts in Education Program and Master of Arts in Education Program, and was developed in partnership with the Center for Linguistic and Cultural Democracy.

It is the only dual language early childhood model of its kind currently offered in the United States.

Coursework during the Washington state residency is conducted half in English and half in a second language, usually Spanish. An English-Cantonese classroom model is emerging to serve the Chinese-American community. In still another innovation, indigenous preschoolers are encouraged to rediscover and speak their native languages. A tri-lingual classroom has also been tested in a workshop setting where educators support English, Spanish, and Garifuna Latin American speakers.

Goddard’s dual language educators are trained to design, teach, and lead culturally complex programs in a collaborative setting that supports literacy in multiple languages. They actively work to prevent young children from losing their home language, to foster mutual respect across cultures, and to engage with, and become, advocates for cross-cultural students and families.

Our educators work against racism and other forms of oppression as part of their skill base and are a unifying force in multi-cultural communities.

The program is designed for working adults, and is ideally suited for:

  • Early childhood, preschool, and Head Start educators
  • Education coordinators and curriculum developers
  • Teacher educators and coaches
  • Artists working with the intersection of language, culture, and youth
  • Afterschool educators and parent-school liaisons
  • Certified teachers pursuing MA degrees who are interested in seeking further study in dual language early childhood education

Request more information from an Admissions Counselor.

The Faculty

The Education Program faculty are deeply committed to offering a holistic, interdisciplinary and student-centered approach to learning that is personally and socially relevant.

Our faculty is comprised of national and international scholar practitioners with extensive experience supporting students taking charge of their learning.

Learn more about our faculty.

Study Options

Goddard’s Education Program offers full- and part-time study leading to the following degrees:

Students pursuing the Bachelor of Arts can focus their studies in the following areas:

Students pursuing the Master of Arts can focus their studies in the following areas:

Admissions Information

The Bachelor of Arts in Education program is open to students who have already completed approximately 60 liberal arts credits and who wish to extend their knowledge in the field of education to meet personal and/or professional goals. Transfer credit and/or credit awarded for prior learning up to a total of 75 credits can be applied to the 120 semester hour credits required for the degree.

Students with less than 60 credits can begin their studies in Goddard’s Individualized Bachelor of Arts and then transfer to the BA in Education.

A minimum of three semesters of enrollment in the BA in Education program is required for graduation.

See complete application instructions for the BA in Education and the MA in Education.

Low-Residency Model

At the start of the semester, students attend an intensive eight-day residency in Vermont or Washington, followed by 16 weeks of independent work and self-reflection in close collaboration with a faculty advisor. Goddard pioneered this format nearly a half century ago to meet the needs of adult students with professional, family, and other obligations seeking learning experiences grounded in the real-world.

Residencies are a time to explore, network, learn, witness, and share with peers, staff, and faculty. Students work with advisors and peers in close-knit advising groups to forge individualized study plans that describe their learning objectives for the semester.

Working closely with their faculty advisors, and supported by fellow learners, students identify areas of study, personal goals, relevant resources, and avenues to achieve these goals. Students also attend and are invited to help organize workshops, keynote addresses, celebrations and other events intended to stimulate, inspire, and challenge.

This low-residency model combines the breadth of a collaborative community with the focus of personalized learning, enhanced by insightful exchanges with a faculty advisor.

Location/Residency Modality

Students in the Dual Language Early Childhood Education Concentration in the BA in Education and MA in Education will attend residencies virtually from where the student is located or on-campus at the College’s campus in Plainfield, Vermont, on Goddard’s historic main campus, located just outside Montpelier, the state capital. It’s a former farm with a manor garden, surrounding forests, and period architecture.

Residency Week

Residencies are a rich time of exploration, connection, and planning. A residency is comprised of:

  • New-student orientation
  • Individual and group advising sessions
  • Workshops, presentations, mini-courses, and panels
  • Peer work groups
  • Planning sessions related to teacher licensure
  • Information sessions (assessment of prior learning; financial aid; how to do research; planning your final semester etc.)
  • Co-curricular activities (support groups, art shows, films, movement workshops, meditation space, etc.)
  • Commencement

Writing the semester study plan is an important focus of the residency. Working closely with your faculty advisor, and supported by fellow learners, you articulate your educational and personal goals for your studies within the context of degree criteria and program requirements. The study plan is your detailed and individualized map and will address the following:

  • The semester’s learning goals
  • The resources the student plans to draw on (e.g., books, journals, conferences)
  • The methodology the student plans to use (e.g., library or field research, interviews, creative production)
  • The specific learning activities the student will undertake (e.g., creative and critical reading and writing, observations, field work, keeping a journal)
  • The academic work the student will produce (e.g. essays, visual art work, workshop reports, poems, interview transcriptions, annotations)
  • A bibliography of reading the student plans to do during the semester

The Semester

Following the residency and over the course of 16 weeks of study and reflection, you will submit your work to your faculty advisor. Typically, there are 5 submissions for full-time students and 3 submissions for part-time students. Evidence of the work completed can include essays, critical and creative writing, sample curricula, classroom materials, documentation of art practice/works, book annotations, and a cover letter in which you reflect on the learning process.

Your advisor responds promptly in writing to your materials with a detailed letter addressing the various components of your work and containing appraisal, feedback, and suggestions.

Through the regular exchange of work and responses, a sustained, meaningful dialogue takes place centered on your learning and goals. Students often describe this dialogue as transformative and empowering.

At the end of the semester, in lieu of grades, students and advisors write comprehensive evaluations of the student’s learning.

Degree Requirements

Throughout your course of study, you are expected to deeply engage with the degree criteria, working toward a full and sustained demonstration of them by graduation. Students graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Education will have successfully completed the Goddard undergraduate degree criteria and will also successfully have accomplished the following:

  • Gained an understanding and actualized the essential concepts of progressive education; namely, inquiry-based learning, reflection and critical thinking, and student-focused curriculum;
  • Prepared themselves to work toward the creation of a more just, humane, democratic, and sustainable world;
  • Produced a culminating project in the form of a senior study in an area of interest; for example, curriculum development, multicultural education, alternative education, environmental education, critical pedagogy, democratic schooling, collaborative teaching, feminist theories of education, or authentic assessment.

Students who complete the Dual Language Early Childhood Education Concentration are expected to demonstrate competency in the following components of the Soy Bilingüe curriculum:

  • Building learning communities
  • Forming teaching teams
  • Developing language plans
  • Organizing classroom environments
  • Establishing daily routines
  • Establishing development and learning objectives for the children
  • Assessing and documenting children’s growth and development
  • Focusing the curriculum on children’s language, culture, and interests
  • Teaching, scaffolding, and engaging the children
  • Reflecting on information gathered about the children in your classroom.

Authorization

Goddard’s Education Program is approved by the Vermont Agency of Education and the Vermont Standards Board for Professional Educators for preparing licensure-seeking students to receive a Vermont Initial License in one or more of six endorsement areas. Vermont participates with all other states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico in the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification’s Interstate Agreement, which governs licensure reciprocity.

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