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"After a hundred years of educational research, we are still figuring out that to understand schools, we have to go into those schools and spend a lot of time being there. Deb Ceglowski did that. She writes about it in riveting detail and with uncommon power. She writes about policy from the other side, from down here and very close."
–From the Foreword by Daniel J. Walsh
"This is a major work. It is a bold instance of literary ethnography joined with critical, educational policy studies….In her stories and interpretations Ceglowski charts new directions for policy studies in the educational arena for the next decade."
–Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign
"Inside a Head Start Center marks an important departure from previous research on Head Start. . . . . Deborah Ceglowski reminds us that, despite the unintended consequences of ‘top-down’ mandates, Head Start is, first and foremost, a very human effort to support children and their families in all the ways that matter."
–Sally Lubeck, University of Michigan
How do official policy mandates actually work at the classroom level? Inside a Head Start Center: Developing Policies from Practice explores how one rural Head Start staff defined, interpreted, and implemented policy mandates. This fascinating qualitative study revealed that the staff actually developed local policies in response to a complex set of demands, including providing comprehensive services to children and families, maintaining facilities, and responding to emergency situations. The author uses vivid short stories to draw the reader into daily conversations and activities so that one can see, almost firsthand, how official policies are interwoven into the daily life of a Head Start program.
Deborah Ceglowski is an assistant professor of early childhood education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and outreach coordinator for the Center for Early Education and Development at the University of Minnesota.
