Lessons Learned from the Growing Master Trainers Pilot

Lessons Learned from the Growing Master Trainers Pilot

October 14, 2020

Oregon Child Care and Education Researchers Roundtable, Day 2

Presenters: Meera Batra, Neighborhood House; Lupe Campus, Latino Network; Lorelei Mitchell, Portland State University
    
This presentation describes the evolution of the Growing Master Trainers project. The presentation covers how the original project design - to increase the number of Master Trainers from communities of color, linguistically diverse communities, and rural communities across Oregon - was inherently flawed. In-depth interviews with members of the Community Council (the project’s leadership group) revealed that the project was not working because it was missing the voices and priorities of those who it was designed to support, and instead relied on white-dominant assumptions and used a deficit-focused approach. As a result, the project was heavily revised using key equity-building principles. The presentation provides examples of ways in which research, policy, and practice efforts to support communities historically pushed to the margins can be done better.