The NAEYC Code of Ethics: Where did It come from?  Where Is it going?

Stephanie Feeney is Professor Emerita of Education at the University of Hawaii where she taught and directed undergraduate and graduate early childhood programs for many years. Stephanie served on the Governing Board of NAEYC, on the Board of the NAECTE (she was a founding member) and on committees addressing professional ethics, school readiness, and child and program standards. Her publications include Who Am I in the Lives of Children? (12 editions), Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: Doing Our Best for Young Children, Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator (3rd ed.) and Teaching the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (2 nd ed.). She has written extensively about ethics, professionalism, and early childhood curriculum, written five children’s books about Hawaii and lectured and taught throughout the United States, and in Canada and Asia.

This discussion will examine how equitable family-professional partnerships move beyond acknowledging family strengths and cultural responsiveness to honoring family funds of knowledge and overturning perceptions of power as well as ways to prepare emerging early childhood professionals in the beliefs and practices to make this happen.