NAEYC’ s Centennial Year: 100 Years of Impact
Family / Community Contexts and the Problem of Half- Truths in Early Childhood Education
Learning from Barbara Bowman
Patricia“ Patsy” M. Cooper
Author’ s Note
Barbara T. Bowman( 1928 – 2024) was the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development at Erikson Institute, which she co-founded in 1966 and where she served as president from 1994 to 2000. She was also a prolific researcher and commentator, past president of NAEYC( 1980 – 1982), former chief officer of early childhood education for the Chicago Public Schools( 2004 – 2012), and former education advisor to the Obama administration.
The spark for this article came out of a 2021 interview Bowman gave on the state of early childhood education and teacher preparation in which she asserted the field had become
38 Young Children
Spring 2026