Tracing the Careers of Drs. Spodek and Katz
Drs. Spodek and Katz helped lead NAEYC across the years through their service to the association, their contributions to early childhood literature, and their roles as advisors and mentors to numerous students in higher education who are now making their own marks on the early childhood education field. Following, we consider these leaders’ initiation into early childhood education, recognize their influence in one state, and highlight their messages to NAEYC members.
Bernard Spodek
Dr. Spodek, who passed away in 2017, was a national leader in early childhood education beginning in the mid-1960s. He served in many roles throughout his career. He entered the field by chance in 1952: As a psychology student, he completed observations at a preschool and ended up teaching there( Mendoza 2009). Once he began coteaching 4-year-olds, he remarked,“ I decided I would take a class in early childhood education to learn what I’ m supposed to be doing”( Mendoza 2009). From there, he went on to earn a master’ s degree with certification and later a doctorate.
Dr. Spodek joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1965 and remained active into his emeritus years. He was nominated to serve as secretary of the National Association of Nursery Education( NANE) as it became the present-day NAEYC— an effort toward professionalizing the field( Mendoza 2009). He was president of NAEYC beginning in 1976.
At Urbana-Champaign( now one of the largest public universities in the United States), Dr. Spodek spearheaded the development of the early childhood teacher education program. In the 1990s, he was instrumental in revising the program to be more collaborative with the Department of Special Education’ s early childhood special education( ECSE) program. This revision included requiring courses such as those that focused on ECSE curricula, methods, and assessment, thereby ensuring that students who earned Department of Curriculum and Instruction certification entered the workforce prepared to teach all children. Besides illustrating his position that children with disabilities deserved access to high-quality early childhood education, this curricular change reflected research that Dr. Spodek conducted throughout his career on teachers’ multifaceted roles. These included“ curriculum designer, diagnostician, organizer of instruction, manager of learning, and counselor and advisor”( Lascarides & Hinitz 2011, 346).
As president of NAEYC, Dr. Spodek invited members to participate in discussions about effecting change through collective action. His From the President column in the March 1977 issue of Young Children marked a shift in NAEYC’ s role in policy priorities and initiatives. Up to this point, the organization had served as a generator and disseminator of information: Staff were permitted to communicate with policymakers
48 Young Children
Spring 2026