UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) researchers, implementation and technical assistance specialists, postdoctoral research associates, graduate research assistants, faculty fellows, and other professionals make an impact on their fields through active participation in national organizations as well as by giving panel and paper presentations at major conferences.

Recently, several FPG researchers, specialists, and faculty fellows attended the Society for Research in Child Development 2023 Biennial Meeting, which took place in Salt Lake City (#SRCD23), participating in more than 20 panel, paper, and poster presentations. After the conference, we checked in with some of them to hear about the event.

In general, most everyone was glad to catch up with colleagues in person, including FPG Advanced Research Scientist Laura Kuhn, PhD, who said, “It was wonderful to catch up with colleagues from across the country and great to see FPG so well represented by current and previous investigators and graduate students in the area of early childhood.”

Advanced Research Scientist Doré LaForett, PhD, who was celebrating her 20-year anniversary of attending SRCD, said, “It was so wonderful being back in person―I loved being able to reconnect with colleagues and friends, and make new connections, too. It was also exciting for our Bilingualism, Education, and Excellence (BEE) project team to have an opportunity to share some of our initial findings about the intersection between dual language education models and student language proficiency, and how this intersection affects students’ academic outcomes. Of course, I was so happy to spend time with my SRCD Latinx Caucus colleagues and kick off my tenure as Caucus Chair.”

Ximena Franco-Jenkins, PhD, also an advanced research scientist at FPG and co-PI on the BEE project shared, "The SRCD 2023 conference was filled with sessions and events that were both engaging and insightful. I was able to disseminate findings from the Bilingualism, Education, and Excellence project focused on students’ leadership skills together with Dr. LaForett and findings from the Early Learning Network with Dr. Bratsch-Hines and Dr. Kuhn in a symposium hosted by Dr. Carr. The presentations and discussions centering equity in child development were inspiring and provided insight into many of the most pressing issues facing child development. I attended the Cafecito networking event hosted by the SRCD Latinx Caucus as well as the Black Caucus 50th year Anniversary Gala. All in all, I am so glad I had the opportunity to take part in attending SRCD and cross collaborate and interact with my colleagues."

Faculty fellow and founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at FPG, Iheoma Iruka, PhD, gave several presentations this year. She said it was wonderful to be at and part of the conference in so many ways and listed several things she appreciated during the event, including:

• “The ability to see and be with so many people I have not seen in many years;
• being part of various conversations and catch ups that you can’t recreate over virtual rooms;
• seeing so many UNC folks, including first-time attendees, represented;
• seeing the growth and presence of many early career scholars, who are clear about their purpose and goals;
• learning about new research happening and having time to conceive new research;
• being installed as the new chair of the Black Caucus (along with my paper being named paper of the year by the Black Caucus); and
• being able to lean into my work on racial equity and justice with so many diverse people.”

Iruka also shared that attending the conference was a “reminder that transformation of systems, including organizations like SRCD, to be more equity-centered and inclusive, will take time and have a lot of growing pains, but will produce more good than ever before.”

“As the U.S. continues to grapple with an ongoing and worsening child care crisis, family child care is poised to play an important and critical role in helping to stabilize the system,” said FPG Research Associate Jenille Morgan, MA. “It was a privilege to discuss opportunities and challenges for advancing equity in the implementation of pre-K in family child care with the PreK in Family Child Care Project during SRCD’s biennial conference this year. Indeed, all educators, including those in family child care, many of whom are women of color, deserve to be adequately compensated for the work that they do and love! It is time that we disrupt the patterns of racism, sexism, and classism that place undue burden on the providers of this essential piece of the U.S. economy.

“It was an honor to present a poster at SRCD highlighting work that examines process and structural quality influences on language and literacy outcomes in pre-K,” said FPG Graduate Research Assistant Lindsay Gomes. “Secondary analyses using data from Georgia's pre-K program revealed that several classroom characteristics were associated with gains in language and literacy by a spring assessment timepoint, with important implications for policy surrounding the design implementation of instructional contexts.” In addition, Gomes shared that she enjoyed attending the conference in person. “My favorite part of the conference was connecting with so many incredible scholars and collaborators in the child development space. It was delightful to hear colleagues share their academic trajectories as well as their research findings with such enthusiasm.”

FPG Senior Research Scientist Sandra Soliday Hong, PhD, presented research conducted through the Educare Learning Network on Black children’s language and social development, which found that having a racially matched teacher or assistant teacher was beneficial for Black preschoolers (Soliday Hong et al., 2023). She and her colleagues also explored the degree to which the racial composition (Iruka et al., 2022) of the school was related to outcomes, and saw some interesting patterns for Black children enrolled in Black majority versus non-Black majority preschools. When she wasn’t presenting her own work, Hong was glad to focus her attention on the work of others. “My favorite part about attending the 2023 SRCD conference was getting to see FPG graduate students and early career scholars share their work. We are fortunate to have a talented group of scholars in the FPG pipeline.”

“I am grateful that SRCD provided my colleagues and I with a venue to share our ongoing work investigating the outcomes of children’s participation in North Carolina’s NC Pre-K program as well as the subsequent classroom environments children experience in kindergarten,” said Robert Carr, PhD, a research scientist at FPG. “This study was part of a symposium session in which all four studies examined the role of pre-K as part and parcel of an education system that begins at age 4 and extends into elementary school. Our studies showed that children depend on high-quality educational environments across this continuum in order to pursue a positive developmental trajectory. Our studies came in a variety of flavors and approached this task in unique ways. Regardless of these differences, there was some notable consistency in the findings from three studies that tested the sustaining environments hypothesis.”

To learn more about FPG’s presence at SRCD 2023, and find out about other upcoming conference presentations, visit our conference news and updates page.