In April, the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) Award Selection Committee named Jani Kozlowski, MA, as this year’s recipient of the Richard M. Clifford Fund for International Collaboration on Early Learning Environments award. Kozlowski, a technical assistance specialist with the Trohanis Technical Assistance (TA) Projects at FPG, was chosen because her work reflects Clifford’s passion for fostering international collaborations among researchers to further understanding of quality in early learning environments.

For the past 12 years, Kozlowski has worked at the national level offering TA through grants funded by the Office of Child Care, the Office of Head Start and the Office of Special Education Programs. She provides TA to state leaders working in early intervention and early childhood special education systems through the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center at FPG. Kozlowski centers her work around the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood settings, and has published two books on the subject. Every Child Can Fly: An Early Childhood Educator’s Guide to Inclusion (2022) was written for early childhood educators, followed by a companion guide for families, Empowering Your Child to Fly: A Families’ Guide to Early Childhood Inclusion (2024).

The Clifford Fund award will facilitate Kozlowski’s desire to discover innovative ways to foster inclusion across cultures. Award funding will cover costs for Kozlowski’s 8-day trip to Japan where she will build upon an existing relationship to explore the use of “Indicators of High-Quality Inclusion” in Japanese early childhood settings. These indicators—which were designed by a group of national partners to respond to the evolving needs of the early childhood education system—are a capacity building tool that helps teams implement inclusive practices at all system levels, with the goal of improving educational results for children with disabilities.

Since the indicators are broadly written, they have proven to be effective in helping teams consider challenges in diverse settings, while still serving as a useful coaching tool once implementation plans are developed. While the indicators have been used in a growing number of states in the US, there has not been a significant effort to study their use internationally.

In addition to sharing this tool with early childhood colleagues in Japan, Kozlowski will enrich her own understanding through observation and assessment of inclusive settings and practices in Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. She hopes to learn about Japanese strategies to foster inclusion and consider subtle differences in implementation that she can share with national, state, and community early childhood leaders.

“This partnership, and the partnerships that will be built during the visit to Kyoto, will lead to increased understanding and a bridge for other early childhood leaders to benefit from similar opportunities,” said Kozlowski. “Professor Shintani and I hope to grow a US/Japan network of leaders, faculty, and researchers dedicated to sharing lessons learned about inclusive early childhood environments and teaching practices.”

This work will be done in partnership with Ryutaro Shintani, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Childhood Studies at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto. Following the visit by Kozlowski, she and Shintani will share and disseminate observational findings and the results of the collaboration through journal article submissions and presentations at international inclusion conferences.

During Shintani’s February 2023 visit to the United States, he gave presentations about the Japanese early childhood system to Smart Start network leaders and national TA Center leaders through the Early Learning Consortium. He also met with FPG researchers and visited an inclusive child care center. These events, organized by Kozlowski, led to the planning of a reciprocal visit to Japan by Kozlowski.

“This partnership, and the partnerships that will be built during the visit to Kyoto, will lead to increased understanding and a bridge for other early childhood leaders to benefit from similar opportunities,” said Kozlowski. “Professor Shintani and I hope to grow a US/Japan network of leaders, faculty, and researchers dedicated to sharing lessons learned about inclusive early childhood environments and teaching practices.”