Many universities are experimenting with interprofessional programs to better prepare professionals to tackle the complex problems faced by children and families. Universities face three major challenges: overcoming the compartmentalization of professional schools, which is then reflected in fragmentation of service delivery; learning to function as effective partners with communities; and reconceptualizing the nature of professional expertise to include collaborative scholarship and practice. The authors found that collaborative work can offer scholars substantial intellectual challengers, learning opportunities, and a new kind of access to the community, which can receive increased professional assistance. Interprofessional education is likely to promote alternative conceptions of teaching, scholarship, program design, and community service. However, it is personally and intellectually demanding, costly in time and other resources, and institutionally fragile. The open question is how many university faculty and administrators will take on the challenges of responding is new needs and demands for training human service professionals.
Nonparental care (NPC) for children before they enter kindergarten has had two primary purposes for American families since the start of the twentieth century: supporting parental employment and providing children developmentally enriching out-of-home experiences. Today's policy makers are increasingly expanding publicly funded opportunities for children in low-income families to experience center-based care. Yet parents' work commitments often occur on evenings, weekends, and other times outside of the traditional school day. Understanding parental work schedules vis-à-vis NPC timing is essential to informing public expansions of accessible and affordable nonparental care options. Using a 7-day calendar from the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education, the authors uncover new patterns in the temporal synchronization of parental work and children's time in various NPC settings and for households of varying incomes. Across all income groups and types of care, center-based care overlaps least with parental work hours. Children living in poverty have the lowest rates of NPC occurring during parental work time. The uncoupling of parental work status from children's time in nonparental care suggests potential shifts in parents' choices to expose children to care settings for the purpose of children's development.
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