Creative Community and Academic Collaboration Experience: Micronesian Early Education Toolkit Development to Ease Access through an Experiential Process of Improvement (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED The Micronesian and Pacific Islander community experiences adverse childhood experiences at rates higher than other ethnic groups. Exposure to adverse childhood experiences increases the risk of negative outcomes, including heart disease, cancer, and psychosocial problems into adulthood. Early childhood learning provides resilience against adverse childhood experiences. However, Micronesian and Pacific Islander children reportedly have 53.8% not enrolled in early childhood learning. The purpose of this brief viewpoint article is to describe our creative collaboration experience and report on the Micronesian Islander-based non-profit community organization and public university (academic) partnership project on the development of a culturally responsive, web-based, toolkit as a helpful foundation to facilitate Micronesian Islander Parent Leader Champions with assisting families to easing access with enrolling in early childhood learning. We engaged a local school district to participate. Tenets of Popular Education guided culturally responsive partnership building exercises and reflections. We used the Early Childhood Education Access Framework to guide development of the Micronesian Early Education Toolkit with Micronesian Islander Parent Leader Champions through an experiential process of improvement. We used a semi-structured group interview guide and field notes journal for the video face-to-face sessions and an ECL Toolkit Survey to evaluate the process development of the Micronesian Early Education Toolkit. A Plus/Delta evaluation was completed for context on strengths, utility, and improvements in the ECL toolkit regarding logistical, cultural, general, and recommendations from the group interviews and the open-ended responses in the ECL Toolkit Survey. The toolkit included interactive live virtual presentations, both text and videos. Nine trusted Parent Leader Champions representing Chamarro, Chuukese, Kapingamarangi, Marshallese, and Pohnpeian communities reported that the toolkit respects cultural values; the toolkit is easy to comprehend and navigate; the process makes it feasible to help enroll preschool Micronesian Islander students; and will be helpful at expanding access to early childhood learning programs. We learned that the experiential process of improvement that centered the voices of Micronesian Islander Parent Leader Champions in the development immensely helped the toolkit to be interactive, clear with specific utility for diverse English-speaking levels, respectful language, and creativity on how families can start. We found a community and academic partnership including Micronesian Islander Parent Leader Champions and engaging a local school district achieved development of a culturally responsive toolkit that was a helpful foundation in assisting Parent Leader Champions as they begin to assist community members in early childhood learning enrollment.