Best Blends Forever

Abstract

The University of Vermont’s (UVM) blended undergraduate early childhood education (ECE) and early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) program originated as a model to dually prepare and license future educators to teach young children with and without disabilities from birth through age 6. However, strains on the university’s budget, intersecting with the COVID-19 pandemic, led university administrators to recommend deactivating the program in 2020 and prompted program faculty to reconceptualize what the “blending” of the two fields of study could look like in the reality of contemporary contexts. The article begins by highlighting the evolving identity of UVM’s blended ECE/EI/ECSE program. Next, using a social foundations perspective, we explore several key influences that have shaped our current collaborative approach to preparing early childhood educators for inclusive environments and how our ECE and EI/ECSE programs can be officially parted, yet still be blended, in its goals to prepare all future teachers of young children for inclusive settings. It concludes with recommendations for ECE and EI/ECSE faculty who may find themselves in need of reimagining their conceptions of blended teacher preparation for inclusive early childhood settings.