Activist Movements
ECHOES looks at grassroots movements’ work to secure rights and ensure dignity for educators, children, and families participating in the ECE system.
How have people built collective power to demand a more just ECE system?
Learn how activists, past and present, have struggled against inequities and built collective power to shape a more just future. Their stories can guide and inspire our efforts today.
Black Women’s Clubs: Progressive Era Activism for Early Education (1890-1920)
ECHOES describes how Black women organized to expand kindergartens and day nurseries for Black children and training for Black teachers as part of broader efforts to advance racial and gender justice.
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Uncovering the Role of Early Childhood in Black Women’s Clubs Work Towards Racial and Gender Justice
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Josephine S. Yates: Pedagogical Giant and Organizational Leader in Early Education and Beyond
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Anna Evans Murray: Visionary Leadership in Public Kindergartens and Teacher Training
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Haydee B. Campbell: Expanding Education for Black Children and Opportunities for Black Women
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Child Care Compensation Movement (1972-2000)
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More Than a Paycheck: Model Work Standards Re-Visited in the 21st Century
At the height of the national Worthy Wage Campaign for the child care workforce in the mid-1990s, it became clear to activists in the movement that achieving our goal of better wages would require substantial and sustained public investment. The work of caring for and educating young children needed to be re-defined as a public […]
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Rights, Raises, and Respect: The Early Educator Compensation Movement (1972 to 2000)
Explore the brief history of the Worthy Wage Movement.
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Working for Worthy Wages: A Lived History of the Child Care Compensation Movement, 1970-2002
Learn the detailed history of the Worthy Wage Movement.
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Explore the Compensation Movement Archives →
Teacher activists and allies used four main strategies, connecting them and adapting them for their communities: Organizing for Better Wages and Working Conditions, Elevating Teacher Leadership, Engaging in Research and Policy, and Building Collective Power.
ECE Organizing and Activism Today
ECHOES highlights contemporary efforts of early educators aimed at securing rights, raises and respect for their skilled work, dismantling inequities in early care and education and working toward a more just system. When we refer to early educators, teachers, or the ECE workforce, we mean all those who work in home- and center based settings who provide group care and early learning to children prior to kindergarten.
“The first time I heard about the Worthy Wage Campaign was in 2020. I was incredibly inspired and immediately frustrated that I didn’t have this information when I was an early educator myself. Knowing this rich history and how educators all across the nation were coming together for protests, political engagement, and organizing would have helped me to feel empowered when I was a teacher.”
Dr. Ashley C. Williams
Vice President for Programs, Jumpstart for Young Children
Former preschool teacher and Head Start Center director
