McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Colleen McLaughlin | July 22, 2015

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

HOW TO INTENTIONALLY INCORPORATE DIVERSITY IN NON-DIVERSE SETTINGS


As an assessor, I have the opportunity of peeking into many classrooms and early care environments around Illinois. Similar to the national perspective, Illinois is diverse when taken as a whole, but there are many areas of the state where the majority of the children and staff have similar cultural backgrounds. It is important for all children, regardless of the makeup of their own neighborhood, to have experience with diversity at a young age.  


I have encountered many providers who find it easy to teach about diversity when the children they serve are diverse. In these instances there may be a family member who can act as a guide for the provider or who can visit the classroom and share some traditions with the child’s classmates. On the other hand, when all the children are of the same background, providers may have a more difficult time incorporating diversity into their program. These are the environments, however, where it is most important to intentionally teach about the diversity of humans because it is out of the child’s everyday experience. 


If you are not sure where to begin, you are not alone! Below is a list of ideas to get you started: 


  1. Display materials, books, and pictures in your program that represent diverse people. Be intentional about including representations of people of differing race, age, gender, culture, and ability. 
  2. Provide books for teachers to read to the class that feature diverse main characters. If there are words that you are unsure of how to pronounce, a Google search of “How do you say…” will often bring up an audio file so you can hear the correct pronunciation. 
  3. Encourage teachers to have fun learning a few songs/rhymes in a language other than English. When I taught, I loved to use Ole! Ole! Ole! by Dr. Jean. This fun CD has each song sung in English and then Spanish. I do not speak Spanish, but I found it easy to follow along with. 
  4. Reach out to a nearby college or community college. A community college is a great resource to find experts on many topics close to home. An instructor or student there may be able to come in and read a book in another language. 
  5. Take your program on a field trip to a local nursing home or assisted living home. Experience with older adults can help children see past medical devices. 
  6. Host a program-wide food tasting day. Try food, especially fruits and vegetables from different cultures and talk about where they are grown. As a teacher, I enjoyed hosting tasting parties in my classroom. When learning about the color green, we tried fruits and vegetable of that color. We included tomatillos and kiwis. 
  7. Provide teachers with resources to use in lesson planning. A great example is this Pinterest Board by Tara Bailey: Multicultural Preschool Lessons. 
  8. Encourage your teachers to participate in professional development that will strengthen their skills in teaching about diversity. When teachers return ask them to share what they learned with their colleagues and then ask them what support you can provide so that they can put the things they’ve learned into practice. 



Are you interested in learning more about how to incorporate diversity into your program? Check out the book Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change. 

Colleen McLaughlin is an Assessor and Training Specialist at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University. Before joining the McCormick Center, Colleen worked as a teacher and administrator in both diverse and non-diverse early learning and care settings.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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