Research: Applied and Partnership-Based

The Buffett Institute is committed to ensuring that its work is informed by and informs the evidence base of the early childhood field. In partnership with university, national, and international colleagues, state agencies, nonprofit organizations, early childhood professionals, and other diverse stakeholders in communities across the state and nation, the Institute conducts applied research to identify and promote changes in early childhood practices and policies that support its mission—to transform the lives of young children by improving their learning and development. Unlike basic research, which seeks to make contributions to knowledge without necessarily expecting that knowledge to have an impact on practice, applied research is intended to advance what we know about a problem in order to create solutions to that problem.72

To apply research findings to problems of practice ethically and equitably, researchers must engage with partners within the impacted communities. From the outset, we sought to better understand the strengths and challenges of diverse communities across Nebraska relative to early care and education. To accomplish this, we collaborate with professional colleagues and community partners to conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups—collecting quantitative and qualitative data from individual children and families, early childhood professionals, administrators, and community leaders. We analyze the data and share our findings with partners and stakeholders to inform improvements in early childhood practice and policy. The data are also used to evaluate existing programs and to inform the development of new applied research projects.

We particularly value and pursue partnership-based research. Often referred to as researchpractice partnerships,73,74 this approach ranges from investigator-driven research in community contexts to collaborative partnerships in which the researcher and practitioners jointly identify and investigate problems of practice. These partnerships may include extensive community involvement and are often designed to actively engage all partners in existing or newly implemented strategies to improve practice.

Over our first decade, the Institute’s engagement in research-practice partnerships has evolved, and continues to evolve, to be increasingly collaborative and responsive to the strengths and needs of Nebraska’s children, families, and early childhood professionals. Examples of this are described throughout this report.

Practice: Collaborative Partnerships With Early Childhood Professionals

The Institute partners with early childhood professionals in multiple ways—through researchpractice partnerships described above and through a variety of mentoring, coaching, and professional development activities. These partnerships and professional learning opportunities are designed to help practitioners develop new skills, solve everyday classroom problems, and form relationships across schools, districts, communities, and settings—all with the intent of promoting quality, continuity, and equity in early care and education. In addition to considering teaching strategies and curriculum, these activities address such issues as how to strengthen capacity for birth–Grade 3 programming at the school and district levels, engage with community partners to ensure continuous care for young children, systematically engage families in their children’s growth and development, and help children from historically marginalized backgrounds overcome the negative impacts of poverty, racial stigmatizing, and isolation in their educational experience.

The Institute’s role in these activities is to convene and collaborate with early childhood professionals to help them implement evidence-based practices that improve young children’s learning and development.

Policy: Evidence- and Systems-Based

By virtue of being applied, rather than theoretical, all our efforts in research and practice are intended to deepen our understanding of problems and develop innovative evidence-based solutions. This also entails addressing the policy implications of our work. Because we endeavor to tackle challenges that are systemic, our efforts must attend to interdependencies occurring across the early childhood ecosystem.

From an ecological systems perspective, child development occurs within a complex system of relationships that are affected at multiple levels by the surrounding environment.75-77 Arranged from most proximate to least, systems levels differentiate from the most immediate settings of family or school to less immediate settings of policy structures and laws, with the most distal settings made up of broad cultural values and beliefs. For change at any one level of the system to be sustained, alignment is needed across the entire ecosystem.

For this reason, our efforts to create opportunities for optimal learning not only address the professional preparedness of school staff and the pedagogical goals and intentions of curriculum, but also intentionally reach beyond the immediate classroom setting to partnerships with school building principals, school district administrators, and the broader community. Similarly, our work to elevate the early childhood workforce strategically integrates efforts across the entire early childhood ecosystem. This includes co-creating leadership development opportunities with individual workforce members and ensuring early childhood governance and finance decisions are informed by rigorous research. As members of a public university, we are committed to providing research that is useful to policymakers as they make decisions and spend public resources on behalf of all children and families.

Recognizing and attending to the mutual influence across all levels of the early childhood ecosystem is integral to improving the learning and development of young children. In keeping with this understanding, we dedicate a concerted effort to the broadest early childhood ecosystem level through intentional outreach grounded in a comprehensive strategic communications approach.

Outreach: Strategic and Community-Engaged

From the beginning, outreach has been an integral part of the Institute’s research, practice, and policy efforts. We understand that if we are to achieve our goal of enhancing the lives of all children in Nebraska, as well as children across the country and beyond, we must communicate effectively about what we know, what we are learning, what lies ahead, and how we intend to fulfill our goals. We must also engage with diverse communities of researchers, early care and education providers, policymakers, business leaders, families, and the public to effectively apply what we know to improve early childhood practices, policies, and systems. Intentional outreach is key to all of this. We believe intentional outreach can lead to establishing and connecting statewide networks of individuals who believe in and support quality early care and education for every child. These networks form the conduits of innovation and collaboration that are needed to transform systems of early care and education.

Our outreach efforts are grounded in a commitment to strategic communications—an essential approach and set of strategies that enable us to achieve our organizational vision, mission, and goals.78 We link a strategic focus on desired outcomes with specific communications strategies that help us achieve those outcomes. Our approach borrows heavily from related disciplines of mass communications, integrated marketing communications, social marketing, and public willbuilding. As in our ecological models of intervention, we intentionally address multiple levels of early childhood systems,79 and our commitment to and use of strategic communications gives voice to our understanding of its value and importance in supporting social change.

In practical terms, we deploy strategic communications to raise awareness, change attitudes, and motivate people to act on behalf of young children and their families based on the science of early childhood development and education. We insist on clarity of message and explicit identification of audiences, and we make extensive use of digital channels, public events, media relations, dissemination of publications, and partnerships and sponsorships. We also ensure that strategic communications has a role to play from the outset of any project or undertaking at the Institute.