Leah Muccio

Research Overview

My research focuses on early childhood care and education and how teachers can create nurturing and joyful learning experiences. In particular, I focus on supporting teachers to develop the competencies to facilitate meaningful learning and development opportunities for culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse preschool and early elementary children. As a member of a collaborative research team of early childhood teacher educators, I developed evidence-based practices for cultivating empathy in early childhood classrooms in partnership with families and in early childhood teacher education classrooms. I collaborated to develop the curriculum and instructional practices in the UH Manoa early childhood programs: the blended early childhood and early childhood special education program and the early childhood care and education, birth-age eight initial licensure program. With a background as an early childhood educator, I see my research and curriculum/program development (including more formal accreditation/assessment endeavors) as interconnected and I am grateful for all of the mentors and collaborators I have worked with over my career. Through my own teacher research, I aim to center well-being in our teacher preparation programs, with the goal to provide asset-based, individualized professional learning and collaboration in ECE methods courses and field experiences. In addition to teacher/action research, I use qualitative, self-study, and mixed methods research methodologies. One of my most important and enjoyable roles is to support students to pursue their areas of research interest and support early childhood research and curriculum development in Hawaii.