Dr. Theresa Lock, director of the Hawaiʻi Early Childhood Educator Excellence and Equity (ECE³) Project in the UH Mānoa College of Education (COE), has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation for the Advancing the Early Childhood Education Profession Initiative to run between July 10, 2024 to October 11, 2025. Lock previously received Castle Foundation funding for the Elevating Early Care and Education Workforce Initiative in 2022. The current project will continue this work under a new name.
“The term ʻelevating early care and education workforceʻ implied bringing up the current state of the early care and education workforce; whereas, ʻadvancing the early childhood education professionʻ means to move forward to the future vision of a recognized early childhood education profession,” Lock said. “This initiative centers and utilizes the voices of early educators who are closest to the work to establish a well-prepared, -supported, and -compensated early childhood education profession in our state.”
A lecturer in the COE School for Teacher Education (STE), Lock was recently appointed as the new volunteer community trustee by the Castle Foundation. She has more than 49 years of progressive and expansive experience in early childhood education (ECE) pedagogy and policy at the local, state, and national levels. Prior to joining the COE, Dr. Lock was director of Kamehameha School’s ECE Division, appointed as the state early childhood coordinator in the Office of Governor Neal Abercrombie, and the founding director of the Executive Office on Early Learning (EOEL).
“I am honored and humbled to serve as a community trustee for the over century old Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation,” Lock said. “This is especially significant as the COE’s historical roots are so intertwined with the Castle family who has supported the college, especially in early childhood care and education, for many years.”
The Advancing the Early Childhood Education Profession Initiative has assembled a task force of early educators who work directly with young children and families, or support those who directly work with young children and families, to be co-creators in establishing ECE as a profession in Hawaiʻi. Task force members will receive stipends for 10 months of participation.
Other project activities will include developing engagement and empowerment materials, such as a video, website, and toolkit for a campaign to recognize ECE as a unified profession in Hawaiʻi. Technical assistance for financing structures, such as a salary scale, will be designed and implemented. An ECE registered apprenticeship convening will be held with Keiki O Ka ʻĀina Family Learning Centers (KOKA) and Honolulu Community College’s ECE Program.
