Jean Mendoza

Jean Mendoza is a new assistant professor position in the Early Childhood Education for undergraduate and PACE students. Before completing her Ph.D. in May 2005, she worked in a variety of early childhood settings, including home childcare, preschool programs, and a mixed-age K-1 classroom. A believer in the power of qualitative methods, she has studied children's uses of photo technology in early elementary classrooms and communication between an early childhood program and the families it served. She is on the editorial boards two publications: the online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal Early Childhood Research and Practice, and the Illinois Science Teachers Association journal, Spectrum. She also reviews books for Oyate, an organization focusing on accurate portrayals of Native Americans in literature for young people. She live in Urbana with Durango, my husband of twenty-four years. They are the fortunate parents of four grown children and three incredible grandchildren.

"PACE classes in early childhood offer the adult student the opportunity to gain new content knowledge while learning from each others' work-life experiences."

"I teach in PACE partly because I deeply appreciate the fact that our students tend to bring a wealth of experience to our class discussions. Even though they've often put in a full day at work or with their own children (or both), they come to class ready to think and ready to share their ideas."

JMendoza@millikin.edu

Faculty