Dr. Karen Thorpe & PhD student Rachel Leske
Last week, CUP’s Early Childhood Measurement & Evaluation (ECME), hosted colleagues from Australia.
Dr. Karen Thorpe, professor within the School of Psychology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and her PhD student, Rachel Leske made a brief but jam-packed visit to CUP. Dr. Rebecca Gokiert, director of ECME, was thrilled to share CUP’s strengths in community-based research, knowledge translation, and partnership development with our visitors.
We were fortunate to have Rachel talk about the development of her doctoral research with CUP staff, students, and researchers. Rachel is working collaboratively with a remote Australian community called Mt. Isa, located in northwest Queensland. Together, they are examining the provision of early childhood education & care services available for Indigenous children and families.
With guidance from her community partners, the research will look at what early childhood services are available, how families access the services, and what resources are needed to enhance program development, access and practices. Rachel was also able to discuss hurdles in her research program and engage feedback from CUP staff.
Karen and Rachel were also very interested in meeting some of our community partner organizations who run unique integrated early childhood programs for multicultural and Aboriginal families. Rebecca introduced our visitors to our community partners at the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative Intercultural Early Learning program and Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society’s Kahkiyaw program. Karen and Rachel were able to see integrated early childhood program models in action and talk directly with program directors.
We were very excited about the synergy between Karen and Rebecca’s research and look forward to exploring new ways to work together.
To learn more about the work of Dr. Karen Thorpe and Rachel Leske, please visit their QUT webpage.
