Adoption Matters ― Teacher Educators Share Their Stories and Strategies for Adoption-inclusive Curriculum and Pedagogy

Adoption Matters: Teacher Educators Share Their Stories and Strategies for Adoption-Inclusive Curriculum and Pedagogy explores the experiences of educators inside and outside of the classroom with students who are adopted. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are approximately 1.5 million children in the United States who have been adopted. Adoption is not a new way to form a family, but there have been shifts in adoption practices. Two of those shifts have been the increase in open adoptions and an increased understanding of how international adoption can influence children. Since the 1970s, the work of the Adoptees’ Liberty Movement Association and other organizations working on behalf of adoptees has raised public awareness about adoption and spread adoption stories. In the United States, adoption is rarely a secret any more, and many children who are adopted are aware of it. This means that professionals working with children who were adopted need to be prepared to understand the lived experiences of these children and their families. The stories in Adoption Matters describe the experiences of teacher educators and illuminate how adoption continues to shape their professional practice. Educators’ narratives reveal the intricate processes they have encountered in building their own families through adoption, as well as their struggles and triumphs with individual schools and school systems. Adoption Matters hopes to disrupt the notion that adoption and adoption-related issues should be secret, taboo, or dismissed.

Robin K. Fox holds a B.A. in early childhood education from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, a M.A. in early childhood exceptional education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a former Head Start teacher and director, university childcare teacher and director, and is now a professor in curriculum and instruction. She is Associate Dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Dr. Fox is on the board of directors for Adoption Choice, Inc. Her areas of research include teacher preparation and adoption, young children who are gender fluid, and work with schools on how to be inclusive of members of the LGBTQ community.