Megina Baker

Megina has over twenty years of experience as an early childhood teacher, teacher educator, and education researcher, both in the United States and in Sweden. Megina holds a Ph.D. from Boston College in Curriculum and Instruction, and degrees from Tufts University and Cornell University in Early Childhood Education and Human Development, respectively. She is currently a Program Developer for the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood, where she designs curriculum and professional learning for early childhood educators in Boston's Universal Pre-K programs - building on prior work with PZ colleague Ben Mardell in writing the integrated, play-based Focus on K2 curriculum. Prior to joining BPS, Megina was Director of Teaching and Learning at Neighborhood Villages, a systems-change non-profit dedicated to supporting childcare programs in Boston, where she helped to co-design a teaching and learning support system and a playful curriculum for toddlers. A former faculty member at Boston University, Megina mentored student teachers in the Early Childhood program, taught courses on playful learning, early childhood curriculum, and pedagogical documentation, helped to found the BU Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being, and collaborated with former PZer Stephanie Cox Suarez to run the Documentation Studio. She is a board member of the Boston Area Reggio-Inspired Network and sits on the Editorial Board of Voices of Practitioners, a National Association for the Education of Young Children journal focused on teacher research. Megina is co-author of several books: Children at the Center: Transforming Early Childhood Education in the Boston Public Schools; Reclaiming Accountability in Teacher Education; and A Pedagogy of Play: Supporting Playful Learning in Classrooms and Schools.