Bridging Theory and Practice: How Notre Dame Students are Strengthening the Foundation of Early Childhood Education in India
At the University of Notre Dame, being a “force for good” is a commitment to translating academic excellence into tangible solutions for the world’s most vulnerable populations. This mission is the driving force behind the University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC), working to provide pathways out of poverty for children living on the margins. Part of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, the GC-DWC works at the intersection of research and practice, building pathways out of adversity by supporting the "whole child"—physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively—within the context of their family, school, and community.
In the GC-DWC-led course, Early Childhood Development and Poverty Alleviation: A Global Perspective, students are challenged to become this bridge between rigorous science and community-led solutions. Led by Professor Neil Boothby, director of the GC-DWC, the course equips future leaders to take the complex neuroscience of brain development and turn it into practical solutions. During the Fall 2025 semester, 27 students applied this “science-to-solution” bridge across three distinct country-based projects: a two-part holistic intervention addressing parenting education and nutrition in Haiti, a culturally relevant school readiness initiative for the local South Bend community, and an educational toolkit for preschools in Telangana, India.
Project Spotlight: Strengthening Early Childhood Education Systems in Telangana, India
The students’ work in India is strategically integrated into the GC-DWC’s Project Sampoorna. Meaning “holistic” or “complete” in Sanskrit, Project Sampoorna is a multi-year initiative designed to embed a Whole Child Development (WCD) approach within the Telangana education system. The GC-DWC has partnered with the Telangana Social/Tribal Welfare Residential Education Institution Societies (TSWREIS/TTWREIS), the Telangana Education Commission, and Osmania University to build and scale a WCD model that ensures marginalized children in the region can overcome historic inequities and thrive in the formal economy. The portfolio of work spans from faculty and teacher development in higher education, to secondary school culture programming, to pre-primary curriculum development.
By focusing on the preschool level, the student team addressed the very foundation of this educational pipeline. For the India project team—Lainey Mullins, Norah Rosa, Prakriti Shakya, Abby Murphy, and Kiki Shim—the challenge was clear: how do you transform a traditional, teacher-centered classroom into an active learning environment that nurtures children’s holistic development?
In many South Asian contexts, preschool instruction often follows a “passive” model where students listen while teachers lecture. However, the science of early childhood tells a different story. The team focused on the concept of “serve and return”: the back-and-forth interaction between a child and an adult that builds the architecture of the developing brain.
“Responsive caregiving, also known as ‘serve and return,’ is one of the most significant concepts that I learned in class,” explains Prakriti Shakya, a Research Associate at the Ford Program and team member. “In India, it is common to have a teacher-centered class where students play a passive role. We ensured that the importance of serve and return was emphasized in the training plans we prepared for preschool teachers in Telangana.”
The Deliverable: A Practical Toolkit for Teachers and Families
The team’s final deliverable operationalizes the GC-DWC’s WCD model by creating a direct link between the classroom and the home. It is a guide for practical, culturally relevant application, consisting of a teacher training program and 15 interactive activity packages designed to be implemented with little to no cost. The activities are divided into three critical areas:
- Pre-Literacy & Pre-Numeracy: Using local resources like sticks, rocks, and clay, students learn to count, identify patterns, and build vocabulary.
- Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Activities like “Safe Adults Around Us” help children identify trusted figures and build the emotional language necessary for resilience.
- The "At-Home" Connection: Recognizing that a child’s world exists far beyond the classroom walls, the team added a specific parental engagement component to every lesson.
Recognizing a traditional trust gap that can exist between schools and families in South Asian contexts, the team designed their toolkit to serve as a bridge. “To rebuild the relationship between home and school, we incorporated an ‘at-home’ component into each activity,” says Shakya. “This section explains to parents what their children learned and offers simple ways to reinforce those concepts during household chores or daily interactions. By creating opportunities for parents to participate in their child’s learning, these activities not only support children’s development, but also foster a more collaborative and trusting relationship between parents and teachers.”
From Academic Project to Real-World Curriculum
What distinguishes this course is the direct pipeline from the classroom to the field. The GC-DWC team is currently integrating the students' work into their official early childhood education curriculum development for the Telangana region. By incorporating these play-based activities and teacher training modules into their ongoing operations, the GC-DWC ensures that the students’ research will result in a measurable difference for teachers and families on the ground.
For the students, the course served as a transformative model for their professional work. “This course has reignited my interest by introducing early childhood development through integrated perspectives of neuroscience, psychology, and economics,” Shakya reflects. “I now have a deeper understanding of the critical role of responsive caregiving, nutrition, and safe environments. These insights will undoubtedly inform and strengthen my future work on issues affecting children in developing countries."
As the GC-DWC continues its mission to support vulnerable children worldwide, these students stand as a testament to the power of a Notre Dame education—one that prepares leaders to step into the world and make a measurable difference.
About the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC)
The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) at the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame collaborates with researchers and practitioners to ensure the well-being—physical, emotional, social, and cognitive—of children and adolescents in low-resource and conflict-affected settings. Established to serve as a coherent platform for the Institute for Educational Initiative’s growing portfolio of global child development and learning programs, the GC-DWC creates environments that foster resilience and encourage children and adolescents to thrive. Using an innovative Whole Child Development (WCD) approach tailored to context-specific needs, the GC-DWC translates research into timely and thoughtful action, adapts research tools to improve the development of learning programs and policies, and activates systems (families, schools, communities) to lift children and adolescents out of adversity.
Learn more about the GC-DWC’s work to transform child development globally: iei.nd.edu/gc-dwc
About the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI)
Founded in 1996, the Institute for Educational Initiatives consists of more than two dozen initiatives that strive to improve education for all youth, particularly the disadvantaged, paying special, though not exclusive, attention to Catholic schools. Through research, the formation of teachers and leaders, and direct service to educational systems, the IEI’s scholars and practitioners pursue interdisciplinary collaborations to better understand and improve PK-12 education in the United States and around the world.
For more information about the IEI and its initiatives, visit iei.nd.edu.
