College of Education and Human Development

Mason School of Education PhD candidate receives prestigious federal grant

Amber B. Sansbury, doctoral candidate in the School of Education at George Mason University, was awarded the prestigious 2023-2024 Early Care and Education Research Scholars: Head Start Dissertation Grant, a program managed by the Administration for Children & Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Sansbury is the first Mason student to earn the competitive National Head Start Dissertation Grant which provides support for effective research conducted by graduate students that will inform early care and education policy and practices between teachers and families in low-income households. This award recognizes Sansbury’s research and contributions to the study of early care and education policies related to school readiness, childcare decision-making, and family engagement as viewed through a lens of equity.

Amber B. Sansbury, MEd

Under the mentorship of Colleen Vesely, Academic Program Co-Coordinator (Graduate) and associate professor in Mason’s Early Childhood Education program, Sansbury is pursuing her PhD in Education with a specialization in Early Care and Education Policy. Sansbury’s dissertation is focused on “Racial Identity Development of Young Black Children in Early Childhood Education: The Roles of Teachers and Families” which examines the cultural values and race-related beliefs that motivate the racial socialization and identity development processes shared by African American parents and African American early care and education teachers. In conducting her research, Sansbury has been partnering with Sheltering Arms and the Educare Learning Network, both are a network of preschools serving children and families in a variety of early care and education settings and funding arrangements. Through extensive interviews with parents, teachers, and families, Sansbury is studying how relationships between parents and teachers may develop across ecological contexts to improve young children’s school readiness and family-school partnerships.

Sansbury believes that the research supporting her dissertation will advance professional development that deepens relationships between teachers and families, enhances culturally grounded family engagement practices, and augments the emerging work of the Office of Head Start “to center Black families’ strengths and parenting goals for racial identity development as a critical component of school readiness in preschool program delivery.”

Sansbury’s current work builds on previous research she has conducted after receiving her Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Early Childhood Education from Mason in 2018. From 2019 through the present, Sansbury has worked at Mason as a graduate research assistant where she has focused on the experiences of African American and immigrant families across a variety of early care and education systems including Head Start, community-based programs, and early intervention services, among others.

Sansbury’s achievements in the field of early care and education are reflected in her selection for several other prominent awards and fellowships which include: the 2023-24 National African American Child and Family Research Center Emerging Scholar, the 2021-22 RISER Fellowship, and the 2019-2022 American Association of College and Teacher Education (AACTE) Holmes Doctoral Scholar award. She has also been published in leading scholarly journals including the Annual Review for Developmental Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Teacher Educators’ Journal, and Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

When asked about what drew her to the research she is doing, Sansbury explained that family engagement can be a powerful tool for building responsive and goal-oriented relationships in early care and education settings. Sansbury added that she looks forward to continued collaboration with federal agencies, advocacy organizations, Head Start programs, families, and state agencies through research partnerships after she graduates in May 2024.

Dr. Colleen Vesely

Upon learning of Sansbury’s selection as recipient of the National Head Start Dissertation Grant, Associate Professor Vesely observed, “Amber’s dissertation will further our growing understanding of the depth and breadth of the role of family partnerships in early care and education. Amber’s focus on how families and early childhood educators partner to support children’s racial identity development, will hopefully shed light on the consequential, yet often overlooked, racial socialization work that Black parents and Black early childhood educators are doing to support Black children’s growth and development. As a former Child Care Scholar myself, I am aware of the many ways that this grant mechanism will facilitate Amber’s opportunities to connect with and be mentored by a network of top early care and education scholars. Beyond the actual funding from this grant, is the networking component of the award that I am most excited for Amber to experience.”

Please join us in extending our congratulations to Amber Sansbury for her hard work and achievement in being named recipient of the 2023-2024 National Head Start Dissertation Grant. For more information on Mason’s Early Childhood Education program, please visit the program website.