Dr. Dina C. Castro is a Professor and the Velma E. Schmidt Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education at the University of North Texas. Before joining UNT, she was Research Professor at Arizona State University (2013-2014), and Senior Scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1997-2013). Her research program focuses on equity and quality in the early care and education of children from immigrant, indigenous and other minoritized and marginalized communities, considering the intersection among language, culture, race and ethnicity. She is currently studying the extent to which early education policies governing curricula, programming, and teacher preparation are recognizing and addressing the characteristics and experiences of bilingual children.
Dr. Castro serves in the Governing Board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and in the World Organization for Early Childhood Education-Peru Chapter. Dr. Castro served as Director of the Center for Early Care and Education Research: Dual Language Learners, a national research center funded by the federal government of the United States. Her previous research includes studies to develop and evaluate the efficacy of professional development programs for preschool teachers of bilingual children, a national study of early childhood programs’ policies and practices to address the needs of Latinx children and their families across various types of programs (Head Start, child care, early intervention) in 48 states, and D. C., the evaluation of a national Early Head Start professional development initiative to support bilingual infants and toddlers, and the development of research measures to assess quality of early education programs serving bilingual children, and the assessment of second language acquisition in young children.
Dr. Castro also conducts research within an international context. She recently completed a study in collaboration with faculty from the Pontifícia Universidad Católica del Perú, examining teachers’ conceptualizations about interculturality in intercultural bilingual education schools serving Shipibo children from the Amazon region of Peru. She is leading a binational research team (UNT- Secretary of Education of Jalisco, Mexico) to investigate the experiences of transnational students and their teachers in Mexican schools. Dr. Castro is first author of the book New Voices ~ Nuevas Voces Guide to Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Early Childhood, and has published numerous articles, book chapters, research and policy reports.