Dr. Amita Gupta

Dr. Amita Gupta has been in the field of early education for 25 years and has extensive cross-cultural experience with school administration, teacher education, and classroom teaching in urban schools in both India and the U.S. She received her Doctoral degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College. Prior to joining CUNY she was Associate Director of a Nursery-Kindergarten school in New York City for 10 years. Dr. Amita Gupta serves on the Board of Directors for schools, and offers culturally responsive professional development consultations in the areas of school leadership, teacher preparation, curriculum design and curriculum development for schools, institutions and organizations in India and the U.S.
 
Dr. Amita Gupta’s research interests in early childhood education are interdisciplinary and draw upon the fields of the history, philosophy and sociology of education; postcolonial theory; urban education; and international and comparative education. Her scholarship is focused on early childhood teacher preparation with an emphasis on the themes of cross-cultural perspectives on teaching, learning, and development; socio-cultural-historical constructivism in teaching and learning; and the impact of globalization on teacher preparation and practice.
 
The integration of these themes also appears in the courses that Dr. Gupta teaches at the Master’s and Doctoral levels: Early Childhood Education and Postcolonial Theory; Program and Curriculum in Early Childhood; Social Studies in the Early Childhood Curriculum; Observing and Recording the Behaviors of Young Children; Developmental Issues in Early Childhood; Supervision of Student Teaching in Early Childhood. Other graduate-level courses Dr. Gupta has designed and taught include: Young Children’s Education in Diverse Non-School Settings; Play as the Roots of Competence in Young Children; and A Multicultural Approach to Teaching Young Children.
 
Dr. Amita Gupta has been invited to speak and lecture at several international conferences and universities including Cornell University, Columbia University, Birmingham University (UK), Zhejiang University (China), National Institute of Education at Nanyang Tech University (Singapore), Delhi University (India), and National University for Educational Planning and Administration (India).
 
Dr. Amita Gupta has authored numerous books, book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. Her more recent publications include: Diverse Early Childhood Education Policies and Practices: Voices and Images from Five Countries in Asia (Routledge, 2014); Early Childhood Education, Postcolonial Theory, Teaching Practices and Policies in India: Balancing Vygotsky and the Veda (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006/2013);