Dr. Sarah Ozuna Brown

Bio

Sarah Ozuna Brown, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of Practice and Master Teacher at The University of Texas at Austin. She recently earned her doctorate from Baylor University, where her dissertation explored Texas families’ experiences accessing high-quality early childhood education. Her research informs her undergraduate teaching and work in the community. She draws on her research to prepare future educators, advocate for equitable access for families, and support childcare providers across diverse settings through mentorship, training, and systemic change.

Dissertation

Understanding Choice: A Qualitative Multiple-Case Study Exploring Texas Families’ Experiences Accessing High-Quality Childcare and Early Childhood Education 

Committee Members

• Melanie Meyer, PhD (Chair)
• Shelby Vaughn, EdD
• Regan Postma-Montaño, PhD

Abstract

Some families experience inequitable access to high-quality childcare and early childhood education (CECE). Systemic factors, including affordability, childcare deserts, and policy and program constraints, can limit families’ access. When these systemic barriers go unaddressed, they can negatively affect families’ work experiences and limit children’s exposure to the high-quality experiences they might receive in CECE. This qualitative multiple-case study explored families’ experiences accessing and choosing CECE in a tri-county area in central Texas.  

This study included three cases: center-based care, family child care, and relative, friend, and neighbor care. The participants were families living in Williamson, Hays, and Travis counties who recently sought CECE for their early childhood-age children. I captured participants’ experiences using three data sources: a semi-structured interview, photo-elicitation activity, and mind-mapping activity. I analyzed the data using thematic analysis. The six key components of Elder’s (1994, 1998) life course theory guided this study.  

This study had six key findings. The first finding was families described connections between their own early childhood experiences and the CECE they chose for their children. The second finding was becoming a parent made the process of searching for CECE more complex. The third finding was families made informed decisions about CECE by seeking input from a variety of network sources. The fourth finding was families made sacrifices to place their children in CECE they described as high-quality. The fifth finding was families encountered availability challenges that caused them to broaden and prolong their search. The last finding was families found and developed resources to support the process as they searched for CECE. This study’s findings aligned with and expanded on the existing literature about families’ experiences accessing and choosing CECE and added to the scholarship by including perspectives from all three CECE types. This study has implications for policymakers, program administrators, organizations that support children and their families, and researchers about ways to minimize limiting factors and better support families as they find and choose CECE.

What Faculty Say

Dr. Brown’s study addresses a pressing societal challenge: the systemic barriers that limit families’ access to high-quality childcare and early childhood education (CECE). With over 18.6 million children in the United States relying on non-parental childcare, this research is highly relevant. Her work sheds light on the affordability crisis, childcare deserts, and policy constraints that affect millions of families, particularly in Texas. Her study provides critical insights that can inform policy reforms and programmatic improvements to increase access to CECE for all families.