Associate Professor, Early Childhood Education
Director, McNichol Early Childhood Education Lab

3rd Floor, 3401 Market
Room 3225
215.895.5946
haslip@drexel.edu

Michael Haslip, PhD

Education

PhD, Old Dominion University, Early Childhood Education
MS, Old Dominion University, Early Childhood Education
BA, Dalhousie University, International Development Studies

Program Affiliation

BS, Education
MS, Teaching Learning & Curriculum

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Haslip

McNichol Early Childhood Education Lab

Publications

Blaisdell, M., Haslip, M.J., Meehan, S., Harrington, N. (2024). Teaching for sustainability and altruism through project-based learning: A framework and case study. Journal of Moral Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2024.2416680
Cameron, T., Escalante, K., Haslip, M.J. (2024). Enhancing the diversity of student nursing practitioners: A formative participatory program evaluation of a Northeastern licensed practical nursing program. Journal of Modern Nursing Practice and Research. 4(3), 16. doi: 10.53964/jmnpr.2024016 https://www.innovationforever.com/article.JMNPR20240138
Mata-McMahon, J., Haslip, M. J., and Hossain, S. (2024).How U.S. early childhood educators understand children’s spirituality: A framework of essence, origin, and action. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01642-8
Mata-McMahon, J., Haslip, M. J., and Kruse, L. (2023). Validation study of the Early Childhood Educators’ Spiritual Practices in the Classroom (ECE-SPC) instrument using Rasch. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364436X.2023.2218590
Haslip, M.J., Terry, N. (2022). A mixed methods study of the relationship between individualized lesson planning and social-emotional outcomes in young children. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01347-w https://rdcu.be/cM5X1
Haslip, M.J., Donaldson, L. (2021) What character strengths do early childhood educators use to address workplace challenges? Positive psychology in teacher professional development. International Journal of Early Years Education. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2021.1893666
Haslip, M.J., Donaldson, L. (2020). How early childhood educators resolve workplace challenges using character strengths and model character for children in the process. Early Childhood Education Journal. DOI: 10.1007/s10643-020-01072-2 https://rdcu.be/b5oDH
Haslip, M.J. (2020). The power of please: How courtesy scripts improve self-control and reduce peer conflict by creating new language patterns. Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research. 22(1). https://doi.org/10.4148/2470-6353.1304
Mata-McMahon, J., Haslip, M.J., and Schein, D. L. (2020). Connections, virtues, and meaning-making: How early childhood educators describe children’s spirituality. Early Childhood Education Journal. doi: 10.1007/s10643-020-01026-8
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-020-01026-8
Haslip, M.J., & Penn, M. (2020). Cultivating human rights and protecting human dignity by nurturing altruism and a life of service: Integrating U.N. Sustainable Development Goals into school curricula. In H. Mahmoudi and M. Penn (Eds.), Human Dignity and Human Rights. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.
Haslip, M.J., Allen-Handy, A., Donaldson, L. (2019). How do children and teachers demonstrate love, kindness and forgiveness? Findings from an early childhood strength-spotting intervention. Early Childhood Education Journal. doi: 10.1007/s10643-019-00951-7 https://rdcu.be/bFj4w
Haslip, M.J., Allen-Handy, A. Donaldson, L. (2018). How urban early childhood educators used positive guidance principles and improved teacher-child relationships: A social-emotional learning intervention study. Early Child Development and Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2018.1507027 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TXFrNkgj5hUDa9wwde7x/full
Mata-McMahon, J., Haslip, M.J., Schein, D. (2018). Early childhood educators’ perceptions of nurturing spirituality in secular settings. Early Child Development and Care. doi: 10.1080/03004430.2018.1445734 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ugiFMRsNj9EjsEER56cg/full
Haslip, M.J. (2018). The effects of public pre-kindergarten attendance on first grade literacy achievement: A district study. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy. doi: 10.1186/s40723-017-0040-z https://ijccep.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40723-017-0040-z
Haslip, M.J, Gullo, D. (2017). The changing landscape of early childhood education: Implications for policy and practice. Early Childhood Education Journal. doi: 10.1007/s10643-017-0865-7 http://rdcu.be/sOxV
Haslip, M.L., Haslip, M. J. (2013). From Malaysia to America: community-based character education for children and youth. Childhood Education, 89(5), 296 - 302. doi: 10.1080/00094056.2013.830899

Funded Projects

Principal Investigator. Credentialing the Early Childhood Education Workforce (FY25). Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organization at Public Health Management Corporation, Office of Child Development & Early Learning, Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Department of Human Services. July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025. $169,044.
Principal Investigator. Developing and Validating the Qualitative Characteristics of Children’s Play Assessment System. Caplan Foundation. October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024. $79,352.64
Principal Investigator. Credentialing the Early Childhood Education Workforce. Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organization at Public Health Management Corporation, Office of Child Development & Early Learning, Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Department of Human Services. July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024. $149,700.
Principal Investigator. Expanding Early Childhood Workforce Supports, Renewed. Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organization at Public Health Management Corporation. July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023. $134,748.
This project will provide scholarships for 10 undergraduate ECE workforce students to attend Drexel’s PK – 4 program. It will also continue funding the Tutoring and Career Counseling Center created in the McNichol ECE Lab.
Principal Investigator. Expanding Early Childhood Workforce Supports. Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organization at Public Health Management Corporation. July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022. $126,322.
This project funds 16 ECE students to attend Drexel on a full scholarship. It also funds the creation of a new Tutoring Center and pays for a new part-time academic tutor to support the ECE workforce attending Drexel.
Principal Investigator. Early Childhood Education Workforce Supports. Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organization at Public Health Management Corporation. July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021. $87,596.20.
This project funds 10 ECE students to attend Drexel on a full scholarship, to be renewed annually. It also includes staff time for recruiting ECE teachers to pursue their next degree or credential and creation of a program-to-program articulation agreement with a local community college.
Principal Investigator, with Janet Sloand (CO-I). Content Development: Expanding Special Education, Trauma Informed Care and Social-Emotional Content in Existing Coursework. Early Childhood Education Professional Development Organization at Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA. March – June, 2020. $21,722.
Delaware County Community College and Consortium. The Coaching Companion: Building Statewide Capacity for Reflective Coaching and Seamless Pathways in PreK-4 Grade Teacher Preparation. Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Strengthening and Aligning Higher Education Systems for Early Care and Education Professionals. PI of Drexel subaward. Jan 1, 2020 – Dec 31, 2020. $222,310 full grant, $10,000 Drexel subaward.
Principal Investigator, with Mata-McMahon, J., and Schein, D. (Co-Is). Surveying Early Childhood Educators About Nurturing Children’s Spirituality. Drexel University School of Education. 2019-2020. $2,143.
Principal Investigator. Southeast Regional Partnership for Early Childhood Education Pathways. Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Child Development and Early Learning. Jan 1, 2018 – Dec 31, 2018. $400,000.
Federal Race to the Top funds used to improve early childhood credentials and degrees at 9 participating institutions of higher education. Areas of improvement include: coursework, field placement and supervision and faculty coaching. The project also includes a peer to peer mentorship project linking directors and teachers of child care centers to each other across STAR 4 and STAR 2 centers, replicating an apprenticeship model, and creating articulation agreements to improve degree progression by working early childhood professionals.
CO-PI. Allen, G., Haslip, M.J., Provinzano, K., Lynch, B. (PI). Pennsylvania PK-4 Principal Instructional Leadership Collaborative (P3ILC). Pennsylvania Department of Education Eligible Partnership Grant. 2017 – 2018. $600,000.
18-month grant (2017-2018) to recruit, prepare, and evaluate future elementary school principals for effective instructional leadership with PreK-4 students and teachers through a year-long mentored residency experience combined with asynchronous and synchronous online learning focused on essential knowledge and skills for guiding instruction with young children. The project is a collaboration between three institutions of higher education, multiple local education agencies, and a private credentialing company.
Principal Investigator. Haslip, M.J., Allen, A., Klem, A. Developing a Culturally Relevant Framework of Social-Emotional Interventions for the Early Childhood Professional Workforce. Drexel University School of Education. 2016 – 2017. $6000.
The purpose of this research project is to investigate how to raise the quality of early childhood centers in Philadelphia by implementing a comprehensive framework of evidence-based practices to enhance the culturally relevant social and emotional learning of young children. The primary intervention was a course entitled Social and Emotional Learning and Positive Guidance, taught to early childhood teachers from across the city.

Other Active Projects

Exploring secular early childhood educator’s beliefs and practices about nurturing children’s spirituality. Collaborators include Dr. Jen Mata-McMahon (University of Maryland) and Dr. Deborah Schein. The focus of this project has been the creation of a survey and observational checklist for use in future research and professional development activities. 2016 -
Altruism for a life of service: Integrating U.N. sustainable development goals into curriculum. The focus of this project is the creation of a conceptual framework to integrate global sustainable development and altruistic (moral) development into a comprehensive approach to pedagogy, curricula and human development. Related presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ptZ0rUd0Aqw 2016 –

Social Emotional Learning
Character Education
Education for Sustainable Development

Associate Professor
Community College Instructor
Elementary School Teacher
Non-Profits/Community Building

My research investigates how to improve education for social, emotional, character, and spiritual development and how to train teachers to implement education for sustainability and altruism through project-based learning. Much of my scholarship utilizes mixed methods intervention designs to introduce and test strategies and approaches with teachers. I am interested in how learners develop the capacities associated with sustainability citizenship; how to assess the educational environment for its spiritually nurturing quality associated with holistic development; how to apply the theory of positive psychology to model, teach and reinforce character strengths (e.g. peacefulness, love, kindness); how to improve teacher-child relationships; how to improve lesson planning on these topics; and how to evaluate and strengthen environmental stewardship.

I enjoy learning how to be a global citizen by promoting community empowerment and international partnerships. I am originally from California and my wife is from Malaysia. We are former elementary school teachers, have two children, and enjoy participating in our faith community - the Bahá?í Faith – whose primary goal is to establish the oneness of humanity by applying the law of love and the principle of the oneness of reality to investigate, integrate and apply all material and spiritual truth for the organic evolution of a peaceful, global and divine civilization.

I am particularly interested in exploring how the law of love and the investigation of the oneness of reality can serve as guiding principles in the construction of an educational system that permits all learners to discover their most essential identity as a conscious soul, animated by life’s essence, and the symbiosis and harmony between people and nature that acting on this understanding creates. Such an educational system is hypothesized to prevent and dissolve divisive human-created identities (social, physical, economic, national, political) so that the organic unity of the human race and its spiritual nature can displace the false ideologies of materialism, nationalism, different “races,” and self-interest that are currently preventing the establishment of global democracy, international law, human rights, justice and peace.