What is community? I use the word often and you may have wondered, dear reader, what exactly I mean.

As we will discuss in this issue, language is a crucial aspect of building community. Creating structures that support clear communication across different languages, generations, and perspectives is fertile ground for long-lasting relationships.

The act of creating authentic relationships requires communication. We must be brave enough to speak up about difficult topics, ways we’ve been wounded, and what we need for repair to occur.

Community is an active pursuit of connection and growth with specific and shared intentions, visions, and boundaries.

Community is expressed through the concepts of Sankofa and Ubuntu. These principles originate in African philosophy and are prominent values in traditional African American culture. Sankofa is to look backward towards our history and ancestors, in order to move forward with a clear vision and collective action.

At Exchange, we are looking back across the last 275 issues and more than 50 years of publishing to honor and bring forward the aspects that still hold true to our values; respecting all educators, honoring and uplifting a wide and diverse range of voices, placing people before pedagogy, and engaging in respectful yet challenging dialogue.

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Ubuntu at its core means “I am because we are.” As we will discover through the articles of this issue, community is the “we” that propels our forward movement and the “why” of our persistence. If we want to get anywhere new, we must go together.

These concepts feel timely when I consider this moment within early childhood education. Many industries, including ours, are noticing the changing tide as generations who were once new to the field, begin to take on new roles as emerging leaders, and those who once defined the systems now move into eldership and advisory roles. We are facing economic, social, and political unrest across the country and the world. Along with uncertainty comes exciting opportunities for innovation. Nurturing our connection to the people, the work, and the ways of being that center us is a way we can continue forward.

Community is an intergenerational pursuit. We need everyone from infants to elders to create a rich, vibrant, and sustainable path together.

Building networks of care through nurturing relationships is not a luxury. As care providers, parents, and supporters of children, we must find the places that replenish and uplift us.

We have the responsibility, and the honor of reorienting ourselves toward a definition of community that is vast, courageous, action-oriented, and cultivated with care for all the beings that co-create our world.