ECOLOGICAL LEARNING PARTNERS
Mapping to Make the Invisible Visible
Practitioners who can see their conditions clearly are more attuned and responsive to the children and families they serve.
At Ecological Learning Partners LLC, we work with leaders and practitioners to map their experiences, their relationships, and the conditions shaping their work.
We position practitioners as investigators of their own practice and build their capacity to connect with families, colleagues, and the programs and systems around them.
How We Work Together
We listen and learn. We talk with leaders and practitioners to understand priorities, culture, and conditions.
We facilitate mapping. We help practitioners document their individual and collective experiences and look for patterns in their maps.
We examine maps. Through individual conversations and group convenings, we guide practitioners to examine how their position shapes their practice.
We convene to act. We bring practitioners and leaders together to discuss their observations and envision the infrastructure that can fully support their work.
Our Methodology: Contemplative Mapping
Contemplative mapping guides practitioners through a self-to-system reflective inquiry using three maps:
Life mapping - Practitioners draw their own educational journeys as maps, uncovering how their personal experiences shape how they teach, respond, and relate.
Situational mapping - Teams map the people, policies, and conversations shaping their work to see where collaboration is already strong and what conditions need to be built to support it better.
Practice mapping - Practitioners observe and document their own daily practices over time, noticing what feels easy, what feels hard, and where adjustments could be helpful.
Together these maps position practitioners as investigators of their own positionalities, a foundational step for the skillful relational practice teaching requires.
About Sarika S. Gupta, Ph.D., M.Ed.
I am the founder of Ecological Learning Partners LLC, an applied researcher, and a learning ecologist. I work with early childhood programs, teacher preparation programs, and education agencies to understand what shapes practitioners' work and what would support inclusion. My focus is teacher reflective inquiry and mapping.
My path into this work began in research and moved quickly into practice. As a research assistant at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), I coded interviews and turned qualitative data into visual representations. I then taught preschool, first at the University of Maryland's Center for Young Children and later as a lead inclusion teacher at the National Child Research Center in Washington, DC. There I designed learning experiences with families and specialists, and I saw how much each child's participation depended on our relationships, our program's structures, and decisions made outside our classroom. I wanted to understand what practitioners know from that kind of experience and what conditions make inclusion possible.
That question guided my doctoral research. My dissertation examined how states built systems to collect child outcomes data for early intervention and preschool special education. Years later, my colleagues and I reanalyzed those interviews through a strengths-based lens. We found that the data depended on how state leaders supported and built relationships with practitioners.
In 2008, I began practicing Iyengar yoga. The practice changed how I observe. It asked me to examine my own position in the settings I study, not only the people in them.
For nearly a decade, I prepared early childhood special education teachers at George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, and Hunter College. I designed courses that gave candidates space to examine their assumptions and decisions, and I wrote about that design in The New Educator. Along the way, I evaluated Maryland's statewide early childhood initiatives and studied teacher well-being in inclusive preschools.
At Bank Street College of Education, I directed a mixed-methods study in partnership with New York City's Division of Early Childhood Education. We looked at how program processes, people's positionalities, families, and classroom practices shaped referral and inclusion decisions in two preschool programs. The study showed that equitable inclusion rested on relationships and labor that program data did not record.
Contemplative mapping grew out of all of this. Through Ecological Learning Partners, I help practitioners map their histories, relationships, and daily practices and connect what they find to the programs and systems around them. I start from what practitioners and programs already do well.
I hold a B.Sc. in Early Childhood Education, an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education, and a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Maryland, College Park. I completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Early Childhood Special Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Colorado Denver and am completing an M.S. in Data Science at CUNY School of Professional Studies.
Let’s Talk
Ecological Learning Partners LLC works with practitioners and leaders across learning communities, programs, and systems who want to reflect on what shapes their practice and their relationships.
Start here.
Publications Across Ecological Levels
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Gupta, S. S. & Nagasawa, M. (2023). WeDesign: Conceptualizing a process that invites young children to CoDesign inclusive learning spaces. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491231179000
Gupta, S. S. (2023). Building pre-k students' skills to CoDesign the classroom. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/pre-k-classroom-design
Gupta, S. S. (2022). How preschool teachers can benefit from mindful thinking. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-preschool-teachers-can-benefit-mindful-thinking
Gupta, S. S. (2022). Using project-based learning in professional development for preschool teachers. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-project-based-learning-professional-development-preschool-teachers
Gupta, S. S. (2020). Voices from the field: Why aren't we talking about teacher well-being with inclusion? Young Exceptional Children, 23(2), 59-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250619846581
Gupta, S. S. & Glen, J. (2020). Storytelling in a rock study: Using emergent learning and universal design to promote every child's learning in an inclusive preschool classroom. Childhood Explorer. https://www.childhoodexplorer.org/emergentcurriculum
Gupta, S. S. (2019). Engaging young children and families as design partners in the learning process: Reflections from an inclusive preschool classroom in Washington, DC. Childhood Explorer. https://www.childhoodexplorer.org/design-partners
Gupta, S. S. & Daniels, J. (2012). Coaching and professional development in early childhood classrooms: Current practices and recommendations for the future. NHSA Dialog, 15(2), 206-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240754.2012.665509
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Gupta, S. S., & Zhu, X. (2026). Life mapping: Redefining bias training. ASCD Educational Leadership, 83(8). https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/redefining-bias-training
Gupta, S. S., Cheatham, G. A., Strassfeld, N., Zhu, X., Medellin, C. & Nagasawa, M. (2024). Examining the ecology of preschool inclusion in New York City: A mixed-methods study underway. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491241229229
Gupta, S. S. & Rous, B. S. (2016). Understanding change and implementation. How leaders can support inclusion. Young Children, 71(2), 82-91. https://www.jstor.org/stable/ycyoungchildren.71.2.82
Lieber, J., Butera, G., Hanson, M., Palmer, S., Horn, E., Czaja, C., Diamond, K., Goodman-Jansen, G., Daniels, J., Gupta, S., & Odom, S. (2009). Factors that influence the implementation of a new preschool curriculum: Implications for professional development. Early Education and Development, 20(3), 456-481. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409280802506166
Technical Reports:
Gupta, S. S., & Zhu, X. (2026). Preschool Program Ecologies, Equitable Referrals, and Inclusive Practices in New York City: Findings and Recommendations from a Two-Site Study of NYC Early Education Centers [Technical Report]. New York: Ecological Learning Partners. 49 pages.
Gupta, S. S. & Guha, M. L. (2019). Conversations About Inclusion at the Center for Young Children at the University of Maryland, College Park: Final Summary. New York: Hunter College CUNY. 33 pages.
Book:
Gupta, S. S. (Ed.) (2014). First steps to preschool inclusion: How to jumpstart your programwide plan. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
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Gupta, S. S. (2025). The myna bird knows her name. Lion’s Roar-Bodhi Leaves. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-myna-bird-knows-her-name/
Gupta, S. S. (2021). Mapping the design and facilitation of critical self-reflection in a culminating clinical course for early childhood special education teacher candidates. The New Educator, 18(1-2), 42-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547688X.2021.2005855
Gupta, S. S. & Lewin-Smith, J. (2020). Employing design-thinking to create opportunities for ECSE teacher candidate reflection through infographic design in an online course. Distance Learning, 17(2), 11-23.
Gupta, S. S. (2020). Building practitioner resilience for change in EI/ECSE. Young Exceptional Children, 24(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250620913258
Gupta, S. S. (2019). Unraveling resistance in my journey to truth. Yoga Samachar, 23(1), 47-48. https://issuu.com/iynaus/docs/22_yoga_samachar_ss2019/s/11206351
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Gupta, S. S., & Zhu, X. (2026). Using situational mapping to explore collaborative dynamics in research-practice partnerships. NNERPP Extra, 8(1), 12-20. https://nnerppextra.rice.edu/resources/how-might-situational-mapping-be-used-in-rpps/
Gupta, S. S., Sherif, V., & Zhu, X. (2023). Re-examining state Part C early intervention leaders' views through a positive lens on leadership: A qualitative secondary analysis. The Qualitative Report, 28(2), 517-543. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2023.4786
Tirrell-Corbin, C., Sweet, S., Gupta, S., & Lieber, J. (2016). Evaluation of the birth to five service delivery models in Maryland – Phase I. College Park: University of Maryland Center for Early Childhood Education and Intervention. 269 pages.
Tirrell-Corbin, C., Lieber, J., Cummings, K., Jones Harden, B., Klein, E., Silverman, R., & Gupta, S. (2016). Evaluation of the efficacy of Maryland's Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge grant. College Park: University of Maryland Center for Early Childhood Education and Intervention. 183 pages.
Ruggiero, T., Gupta, S., Nicholas, A., & Mauzy, D. (2016). State spotlight on data use. Maryland: Establishing partnerships to build data use capacity. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
LaRocco, D. J., Bruns, D. A., Gupta, S. S. & Sopko, K. M. (2014). National early childhood special education leadership summit: Final report February 2014.
Gupta, S. S. (2011). Strategies to facilitate and sustain the inclusion of young children with disabilities [Policy Brief]. Denver, CO: The Colorado Center for Social Emotional Competence and Inclusion. 4 pages.
Sarpatwari, S. S. (2006). A qualitative analysis of the 1st Annual Joint Technical Assistance and Dissemination Conference. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. 10 pages.