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Holli Ann Tonyan

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Background

Curriculum Vitae

Holli Tonyan graduated from UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies with a PhD in Psychological Studies in Education. She has since completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Developmental Science at UC, Santa Cruz and worked as a Lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne Australia.

Holli's teaching interests are in Developmental Psychology and Qualitative Research Methods. In addition, she is interested in helping CSUN students find pathways into applied developmental work and research - understanding the settings and factors that help children grow up safe and secure in all the environments they live in.

Her research interests are organized around understanding children's development as part of social and cultural contexts and the vision that adults can create spaces for young children that nurture their full potential toward a variety of ideals of life (and not just certain ideals for development). Drawing from the work of Thomas Weisner in developing Eco-Cultural Theory and Barbara Rogoff's sociocultural theory, her current research focuses on how adults' ideas about children influence the kinds of activities they provide for children in child care settings, particularly family child care (i.e., in California that means licensed child care for up to 14 children provided by 1-2 adults in a home setting as a small business). Although most people think of child care centers or "babysitters," when they think of child care, many more child care sites in the San Fernando Valley are based in homes than in centers, and many of the nation's most vulnerable children spend more hours in family child care than in center-based care. Despite it's importance in children's lives, little research has examined this complex site for child development. By talking with family child care providers about their daily life, this research uncovers the cultural aspects of children's daily life that often go unnoticed. The ultimate goal of this work is to understand why and how family child care providers do (or can learn to) support children's healthy development, including healthy weight, physical activity, and stress regulation. Another line of research looks at the conditions under which family child care providers engage in quality improvement initiatives.

Teaching

Because of grant-funded research I am currently teaching very few courses. In fall, 2016, I will be teaching PSY 485GT/S (Advanced Inquiry in Research and Analysis Methods: Grounded Theory). In Spring, 2017, I will be teaching PSY313 (Developmental Psychology).

I am also an active mentor for a number of on-campus programs.

Research Projects

We recently received funding to expand our research through a Child Care Research Partnership grant. That project is called Are You In? Family Child Care Providers' Experiences in Quality Improvement Initiatives. For more information, please visit: http://www.areyouinpartnership.com

We recently completed a pilot study interviewing family child care providers about their daily life. For more information, visit: http://www.csun.edu/~htonyan/SustainableRoutines.htm

A recent project surveyed child care providers in the San Fernando Valley region. Providers interested in learning more can visit: http://www.csun.edu/~htonyan/EcologyChildCareSFV.html

Here are some of our recent presentations:

Tonyan, H. A., Torres, J., Paredes, E., Bridgewater, J., Contreras, M. C., Escobar, J., Garcia, M., Malcolm, S., Penagos, J., Sifuentes, C. (2016, May). All together now? How child care providers organize activities for infants and toddlers in mixed-age settings.  Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for Infant Studies. (Click on the title of the poster or here to see an online version)

Tonyan, H. A. (March, 2015).  Sustainability of daily routines as resilience in the face of difficult working conditions.  In H. A. Tonyan (Chair), Home based care as a context for supporting children’s development: Researching providers, programs and interventions, a poster symposium presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia PA. Handout in pdf format.

Tonyan, H. A. (November, 2014).  Opportunities for children’s learning and development in home-based care.  In H. A. Tonyan (Chair), Engaging Home-Based Care Providers in Quality Improvement.  An invited breakout session at the annual meeting of the Child Care Policy Research Consortium, Washington, DC. Handout in pdf format.

Torres, J., Corral, L., Ayala, I., Bahner, A., & Tonyan, H. A. (March, 2015). The complexity of family child care homes as a setting for children’s development.  Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia PA. Handout in pdf format.

Lee, S. Y., Villegas, C. A., & Tonyan, H. A. (March, 2015).  Strengthening caregivers beyond families: Experience and work-related stress in family child care settings.  Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia PA. Handout in pdf format.

Tonyan, H. A. (2013, April). Understanding Home-Based Care as a Culturally Organized Ecological Niche: Cultural Models and the Organization of Daily Routines. A poster presented April 20, 2013, at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington.

Tonyan, H. A. (2013, April). Cultural models as mediators of what is possible in a day. Presentation to the Roundtable session “Getting Beyond the Zone of Proximal Development: Further Possibilities for Strengthening Early Childhood Education through Cultural-Historical Analyses” at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,San Francisco, California, 28 April, 2013.

Interested in Joining the Lab?

First, check our our research projects by following the links above. If you are interested in joining the lab and getting involved in current research, please complete an application and then let us know you did (see my email link at right). If you don't hear from us right away, send an email to follow-up. We will have a combination of volunteer opportunities and paid positions available.

Are you seeking a letter of recommendation?

Please download and read some guidelines by me and also check out http://www.csun.edu/plunk. Before you email me to request letters, please download and complete a table with the information I will need. I prefer it if you send me an electronic copy of the table. Also remember that many times you need to sign a copy of a form to go along with my letter - be sure to provide me with a signed copy of the form!

For copies of papers or to "follow" my work, visit: http://csun.academia.edu/HolliTonyan

Professional Memberships

Dr Tonyan is a member of the following organizations.

  1. Society for Research in Child Development
  2. International Society for Culture and Activity Research (see the Section on Developmental Psychology and Childhood)
  3. Association for Psychological Science
  4. American Psychological Association (see Division 7, Developmental Psychology)

Dr Tonyan is interested in the following organizations which may also be of interest to visitors to this site.

  1. International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD)
  2. International Society of Infant Studies
  3. American Association of University Women
  4. American Educational Researchers Association
  5. National Association for the Education of Young Children
  6. National Association for Family Child Care

 

Contact Information

Help me help you! Please see the notes to the left for more information if you are seeking a letter of recommendation or you would like to join my lab.

Courses

News and Announcements

Funded!

We are nearing the end of the third year of our four-year Child Care Research Partnership grant. That project is called Are You In? Family Child Care Providers' Experiences in Quality Improvement Initiatives. For more information, please visit: http://www.areyouinpartnership.com

We are also conducting research in an additional rural county through generous funding from First 5 California!

Faculty Senate Award for Distinguished Teaching, Counselling or Librarianship!

In 2015, I was awarded the CSUN award named above. Check out the profile created for me at the CSU website: http://blogs.calstate.edu/outstanding-faculty/index.php/holli-tonyan-ph-d/