FINAL THOUGHTS

The blog assignments for this class have helped push me to research early care and education in other countries and by doing so I have found a wealth of information I can use to improve my own understanding of the field, as well as make positive changes at my program. I have learned that there are countries who make children and their healthy development a priority.

Although I was unable to make connections with early childhood educators abroad, I still feel as though I learned a great deal about issues and trends in other countries. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to share ideas, hopes, dreams, goals and stories from others working hands-on in the field abroad. However, since I was not able to make connections I resorted to the alternate assignment and with the information I was able to retrieve though podcasts, web searches and reading posts from colleagues I was able to learn there are issues all over the world, many countries face issues just like ours. For instance, many countries struggle with poverty, equity and quality, just as we do here in the United States.

I also learned that there are people around the world who have a genuine interest in early childhood care and education. I learned there are countries that invest very heavily in early childhood education. These countries understand that it is this time in the child’s life that builds the foundation for their future. The United States could learn a great deal from some of these countries.

Finally, I have learned how important it is to receive on going professional development. Teachers need support, and they need to continue developing themselves in order to deliver high-quality in their classrooms. Teachers need to know how they can support families from diverse backgrounds.

It is my hope that through the connections I have made through this course that I will continue to learn and have the opportunity to put into practice many of the things I have learned. I want to learn more about how to help disadvantaged children living in poverty. I welcome any ideas from others as ways we can help to make high-quality early care and education available to every child.

 

Getting to Know My International Contacts~ Part 3

Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with my international contacts throughout this course so I have had to revert to the alternate assignment. Therefore, I went to the Unesco website and explored its contents.

Under the quality tab I clicked on the related information tab and read a paper on Early Childhood Workforce in Developed Countries. The article talked about how different countries view and educate their child care workforce. For instance in New Zealand, Spain and Sweden the teacher has emerged as the ‘core’ profession. The new education qualifies a new profession: teachers working with children from birth to 19 and in a range of education settings. Teachers qualify with an individual profile which indicates in which service and with which age group of children they are best qualified to work, and this profile is constructed through the specializations that students opt to take after the 18 months general course which all students follow. This paper also discussed the wages for child care teachers and the increased costs of having an educated workforce. The paper posed the question “Who will pay for a properly qualified workforce?” That’s a question I would like an answer to myself….

Under the Investment and Financing tab I learned that the greatest difficulty faced by countries in their efforts to expand and improve the quality of early childhood care and education is the mobilization of resources. It discussed how in many developing countries early childhood education is overshadowed by other pressing priorities, such as universal primary education.

The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA), stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognize the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilize funds. In general, government funding for early childhood is extremely small. The authors of this paper believe private sector involvement using a market approach may also ensure services are delivered more effectively. However, governments must use complementary financing measures to ensure equity of access for poor and disadvantaged children, as a pure market approach to increasing the level of early childhood provision has been shown to favor the privileged, who can afford the service

Finally, under the access and equity tab I read a brief on Vietnam entitled, Supporting the Poorest: Vietnam’s Early Childhood Policy. I found this brief quite interesting regarding how the funding for early childhood is split, between the poor and the poorest. When asked if early childhood education should be made compulsory in an effort to receive more funding the answer was no, and it is not an option being explored by the Government, (though at the provincial level it has been announced as a policy, helping local authorities boost political and investment commitments). The interviewee stated that in Vietnam, state budgets are to be spent strictly on the poorest.

I have attached the link if you are interested in browsing the site. Browse the News link, there are several interesting articles to be found there as well.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources

I have to admit, I was quite glad to see we were researching website outside of our initial choice. I have not been impressed by the site I initially chose. It just has not been as informative as I had hoped. 

However, the links took me to good information. I searched several of the links, but really liked the Australian Early Childhood Association. I signed up for their newsletter. There were several resources on their page, I spent quite some time looking at a link called Everyday Learning Series. It publishes short books educating the reader on many different subjects, such as everyday learning about loss and grief, being green, bullying, social emotional learning etc. They also had a link to mychild.gov.au., which I had already signed up for during the first week of this course. I received their newsletter last week; and as I read through it today, I realized it was right on target with what we are studying this week. This article discussed how Australia has two programs to help families cover the expenses of child care. The first is based on income and is called the Child Care Benefit it is targeted to low-income families. To be eligible for the Child Care Benefit, you need to meet eligibility requirements including residency, passing the Work, Training, Study Test and immunization. The second programs is the Child Care Rebate. The Child Care Rebate is not income-tested and provides assistance for families using approved child care for work, training, or study related reasons. So, even if the family income is too high to receive the Child Care Benefit, a family may be eligible for the Child Care Rebate. I think this is a really great idea as many families in the U.S. do not qualify for the subsidy, but certainly do not make enough money to pay child care expenses.

I have listed the links available on the NAECTE website.

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

American Associate Degree Early Childhood Educators

Association for Childhood Education International

Association of Teacher Educators

Certification Map

Council of Exceptional Children, Division of Early Childhood

Education Commission of the States, Report on State Statutes on Kindergarten

High/Scope Educational Research Foundation

National Association for the Education of Young Children

National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)

Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)

OMEP-U.S. National Committee (a unit of World Organization for Early Childhood Education)

University of Kentucky page

Thematic Network Teacher Education in Europe

Australian Early Childhood Association

Canadian Association of Early Childhood Educators

Getting to Know My International Contacts - Part 2

I have still not had any response from anyone that I have contacted through this assignment.  I am really disappointed but am moving on with the alternate assignment.  Since I have not made contact I am continuing the alternate assignment of listening to podcasts and browsing the Harvard University's "Global Children's Initiative" website.  Here's some insight from this week:

Podcasts:  I chose to listen to the podcast by Barnabus O’Talla, the Dean of Education at Martyr’s University in Uganda. He spoke about a child in his village who was HIV positive. The parents were afraid to tell the village as they feared the village would despise them. But, Mr. O’Talla recommended they take the child to a doctor. The parents took the child to the doctor and the parents listened to what the doctor had to say. The doctor gave the child ARVs and the parents took the child home and followed the doctor’s instructions-every bit of the instructions. Mr. O’Talla was happy he was able to partner with the parents and the doctor for the child’s best possible outcome. He said sometimes the “normal teacher” might not be the right one. He feels it is important for those involved with a child to partner and find the best ways to help the child.

The Harvard University website is full of information and links to initiatives dedicated to improving equity and excellence around the globe.  In the tab Global Children’s Initiative I found an article on     Applying the Science of Early Childhood in Brazil - The project describes Nucleo Clencia Pela Infancia, which is a program dedicated to improving the lives of young children and their families in Brazil by utilizing the science of child health and development and connecting the information to better policies; and strengthening leadership around early childhood development through an executive leadership course for policymakers. That’s a great idea!!

The National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs is a direct outgrowth of another Center initiative, the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. The Forum was established to complement the Council’s work, which aims to explain why public investments should be made in the early childhood years. The Forum attempts to answer what those investments should be and how they should be made, and, to that end, it assesses and interprets program evaluation research. Currently, the Forum is building a comprehensive meta-analytic database on intervention services from the prenatal period to age five, including assessments of early care and education, family support and health-based programs.

Under the Students, Education and Leadership Development tab I found information on a lecture series which is open to all University students, faculty, and the general public and provides a venue to interact with distinguished scholars whose creative research has made significant advances in the field of child development. This series spotlights these leaders’ bold contributions to the science of child development and the implications of their research on the worlds of education, policy, public health, medicine, justice, and economic development. I’m looking forward to finding some extra time to check out some of these lectures