Reflection

It’s been an amazing journey learning about issues within early childhood education field that is beneficial for all early childhood professionals, families, and their children should be aware of and have knowledge of. I feel I have learned so many new resources to use when it comes to supporting families and young children on their way to success.  Having all the resources brought to the forefront helped open my eyes to a world of issues and trends in early childhood education. The entire world is dealing with the same issues and I think we need to start to work together to help support one another on solving these issues to have a better world for our children and families.

The main issues I learned from this course were changing demographics and diversity, poverty, influences of economics, neuroscience, and politics, and equity and excellence in care and education of children, families, and early childhood professionals.  I think this issues will continue to be consequences within the early childhood field for years to come. Part of these issues, I want to share, happen in some ways relating with politics. No matter how society votes, these issues will still stand for young children, their families, and early childhood professionals. These four issues can be attempted to change by professionals and families standing up and fighting for their rights and concerns about what they want for young children and their needs to grow strong and be successful in their future.  I have learned so much about these topics that I would do my best to stay strong as a professional to stand up and fight for the benefits of early childhood education has for the community, to society, and to the world. Early childhood education is beneficial to all children before they enter public school, which most children start school in Kindergarten.  I will do my best to help reduce these issues within my own community and work my way to support the reduction on a national level.

My goal is to help society understand and gain knowledge about the importance and benefits of supporting and funding early childhood programs for young children, their families, and early childhood professionals.  I think it’s important that society has all the knowledge of the benefits early childhood programs have for young children, their families, and early childhood professionals, and for many generations to come to have a successful life.   

Getting to Know Your International Contacts – Part 3

I explored the UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” website at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

The site itself it very informational, it shares their mission statement and the strategies they have in place to make sure all children between zero to 8 years old receives an education that supports their overall development. It shares the sites overall history and focus of their fight for early childhood education. The website also offers various resources for professionals within the early childhood field, including other professionals within the field as well, even for families. They are many published books for families and educators to use to help them gain knowledge within child development and information regarding the benefits that are behind the scenes of many high-quality programs out there for young children and their families. There are videos that share about early childhood education in various countries and the programs these countries offer to the children and families that can benefit from the offered program in the long run.

“There are no universally agreed criteria for quantifying ECCE quality but useful factors to consider include pedagogy materials, personnel training, service setting and parental education and involvement.” These line from the site speaks loud and clear for many teachers that are within the early childhood education field. I feel there should be universal agreed upon criteria for those to qualify as a high-quality teacher.  In a field where professionals work with children and families their hope is for the family and child to be successful and gain and master important skills they will use over a lifetime.

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

The website have an area just designed to Early Childhood. The major subject topics that it shares and talks about area are access and equity, quality, investment and financing, and coordination and integration. The way they take the time to talk about each topic and make professionals and families be aware of regarding early childhood education. This information makes it known what is being down and how they feel the topics support all children all over the world to receive the same benefits of the child’s growth and development to master many skills to be successful as they continue to learn and grow. It’s important for all families to want the best for their child even at a young age as an infant. All children deserve the right to an education, all children in all countries deserve the right to an education and make something out of themselves for their future.   

Sharing Web Resources

The outside links head to current news and issues within early childhood education.  One place brought me to Juggling Jobs and Babies, it shares the ever changing work force and economic status that many families are facing at this time.

http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/working-families-infographic.html

Another outside link heads to the president’s budget proposal for our nation’s babies. The budget will continue to support Head Start Programs for children and their families, of those families that are vulnerable and at risk. The plan would help create high-quality child care options for infants and toddlers, with working families.  The plan will ensure that young children and families have access to high-quality child care.

http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/press-release-presidents-budget-proposal.html

There is one section designated for public policy. It shares all the current news and fight for early childhood education.  In this section it talks about; action center, building early childhood systems, federal policy, infant-toddler policy issues, policy guide, and state and community policy. It’s a nice section to see the current issues and trends within early childhood education right at your fingertips.  I wonder what I can do with this information; how it will help me to guide and support my families and young children.  TO know that I will be on their side fighting for the benefits early childhood education has for young children, their families, and professionals.

http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/

I receive newsletter from this site but it doesn’t share information regarding awareness, accessibility, or responsiveness. It only shares important information regarding ways to help children within your classroom based on their age. It shares where they are and how to support their learning to grow within each of their developmental stages.

Looking through the website, I learned that that fight for early childhood education is at the stand front and supports the needs of many families and children that don’t have a voice when they really wish to share their experiences with others about their struggles and challenges they have faced. I find the public policy suggestion is a great resource for families and professionals, including other professionals within the field. It brings to up to date on the fight for early childhood and the benefits they are fighting for these young children and families to have.  It makes me want to look through all the current public policy information that will help guide my professionalism when working with families to give them the strength and the ability to be strong to fight for themselves and their children. I want to share in the same fight and have their strength and passion for the fight.  I believe in early childhood education and the benefits the children and families receive from attended high-quality child care like Head Start and Early Head Start.  The benefits speak loud and clear for why many families should be aware, have access too, and be responsive when they need to be. It’s clear that these high-quality programs benefit all young children, their families, and professionals; to learn more about the awareness of such programs, the access to these programs, and the responsiveness of wanting to be a part of these programs. It’s a fight that all are willing to do in the end. Including professionals and other professionals within the field, for the families and children!! 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts – Part 2

Again, I’m partaking in the alternative section.  I took the time to explore the site over at Harvard’s University’s “Global Children’s Initiative.”

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Being part of the, “Global Children’s Initiative,” organization launched, the first, the Center, Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, the major programmatic effort outside the United States.  The program aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to help benefit young children and their families in Brazil. The main activities the organizations engage in are:

• Building a scientific agenda and community of scholars around early childhood development;
• Synthesizing and translating scientific knowledge for application to social policy. This will include working with the Center’s longtime partner organization, Frameworks Institute, to effectively communicate the science of child development in the Brazilian cultural context;
• Strengthening leadership around early childhood development through an executive leadership course for policymakers;
• Translating and adapting the Center’s existing print and multimedia resources for a Brazilian audience.

I think it’s amazing that there is a programmatic effort for early childhood education around the world and the impact of child health and development is being seen and heard around the world globally, not just locally.  There are many videos and links to show the effort Brazil is making with their efforts to help support young children and families in early childhood education.

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/applying_the_science_of_early_childhood_in_brazi/

In Zambia, there is an early childhood development project, are investigating the impact of early childhood experiences based on children’s developmental, health, and educational outcomes in other countries, focusing in Africa. The ZECDP, have created a new comprehensive instrument for assessing children’s physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling. It’s the first assessment tool of its kind in Zambia.  I would love to see the assessment tool being used in Zambia.  The assessment tools that I use for infants and toddlers are more suitable to the toddler age group compared to the infant age group.  Collaborating with various assessment tools, it will be helpful to guide and create a new assessment tool for the young children and their development.

 http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/zambian_project/

There is an entire article that supports early childhood education and the scientific frameworks that support childhood development. The purpose of the article is to build a strong foundation for healthy development within the early years of early childhood education. According to Shonkoff, Richter, Gaag, & Bhutta, social and physical environments can threaten human development that can lead to short-term physiologic and psychologist adjustments; that require immediate adaptions for long-term outcomes of learning, behavior, health, and longevity.  It shares about the various environments that play part of children’s development that have an effect of children’s health and development growth.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/01/02/peds.2011-0366.full.pdf+html?ijkey=wYgaHJh7gbXlg&keytype=ref&siteid=aapjournals