Blog Reflection

Exploring education and early childhood based websites with a global perspective has enriched my professional development in many ways. Prior to these experiences I had not often thought much about education practices outside of own state or my own country. Reading about practices and successes outside my personal bubble has been so enjoyable, enlightening, and truly humbling. I have been made to recognize any “problems” with our local schools are minor in comparison to so many more impoverished areas. For example, when looking at a school report about Mexican schools and seeing the ratio of books to children is only 2:1, I cannot help but feel sad (UNICEF, 2009). Reading about Kakenya’s story from near child bride to accomplished doctor of education returning to her home village in Africa to operate a school that educates and uplifts her community, I cannot help but feel inspired (Kakenya’s Dream, 2016). I have also learned that many countries are dealing with exactly the same issues and trends as we are here in the United States. One of the first ways I chose to connect with professionals from around the world was to seek and join Facebook pages for Early Childhood professionals in other countries. Having followed these pages for several weeks now I have seen many questions and comments regarding professional training requirements, aiding impoverished children, curriculum concerns, providing quality, as well as the need to allow children to learn through play and to educate the masses on the importance of this. I am overjoyed to see that while we have much room for improvement, we are not alone in our never ending quest to best prepare children for the future.

One goal I would like to propose is that we all continue to share what we have learned from around the world and from our coursework. That we continue to be examples of and advocates for what is research proven to be beneficial; that we not allow the daily drag of business and policies stop us from doing that which we know to be best practice for children.

References:

Kakenya’s Dream. (2016). Kakenya’s Story. Retrieved from: https://www.kakenyasdream.org/kakenyas-story/

UNICEF. (2009). Country Report Mexico. Study on Poverty and Disparities in Childhood. Retrieved from:https://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Mexico_ChildPovertyandDisparitiesReport(1).pdf

Global Site Resources

On the World Forum Foundation site, I viewed a video by Rob Blatz in Canada. As the director of his early childhood center, he has a goal and passion to find and encourage men to join the field. His advice is to purposefully address men in advertising. Specifically he recommends when advertising for an opening to place the ad in the general job section, and to use verbiage that encourages both men and women to apply. Most encouraging is that his approach is working! I truly hope others are able to bring caring men into the field after seeing his successful suggestions.

Through the features of the Global Café I also learned about Florentina, an amazing woman who was offered a learning opportunity through the UN. Grabbing this opportunity she worked hard to bring solar power to her remote Mayan village. Leaving behind her own children for five months, she flew to India, to join women from villages around the world to learn how to harness solar energy. Returning to her village, and provided with the necessary materials, Florentina installed solar power panels in her village. Imagine the impact this will have on everyone’s lives, children learning and reading longer, less fire dangers. Her new goal is to impart the knowledge she learned about maintaining this resource to others in the town. Florentina seems to have thrived on this opportunity to learn, it is exciting to think how many more in her village will also develop a love of learning because of her. This was a very humbling read.

https://connect.worldforumfoundation.org/dishes/wil-maheia-introduces-florentina-belize/

               

           Exploring the UNESCO site I viewed several sections. One was a report on Caring and Learning Together, a “Cross-National Study on the Integration of Early Childhood Care and Education,” which discusses the program’s approach through both policy and science to accomplish getting “to a point where care and education will not be seen as different actions that relate to each other and are complementary, but as integrated services of care and education, that is, inseparable parts: the same gesture that cares also educates, the same gesture that educates, also cares.” (Nunes, Corsino, & Didonet, 2010). This program has been implemented in Brazil, Jamaica, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden, and one municipality in Belgium. The program brought about a larger understanding of the importance “To put into practice the policy- pedagogical idea of the child as a whole, with indivisible body and mind, and the interdependence of physical, social, emotional and cognitive aspects;” and they have seen relative success (Nunes, Corsino, & Didonet, 2010).

Nunes, F., Corsino, P., & Didonet, V. (2010). Brazil Caring and Learning Together: A Case Study of Brazil. UNESCO. Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001878/187884e.pdf

A press release by UNESCO hits on many important point in the EC battle. ““It is no coincidence that the first Education for All goal focuses on the youngest and most vulnerable children,” said Koichïro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO. “Improving their well-being at the earliest age must be an integral and systematic component of education and poverty reduction policies. High-level political endorsement is essential to getting early childhood care and education on the agenda.” “Early childhood programmes make for strong foundations and pay high dividends,” says Nicholas Burnett, director of the Report. “Each year in the developing world, over 10 million children die before age five of mostly preventable diseases. Programmes that combine nutrition, immunization, health, hygiene, care and education can change this. They are also a determining contributor to better achievement in school. Despite this, the children who stand most to benefit from such programmes are those least likely to have access to them.”” Again very humbling to read about the battles for education taking place in countries outside of the USA.

UNESCO. (2006). Early childhood care and education the forgotten link claims new report published by UNESCO. Retrieved from: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35377&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

       That report led me to 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, full of recent data and insights in regard to equity and quality in education.

Retrieved from: http://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2014/teaching-and-learning-achieving-quality-all

Resources- Equity & Excellence + A Call to Action

While I did not receive a NAEYC newsletter, I did receive a newsletter I have never noticed in my email, it is for Maryland Family Network. It is an organization of Maryland that partners with families, communities and child care providers to provide programs and services, trainings and resources, as well as advocate for public policy. Most notably, I see that they operate 25 Family Support Centers in areas with high poverty. The centers offer home visiting, parent education, health education, infant/toddler care, and other beneficial services. Overall Maryland Family Network’s main purpose seems to be to help those with children understand that “the first five years last forever.” As a resident, child care provider and advocate within Maryland I was pleased to look more closely at an organization I had generally ignored previously. The organization offers resources and trainings to encourage quality care, as well as supports programs such as Early Head Start with a focus on reaching equity.

While browsing the Resources on the NAEYC site, I found an article written by two of The Perry Preschool teachers (Derman-Sparks & Moore, 2016). It is a fascinating account from a perspective previously unshared; and if the amazing Perry Preschool study has ever piqued your interest you should certainly read it. I have shared the link in the resources below. The article referenced a Part 2 to the story shared in a later issue of the journal, so I went looking for that link to share as well.

On a page within the NAEYC site, I found an overview of an initiative called Power to the Profession. The initiative intends to “establish a shared framework of career pathways, knowledge and competencies, qualifications, standards, and compensation that unifies the entire profession, which will lead to a comprehensive policy and financing strategy for their systemic adoption and implementation.” (NAEYC, n.d.) As spark for the initiative, the site referenced a 2015 report titled Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation, by The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council (Allen & Kelly, 2015). The report is said to have “highlighted the urgent and important need for a collective effort to address the fragmented early childhood workforce.” (NAEYC, n.d.) As this sounded very important and interesting in regard to our studies, I went in search of the report through Walden’s library. It is a huge report, very thorough. I managed only to skim the report, and download several sections of interest to me for future reading, particularly the “Blue Print for Action” section. The work of the NAEYC and the detailed suggestions within the report are all aimed at the common goal of establishing equity and excellence.

References:

Allen, L. & Kelly, B. (2015). Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation. The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/waldenu/reader.action?docID=3439877&query=

Derman-Sparks, L. & Moore, E. (2016). Two Teachers Look Back- The Ypsilanti Perry Preschool, Part I. Young Children. 82-87. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/system/files/Ypsilanti%20Perry%20Preschool%20Part%201.pdf

Part II - https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2016/ypsilanti-perry-part-2

NAEYC. (n.d.) Power to the Profession Overview. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/initiatives/profession/overview

Equity & Harvard's Work

I am truly delighted any time I have the chance to browse Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child site (2017). I am in love with their straight forward scientific approach to telling people how it is when it comes to early childhood necessities and the results if those necessities are not met. Browsing the site this week I looked once again at their “Collective Change” section. It is there that they share the programs they are collaborating on around the world. Previously, I have loved their video briefs explaining topics such as toxic stress, serve and return, and brain architecture. While looking at their programs more closely I found that two collaborations in Canada have resulted in awesome illustrated explanations for educating the masses on why all this science matters. Here are the two I am speaking of. You will not regret watching! The first video provided a brief insight into the reality of inequities when it explained that one third of the world’s childhood population is considered stunted developmentally either mentally or physically; as well as one third of the world’s childhood population might never reach their full potential. These children must be missing (essential) opportunities that the other two thirds have access too.

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/saving-brains/

http://www.albertafamilywellness.org/resources/video/how-brains-are-built-core-story-of-brain-development

Moving on I took a look at the pilot program in Washington State. I have not ascertained whether Harvard has pilot programs functioning in other areas of the US, but I certainly hope so. Part of the program in Washington was studying the use of organized play and mindfulness practice with children ages 1-5 who had experienced some toxic stress. The explanation can be found through the site I have shared below. One of the most interesting revelations was that while implementing the intervention idea, one classroom had better results that the others. When they inquired about why, they discovered the teacher had made a few important choices different from her colleagues. Mostly, she had provided consistency; playing the same game every day for a week before trying a new one, as well as incorporating the same mindfulness practice every day. This provided a consistent schedule of play and emotional support, while other classrooms implemented the two strategies on an alternating daily schedule. This made me realize the importance of testing ideas before implementing policies. While the idea of playing games will certainly teach important skills over time, executed in this consistent manner the benefits were reaped sooner. That means that inside of the same program there was inequality within how the teachers executed this program. Yet, over all this particular location was providing a specific support for a specific need to support equity. Sadly, inequity exists where care providers are untrained on necessities for proper development. I love that Harvard’s work includes educating parents and teachers on how they can improve for the betterment of our children.

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/innovation-application/innovation-in-action/learning-through-play/

Interestingly, like the above program, most of the programs in progress with Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child are small scale pilots (2017). These programs are making an amazing impact on these (relatively small) groups of children, parents, families through home visiting, parent education, teacher trainings, and program initiatives. That means all the rest of the area children are not yet experiencing these positive impacts. The exception seems to be their collaboration with Brazil, where every year over forty top-level policy makers attend a workshop at Harvard to build on their learning about the science of Early Childhood. This is an amazing country-wide approach. I can only hope their country continues to see the benefits of their efforts. Also that our own country will see the important work our own Universities are doing to support children and families around the world, and the need for support that provides both excellence and equity in our own country.

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/collective-change/learning-communities-in-action/executive-leadership-program/

References:

Center on the Developing Child. (2017). Center on the Developing Child. Harvard University. Retrieved from: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/

Web Resource- Advocates for EC

This week I continued to study the NAEYC website; this time looking at resources about the impacts and inclusion of economists, neuroscientists, or politicians within the early childhood field. The first article I found was about inviting and including a wide variety of people to collaborate and support early childhood education (Dosremedios, 2016). It was an interesting read, providing several successful examples from Massachusetts. The point I took most to heart, is that if we engage all sorts of community members in wanting to help the children of the community in small ways, they will also be there to support us in large ways, all to the benefit of the children. For example, if a small book sharing program between police officers and children (an example from the article) builds a relationship between families and local officers, the officers become even more invested in seeing those children succeed, thus becoming advocates for early childhood education improvement through policy and funding. Imagine how much support programs could gather by building partnerships with local businesses, banks, universities, and more. This is an excellent point.

A second article I reviewed on the NAEYC site is about the economics of the early childhood field (Allvin, 2017). As I read the article I realized it was familiar because I have seen it before during this program. It begins with a summary of important facts regarding the field, such as,

“The field of early childhood education employs roughly 2.2 million people”  (Allvin, 2017).

“The median wage for early childhood educators working in centerbased programs is $10.60 per hour. While those with bachelor’s degrees or higher earn comparatively more—a median of $14.70” (Allvin, 2017).

“46 percent of early childhood educators are part of families enrolled in at least one public safety net program” (Allvin, 2017).

“in 2009 early childhood education contributed 1.1 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to $163 billion. Compare this with agriculture, oil and gas extraction, and computer and electronics product manufacturing; those sectors contributed 1.0 percent, 1.1 percent, and 1.5 percent, respectively” (Allvin, 2017).

These are astounding facts, even reading them for the fourth time. Further, considering the information I gathered about poverty rates in my area, it is frustrating to consider how many EC professionals likely fall under the poverty or low-income range. I left public school teaching to operate my own home child care; however, at one point I interviewed for a center, where I quickly realized that even with a bachelors I would not make enough money to buy gas for driving to work, enroll my two children in child care, and buy groceries (which is my only task in supporting our family). I cannot imagine if I were expected to keep a roof over our heads with such income levels. Additionally, it is easy to see why EC professionals get burnt out and grumpy in this field, working so hard for so little.

This might be my favorite point regarding EC that I have seen yet…

“Early childhood educators can’t be outsourced or automated. They are developing the capacity and curiosity of our future workforce—and they are a linchpin to the strength and vitality of the workforce and economy of today.” (Allvin, 2017).

References:

Allvin, R.E. (2017). Making Connections. Early Childhood Educators and the American Economy: An American Story. Young Children. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/making-connections

Dosremedios, T. (2016). Building a More Inclusive Sandbox: Inviting New Collaborators to Support Children, Families, and Early Learning. Young Children. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2016/inclusive-sandbox

Childhood Poverty

As I did not hear back from my international colleagues with enough information to share, I opted to visit the UNICEF site. I took a look at the reports provided about Jamaica and Mexico. I will share some of what I learned about childhood, education, and poverty in Mexico.

Data presented from 2007 within the report states that there were 38.1 million children representing 36% of Mexico’s population (UNICEF, 2009). Additional data from 2005 states that approximately 10 million children were living in poverty. Interestingly twice as many household in poverty are in rural areas rather than urban areas. Another section within the report noted that there were still approximately 3.3 million children living in homes with one dollar or less per day income.

The report explains that the issue of children living with “deprivations of shelter, sanitation, water and information” while improving is still a concern. Progress in regard to the “severe deprivation in sanitation fell from 23% in 1994 to 5% in 2005, and that of water from 18% to 2% in the same period, ENIGH).” (UNICEF, 2009) Still, nearly half the child population still lives with at least one deprivation.

The most interesting aspect of reading the report on Mexico, was how similar it was to reports about areas in the USA. Take this quote for example “In matter of public resources allocation, this research has shown evidence that education services are of higher quality for wealthier children. Children in lower income quintiles go to schools with the worst conditions” (UNICEF, 2009). Other similarities included their concerns about job creation, access to health care for all income levels, and the growing rate of obesity and connected health issues.

Drastic differences involved a chart in which questions about the schools included “has electricity,” “has a toilet,” “has clean floors,” and “has computers” (UNICEF, 2009). While the majority of the schools have electricity and toilets, there appear to be much lower amounts of clean floors and computers. A personally sad moment came when I saw the ratio of books to children in most of the included schools was about 2:1. How can they develop a love of learning without adequate books?

References:

UNICEF. (2009). Country Report Mexico. Study on Poverty and Disparities in Childhood. Retrieved from: https://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Mexico_ChildPovertyandDisparitiesReport(1).pdf

Web Resource- Diversity

One of the organizations that I chose to follow is NAEYC.org. This organization, the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC), states their purpose as to “promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.” (2017). I have enjoyed browsing the many resources available for free. Honestly, when I find something I cannot access for free through the site (as I am not yet a paid member), I have used the Walden library to find the article. As my time with Walden is just a few more months, and I have enjoyed these resources, I am considering becoming a paid member in the future.

For this week’s topic of diversity, I found a page within the site promoting a book the NAEYC has published titled “Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves.” While the book is not available to browse for free, there were several articles with excerpts from the book, available for free on the site. I have shared all of the links below. The first link is an overview of the book, not enough detail to understand the concept though. The second link is much more informative. One aspect I really appreciated was about finding an “entry point” to start discussions/lessons. Specifically, that if something comes up spontaneously, and you do not feel prepared to handle it well, you can return to it later knowing that the issue had come across children’s minds (Kuh, Leekeenan, Given, Beneke, 2016). There are also many great classroom examples of what entry points or teaching moments look like within an early childhood classroom. I think this link is a great starting point to understand the Anti-Bias approach and how to incorporate teaching social justice within a classroom of young children. The third link is great for more information on taking this approach within a program. It also details an interesting approach to handling conflicts when dealing with the difficult subjects brought up when focusing on diversity & bias. The fourth link provides some alternative perspectives for incorporating holidays within an education program. I appreciated reading that there are other programs who are bothered by the materialism and false messages of many holidays.

Anti-Bias Education Links on NAEYC in the order I accessed and referred to them.

NAEYC. (2017a). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. NAEYC.org. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/anti-bias-education/overview

KUH, L., LEEKEENAN, D., GIVEN, H., BENEKE, M. (2016). Moving Beyond Anti-Bias Activities: Supporting the Development of Anti-Bias Practices.  Young Children. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2016/moving-beyond-anti-bias-activities

LOUISE DERMAN-SPARKS, DEBBIE LEEKEENAN, JOHN NIMMO. (2015). Building Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: The Role of the Leader.  Young Children. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2015/building-anti-bias-programs

NAEYC. (2017b). Anti-Bias Education: Holidays. NAEYC.org. Retrieved from:  https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/anti-bias-education/holidays