Learning through internantional contacts

I enjoyed emailing back and forth with my international contact in West Africa. He provided me with some very descriptive information regarding what was going on in West Africa in relation to issues in early childcare and to see the similarities was actually frightening. This finding brings me to the three consequences of learning about the internantional early childhood field for my professional and personal development. The  first consequence would be learning the reality that early childhood programs are in need of help around the world. A second consequence is that you may not always get a response from your contact in a timely manner. There was one point when I hadn’t heard anything back from my contact and I had to utilize the class article to report on for a blog assignment. The third consequence is that there are few resources available to my international contact’s community and there is an increase in needs for children in West Africa.

One goal that I will work towards that is related to international awareness of issues and trends is finding out about the resources that can aid the international community I was studying and pass on the information. Also, I will follow up with my international contact to find out how their programs are improving with the help of additional resources.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

I did not receive a response back from my international contact for this week’s blog assignment so I decided to look at UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage. My ultimate professional goal is to work in some capacity with young children and adolescence who have been diagnosed with Autism. I have a passion and drive for working with children and especially those with this specific diagnosis. I have always been intrigued with how the development differs and how each child is individually unique. On the website, one new insight I gained is that 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.

Another insight I gained from viewing this website is that the greatest difficulty faced by countries in their efforts to expand and improve the quality of early childhood care and education is the mobilisation of resources. governments must use complementary financing measures to ensure equity of access for poor and disadvantaged children, has been shown to favour the privileged, who can afford the service. The third insight I have gained from this website is globally, there are over 650 million persons with disabilities, and around a third of these are youth, with nearly 80% living in developing countries.  Youth with disabilities is a severely under-researched area, with limited data on its prevalence and the effects on youth themselves, which hampers any effort to develop specific policy responses.  UNESCO’s Programme for Social and Human Sciences is increasingly focusing on the situation of youth with disabilities to enable them to develop their skills and access opportunities to engage as fully-fledged actors for development and peace in their communities.

Reference:

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

Sharing Web Resources

When I first went on http://www.nbcdi.org/ I decided to click on the Early Care and Education tab, since it is a common theme this week. Clicking on this tab lead me to the National Black Child Development Institute’s “What we Do” section, which specifically lists how the organization supports early care and education. In this excerpt,  NBCDI has been dedicated to supporting the development of a high-quality, accessible, affordable and aligned system of early care and education for children birth through age eight.  Each of these years is critical to the socio-emotional and educational success of students, particularly students of color, because they provide the foundation for all subsequent learning and development. 

The NBCDI supports federal, state and local efforts to provide increasing numbers of low-income children with access to quality early education and care; efforts to create a strong and supported early childhood workforce; and efforts to promote developmentally and culturally-appropriate standards, curriculum, instruction and assessment that are aligned within and across the early childhood to early grades continuum. In the newsletter I receoved from this organization, there is an article that discusses how PreK-3rd Can Be A Smart Strategy for Black Kids, Families and Communities. This article focuses on effectiveness in improving and sustaining educational attainment on the notion of linking and integrating high quality early education with high-quality elementary education through the third grade. The concept is simple; yet the development and implementation of successful strategies remains difficult, made more so by the fact that despite our knowledge about the importance of the PreK-3rd grade years as the foundation for all subsequent learning and development, these years are often overlooked by education reformers. 

The website absolutely contains information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence. When i noticed the website discussing steps to provide access for black families to receive the same resources as their peers so that their scores are as high as them, I felt that accurately depicted access, which was discussed in this week’s discussion board. Some of the new insights I gained after reviewing both the website and the newsletter was that “Doing what it takes” includes establishing a strong foundation for learning in the early years. I am a doer and will always be a doer for all the kids I come in contact with. I would love the community to all be doers so these children have a fighting chance.

“Life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our children – a better world.”

– President Barack Obama, 2008

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Mr. Eric Atmore has been exceptionally cooperative throughput this course and dligent in providing me with information to guide me through these blog assignments. Mr. Atmore provided me with a link to an article: http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=70066. After carefully reading through this article, I was able to find out some wonderful guidelines that were developed to facilitate the Department of Social Development’s mandate towards early childhood development in South Africa. A new insight I gained after reading this document was that the majority of young children in South Africa do not have access to quality early childhood development services. The main reason for this is poverty. Many families cannot afford to pay for early childhood services  for their children. For this reason, government departments responsible for provisions for young  children must work together to support quality early childhood services that are accessible and affordable to all families. 

Some additional information about issues of equity and excellence I acquired from my international source is that most families want their children to grow up strong and healthy. One way to achieve this is to make sure that boys and girls are treated equitably. Children have different learning styles and different approaches to communicating with others. Children should not be labeled nor should they be pressured to conform to a certain way of behaving, but children are often socialized into gender roles in their families (http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=70066)

Reference:

SKWEYIY, Z. (2006). Guidelines for Early Childhood Development Services retrieved from: http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=70066