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

Sharing Web Resources (Continued)

          The website I chose to look into and find out more inforation on was the National Black Child Development Institute. I subscribed to their newsletter a few weeks back and I have learned much just by scrolling through the website. The specific sections on the website that I feel are relevant to my current professional development is the “What we do” section. In this section, the organizations public policy is addressed and it relates to me because I am African American and have a black child. I also provide care for a majority black children in subsidized communities. This section also discusses Early Care and Education and how this organization is supportive.

          Another important topic discussed on this website is family engagement. At my center, we push to get all families involved as much as possible. What I love about this website is that they have a Parent Empowerment Project. This project is a comprehensive, culturally-relevant, self-discovery curriculum for parents and guardians to improve their effectiveness as the primary positive influence in the lives of their children. This project caused me to think about this concern in a new way. I am seeking to implement a project like this into my center and see how well it fans out. I believe just as the National Black Child Development Institute believes that it is critical for us to make conscious decisions about engaging with family and community members in ways that demonstrate a deeper and more complete understanding. The organization also believes that as part of their efforts to build positive relationships that ensure parent engagement, an ongoing series of supports is necessary to create a strong foundation of connection, especially in the early years.

          The website contains valuable information on its advocates on the state and federal levels with a wide range of partners and collaborations, to protect and promote investments and policies that support children’s access to quality care and education birth through age 8, empower parents and families, and ensure funding and resource equity. Seeing this on their website adds to my understanding of how politicians support the early childhood field. New insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field I gained from exploring the website is that they offer resources on how to get families engaged and promote healthy practices. 

          Right now in America, poor nutrition practices among individuals and families, as well as systemic issues such as food deserts, economic insecurity, and the lack of affordable and accessible healthy foods, have contributed to the dramatic rise in childhood obesity and hunger. According to the CDC, one out of every four Black children is overweight, compared to one in seven White children. Over 20% of 4 year olds are obese, with the highest numbers among minority populations, and the trends continue as children grow up: among Black teenage girls ages 12 to 19, more than 40% are overweight or at risk of being overweight. At the same time, 90 percent of Black children will be in families receiving food stamps at some point in their childhood and the consequences of obesity and hunger in terms of children’s healthy development over the course of their lifetime are critical.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part 1

I was granted the opportunity to hear back from one of the international contacts I reached out to. Eric Atmore of South Africa emailed me articles that discussed some of the current issues in the early childhood development of South African youth. Mr. Eric Atmore along with two other colleagues wrote the article “Challenges facing the early childhood development sector in South Africa”. In this article, majority of young children in South Africa are negatively impacted by a range of social and economic inequalities. Apartheid and the resultant socio-economic inequalities have created a childhood of adversity for most black South African children in the country, including inadequate access to health care, education, social services and quality nutrition (Atmore, van Niekerk & Ashley-Cooper, 2012). 

There are approximately 6,5 million South African children under the age of seven. Of these, some 3,8 million children (59,2%) live in circumstances of dire poverty (DoSD, DoE & DoH, 2004). These children, along with their families, teachers, communities, and the South African government face a range of challenges and obstacles. The most significant of these are poverty, education, health and HIV/Aids (Etmore et al., 2012).

My new insights on poverty are that I never realized how poor other countries are and what they are subjected to on a daily basis. More than half of South Africa’s children live in severe poverty, which jeopardises the realisation of their rights as contained in the South African Constitution.  Children living in poverty are extremely vulnerable, discriminated against and isolated. Monetary poverty is closely related to poor health and well being, as well as to limited access to education, nutrition, healthcare services and safe environments. The government does provide financial support for children when their parents are too poor to do so, in order for them to meet their basic needs. This is achieved through social assistance programmes, such as the Child Support Grant, paid to the caregivers of eligible children (Atmore et al., 2012). 

Reference:

Atmore, E.,  van Niekerk, L., Ashley-Cooper, M. (2012). Challenges facing the      

       early childhood development sector in South Africa. South African Journal of Childhood        Education, (2)1. 

Sharing Web Resources

Organization: National Black Child Development Institute

http://www.nbcdi.org/

In subscribing to the newsletter for the National Black Child Development Institute, this newsletter focused on recent events that have taken place in which child development was the topic pf discussion. The newsletter also listed some new career opportunities, a podcast feature from Dr. DeHaney, budget extension, etc. This newsletter allows me to obtain information about a variety of issues and lists the most important issues in bold lettering. After reviewing the article, the most important issue that stood out to me the most was “Early Childhood Education Takes Center Stage at the Clinton Global Initiative.” This topic really stood out to me because I am always trying to find ways to make more people aware of the importance of Early Childhood Education and what could be better than presenting it at an initiative meeting.

This event was hosted by President Bill Clinton, Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Clinton Foundation Board Member Chelsea Clinton. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Dr. DeHaney participated in the Early Childhood Education Working Group.The early years of a child’s development are critical building blocks that set the foundation for future academic and lifetime success. The meeting discusse the following subtopics regarding regarding Early Childhood Education Working Group;  Strengthening Family and Community Engagement, Leveraging Digital Media and Technology, Supporting Early Childhood Educators and Developing Innovative Financial Strategies and Partnerships. The mission of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is to turn ideas into action. With her colleagues, Dr. DeHaney will play a key role in prioritizing early childhood education and developing actionable solutions to improve the scope and quality of care offered to our youngest Americans.

Considering th topic for this week is changing demographics and diversity, I have found that the newsletter and website offers additional information regarding this topic. There is a section in both the newsletter and the website that discusses early childhood educators in Cuba. The Ambassador Programs are working with NCBI board members to plan an early childhood education program in Cuba. This will be a wonderful experience to see how different early childhood programs are in Cuba compared to the US. I will be emailing the board to find out more information.

Expanding Resources

This week I chose to reach out to Morocco, The Federal Republic of NIgeria, South Africa, The Philippines and Germany in search for some answers to my underlying questions about what goes on around the world in the early childhood profession. I have not yet heard anything back from my contacts so far, but I did unfortunately receive notification that my Moroccan contact no longer had that email address. I am hoping to establish communication with them fairly soon, but it has only been one day since my initial contact email, and I am really optimistic that I will hear back from a few of them. In order to establish the contact with these indivudals, I first utilized the resources provided in the blog assignment resource tab for this week’s assignment. I then perused the areas across the world and chose the one’s that truly stood out for me. I have not heard too much information on the locations I chose to establish contact and so I figured the contact should be able to provide me with some information to further enhance my knowledge base. I am super excited to hear back from them and see how similar and different our early childhood issues and trends are when compared to theirs.

When it was time to select the organizations website I wish to use for the course of this class, I chose one that could help improve my program as well as provide resources that may be useful to the families in my center. I carefully viewed the list of organizations and chose the National Black Child Development Institute. After first accessing their website, I was pleased to see that I could subscribe to a weekly newsletter, so that is just what I did. After that, I viewed their history, mission & vision statements, and goals and was pleased to see that they share a commin goal with most early childhood professionals: a society that ensures a successful future for all children. This organization’s mission is ” to improve and advance the quality of life for Black children and their families through education and advocacy.” This mission really stuck out to me because there are few organizations that focus on the well being of Black children. I am a Black woman and I have a 5 year old daughter who I work hard for so that she can be successful. I would do anything to see that she has the best education so that she can become the best person she can be.

My Supports

Factors within my daily environment that are supportive to me are the help I receive from my husband with taking care of the house, the reassurance and monetary support I receive from my husband and family to keep up the great work of balancing being a wife, a mother, and a student; the acknowledgement from my boss of the continued hard work and progression I have made; the help I receive from my family with taking care of my daughter, like taking her to school, swimming lessons, daycare, or keeping her so that my husband and I can have an evening to ourselves. All of these supports are beneficial to me because they allow me to work as hard as I can so that my husband, daughter, and I can have the best life possible. It would be extrememly difficult to do anything without these supports in my life. I would not know how to balance being a wife, mother, student, and co-worker at the same time without these supports being in place. It is challenging at times with all of thes supports in place, so I would literally be crazy if they were non-existent. Trying to balance all of these roles every day makes me realize my purpose in life and how truly blessed I am to have such a strong and supportive family that always is there for me, no matter what.

A challenge that I chose to imagine was having a mental disorder, such as bi-polar disorder, and having to cope with that along with all of my normal daily tasks that I had listed above. The supports I would want would be the same as I had previously stated plus the added medical support to ensure my mental capacity was capable of handling all of these tasks. All of these supports would absolutely need to be in place and cosistent in order for me to be able to function appropriately. I have a friend who is bi-polar and she ha not been on medication since January. She also has no support other thanher husband, because she was born an raised in Haiti up until she was a teenager. She battles with balancing everything and not having support and I honestly feel so bad for her because I see how she struggles. I help out as much as I can, but I could only imagine what she has to deal with on a daily basis.

My Connections to Play

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
― Plato

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.”
― Charles Schaefer

Thinking back to when I was younger, I have two older siblings and a twin brother whom I did much of my playing with. Of course we played with kids in the neighborhood, but there was nothing better than a game of kickball, or hopscotch, or playing double dutch in the middle of the street. I would have to say that my family was the most supportive of play and I could always count on a good game of something, especially during the summer months and after school during the school year. We would play for countless hours until the street lights came on. That was our signal anywhere that it was time to head back in the house for the evening. We would have family game nights and each member brought a game to share with us all. I still enjoy holiday gatherings where we keep the tradition alive.

Play today is COMPLETELY different from what it was back when I was a young girl. Many of these children nowadays rely on electronic devices as forms of play. They would rather sit inside on a nice day playing playstation or on the computer than go outside and enjoy the weather playing old school games. Kids at the childcare center that I am the Director are only exposed to active games such as kick ball, jump rope, obstacle courses, hoola hoops, etc. We try to incorporate activities children may not be exposed to while they are at home. Our hopes of implementing these methods of play are to encourage these children to get out and be more active when they are not in our care. We are also attempting to decrease the amount of obese children in our center by getting them to be active everday.

Play has had a major impact in my life. I have learned how to appropriately develop relationships with peers and with my husband. I remember making waffles with my headstart class and playing with the large parachute outside with my classmates during a field trip. I also remember track and field days where we ran races, played games, and had lots of fun. Considering I played to learn as a child, I have developed as a very well-rounded individual. I have earned a Bachelor’s Degree, a Master’s Degree and I am working on my second Master’s Degree. I have seen play working well with my 5 year old as well. She is very bright and on target with what she id supposed to know, and she has be exposed to play in her preschool classroom.