Research is finding out what a person does not already know. No one knows everything, but everybody knows something. However, to complicate matters, often what you know, or think you know, may be incorrect.  There are two basic purposes for research: to learn something, or to gather evidence. The first, to learn something, is for your own benefit. It is almost impossible for a human to stop learning. Research on children and families are extremely helpful because it allows you to provide evidence about information dealing with different factors that may benefit the child or family.  Research expresses what the field needs in order to have or continue quality programming.  It helps the children learn that there are voices fighting for their best interest, and it affects the child, the family, the classroom, the school, and the community. 

Research and Program Standards

Critical Consumers in Research




Our topic of the week is critical consumers in research. I want to talk about what that means to me and why it is important to the early childhood field.  Being a critical consumer means that an individual deeply analyzes a situation to find out what and why it is happening and being able to validate the results.  Looking at my stance in the profession, I consider myself to be far from a critical consumer of research.  This topic is one that I have to work hard at because it is viable not only in early childhood, but for any profession that may use research.   The subtopic of choice for the simulation is
that professionals should validate program
standards. In early childhood, program
standards of preschool programs help provide the highest quality care and education to our children.  It is absolutely imperative that program standards are set in place at facilities to prove that the facilities strive for excellence and supports the provision of quality services for children and families. 






When I searched around for a day care facility for my daughter, it was extremely tough.  There were so many facilities to choose from but deeply in heart, I was not satisfied with the presence that I received from most of the facilities.  For the ones who had prices within my range, looked as if they were not of high quality, or they just did not have the right attitude.  For the facilities that actually looked decent but were totally out of my range where not participants of play based curriculum.  I eventually got referred to a newly opened day care, in which I was deeply sceptical of, and absolutely loved the atmosphere and the owner.  As we continued in conversation, I asked her about the expectations of her curriculum and what she would offer my daughter.  It has been wonderful ever since.  My daughter was her first child, and I am glad I gave her that chance.




Research is indeed a topic of interest.  It pretty much is a part of everyday life whether we realize it or not.  With this experience, I hope to become a critical consumer of research and be able to someday feel comfortable with conducting research.  For my colleagues,  what do you suggest for someone who is limited or fearful of research.  What do you think is the best way for a person get comfortable with this being that he or she has no experience in early childhood? Please share the many resources that you can offer me to help me get a better understanding of what a critical consumer of research should portray.

Change, Contexts, Consequences, and Constraints

This has been a tremendous journey learning about different cultural aspects of international professionals and trying to get in tune with how early education programs achieve the highest-possible quality, performance, and maximum impact for the children. The consequences for professional development include learning how other countries working hard to constitute the right of every child in every nation by having access to a quality education.  The type of education that will prepare children to become responsible and engaged citizens and ready them for life in a changing world.  The consequences are indeed positive simply because you  connect with different cultures and get insight on what steps different countries take in order to eliminate challenges of:  national early childhood education standards, national licensing and accreditation system, child care resource and referral system, or professional development system.   Professionals learn about who and how they collaborate with others in their country.  One goal that should be mentioned when discussing international awareness of issues and trends should be to consider the ongoing changes of early childhood in those specific countries and what we as professionals can do as family to help them find a resolution to problems in hopes that we may receive exchange of information as well. 

Exploring Professional International Contacts

Setting the Pace for Success

It is such a great challenge trying to get in touch with international contacts!! It has thus far been the greatest challenge of all my assignments!!  After viewing the alternate website I found interesting topics such as access, quality, investment, and governance.  A professional goal(s) that I would love to attain definitely relates to all of these because they all are important components that foster high quality programs.  How can you have high quality programming without having full access for each and every child and family? The website discusses how international countries provide equitable resources for disadvantaged children to make sure access is equitable.  As far as quality, it shares information on what quality programs should have and be able to do for the children.  For instance, it states that early childhood care and education programmes should emphasize the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling.  High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness. Upon reaching the dream of owning and operating my own child care facility, I can refer back to everything I have learned.  Investing is absolutely the gateway to securing funds and resources for high quality programs.  The website gleans about how 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.   Governance is defined as having control, or authority and I can see why it should play a part in child care success.  Early childhood care and education is often the concern of several government sectors and usually these are education, social affairs and health. The multi-faceted nature of early childhood care and education gives rise to the challenge of effectively coordinating provision of policy development and implementation across the different sectors.  Effective coordination must exist among sectors at both national and local level, and also between public and private establishments. Child care indeed need governance.  Effective coordination must exist among sectors at both national and local level, and also between public and private establishments. 

The website discusses the Education Regions Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, Latin America and the Carribean.  It offers tremendous information on how policies and education are supported within these regions.  I enjoyed exploring the site.  


References:

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

Sharing Web Resources-

Upon clicking on researchnet on the naecte website, it was interesting to read about the purpose of the establishment, and what the program offers.  This program facilitates scholarly pursuits on collaborative research projects that relate to topics of early childhood teacher education.  It provides a focus for conducting research studies, and outlet for dissemination of research results and professional development opportunities for NAECTE.  The ResearchNets meet during the fall and/or the spring conferences to organize, plan research projects, and share research results. They also continue to network through email, listservs, conference calls, and on the NAECTE website.

I also read a journal article entitled, Call for Papers that discusses the importance of inclusion and how teachers need to be sure to include each child by access, participation, and supports.  That itself adds to my understanding of equity and excellence.  Additional information to add to my learning would include professional development that promotes inclusive practices.

The link to the site is:  http://www.naecte.org/

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

On the harvard website, it simply explains it's mission and the purpose for the Global Children's Initiative program.   The program is committed to building a unified science of health, learning, and behavior to explain the early roots of lifelong impairments; it leads the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative program and practice models that reduce preventable disparities in well-being; it catalyzes the implementation of effective, science-based public policies through strategic relationships and knowledge transfer, and preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that promotes the healthy development of children and families and brings high returns to all of society. (Global Children's Initiative)  There are three objectives or domains that the program concentrates on for enrichment, early childhood development; child mental health; and children in crisis and conflict situations.  I learned about the importance of the program and how it plays a role  in focusing on the developing opportunities to provide leadership training for individual researchers, policymakers, and institutions.


I want to share with you an international contact from Aceh.  Meridas Eka Yora is the founder and director of the institution Fajar Hiayah for Islamic Education and Director of the Yayasan Fajar Hidayah Foundation. Meridas developed three boarding schools for children orphaned as a result of that devastation in Aceh.  Aceh, a special territory on the Southern tip of Indonesia, was the closest land to the epicenter of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, in which more than 225 Indonesians were killed and 500,000 left homeless.(World Forum Radio)  This was a tragedy never forgotten and still affects the communities to this day.


The program shows excellence and equity by actively collaborating with a network of local and international organizations to engage in social and educational developments and programs.


References

(N.A)(N.D.)Global Children's Initiative. Center on the Developing Child.  Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

World Forum Radio

Sharing Web Resources

There are plenty topics to cover when discussing current professional development but as I was reading current issues within the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, I found discussions about inclusive early childhood teacher education.  The article, Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education, states that even though there are increases awarenesses and well-established policy initiatives about inclusion for children with disabilities, exclusion still exists.  But on the other hand, the purpose of the article is to explain that programs are now meeting the challenges of preparing them for inclusive childhood settings.  Inclusive early education values policies and pratices that honor the right to all young children regardless of ability.  Inclusive teachers will provide access, participation, and support with the collaboration of other professionals and families.  From observing programs such as these, I can say that I understand the genuine capacity of inclusion.  I understand that policy makers and other professionals are willing to do what it takes to meet the needs of children with disabilities far and beyond.  I can feel the sense of longevity and persistance throughout the article.

References

Couse,L. and Recchia,S. (2011) From the Guest Editors: Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education. Journal of Early Childhood Educators (32) 4.  Routledge

The Focus on Poverty

Upon reading the article about India and poverty issues saddened me.  What concerns me the most are the varying health issues.  The communicable diseases, malnutrition issues all play a part in the strain on society in India. The poor children are just suffering and I really sympathize with those individuals because there is so much that our country can offer and so many resources that should lend a helping hand to these individuals. Thank goodness that there have been drastic improvement, although poverty issues still exist.  It was interesting to know that the children worked so young to provide for themselves and family.  There have been action taken into account and it has made a dramatic change in the lives of those who are considered to be poor.   I have a new outlook on how poverty affects the lives of all health wise, socially, physically and mentally.  I have a greater respect for individuals who survive through poverty stricken times and can still maintain to be successful.  I have even a greater respect for the individuals who created the programs to help these families strive for a better way of life.

Sharing Web Resources

The focus of the organization consists of all aspects of early childhood and the E-letter clearly defines the organization’s purpose.  Their focus is to promote the professional growth to their membership, to discuss educational issues specifically, to advocate for improvements in early childhood teacher education, provide a forum for consideration of issues and concerns of interest to educators of early childhood teacher educators, provides a communication network for early childhood teacher educators, facilitate the interchange of information and ideas about research and practice, and cooperate with other national and international organizations concerned with the study and education of young children.  What caught my attention in the newsletter fall 2011 issue was the presentation of a book that explores each stage of teacher research, from conceptualization, to generating research questions, identifying data sources, gathering and analyzing data, interpreting results, sharing results, to taking action based on those results.  This really caught my attention because I am not the expert on research and I have trouble finding valuable and or legitimate resources when needed.  I guess with more experience, it will become easier.  What I learned that was closely related to the discussion of issues and trends is that for every issue, there is a solution, good or bad and for every trend, there is always a way to make a positive change, if needed.  This organization fights for achievement in many ways and I can sense it from reading about the different programs and or resources they offer in order to form the most reliable and well qualified teachers in the early childhood community.  It was an honor to gain knowledge from this site. 

Creating Professional Relationships

As I attempted to contact international early childhood educators, it was quite challenging.  Since I have not gotten a response from anyone yet I have to take another route.  I went to World Forum Radio and listened to a few podcasts and here are the main points that I interpreted from the interviews: 

Barbara Jones, who is a resident of the East Coast, traveled to California in search of a preschool to teach. She got the opportunity to become a Montessouri teacher in San Diego.  She worked there for 6 years and decided that she wanted to open her own private day care.  She worked at YMCA and decided that she really enjoyed the early childhood field.  She traveled back to Maine and she noticed a boarded up empty building and envisioned to turn it into her own childcare center.  She bought the building and established the Pine Grove Center child development center in Maine in 1984.  It has been up and operating for twenty-five+ years. 

Maysoun Chehab is a resident of Lebanon whose job title is regional early childhood care and coordinator with the Arab Resource Collector.  She works with policy makers and ece community.  They focus on awareness of child rights and train cargivers on best practices for the children. They work in Palestine, Jordan and a few more countries. They produce Arabic resources that are not available in those countries.  Her most rewarding project to date was after the war of 2006 in Lebanon on psychosocials.  She was very passionate during her interview.

 I hate that I have not yet to hear from the international educators but I will keep trying to reach out until I hear something.