SHARING WEB RESOURCES CON'T

For this posting I decided to look further into the organization Early Childhood Australia:  The Australian Early Childhood Advocacy Organization (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/) that I had previously posted as one of my new resources.

I began to look through previous articles in the website’s “Every Child magazine” and found a great article on titled “Cultural Competence – Ensuring Individuality is Integral to Equity, Fairness and Social Justice.”  I felt this article was relevant to my current professional development because it gives great information on the need to recognize the strengths of diverse knowledge, languages, cultures and ways of becoming involved in a positive way into our communities from the viewpoint from another country.  This information also was helpful as it does add to my understanding of unintentional consequences when children are defined as commodities in the views of economists with the concern of CORE standards.

This article shows the need to remember and embrace the diversity of the children, their families and their communities.  The information is there about the need for quality early childhood education and care but also for the need to promote positive relationships with and between children, families, educators and their communities.

I found nothing on this website to be controversial in my beliefs of EEC but I am sure the more I explore the website, the more I will read about other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field of education.  I highly recommend this website as it is a wealth of information.  Especially for those like me who like to read and research everything of interest to them.

Reference

Cultural competence - ensuring individuality is integral to equity, fairness and social justice - Early Childhood Australia. (n.d.). Home - Early Childhood Australia. Retrieved November 26, 2011, from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/every_child_magazine/every_child_index/cultural_competence_ensuring_individuality_is_integral_to_equity_fairness_and_social_justice.html

INTRODUCTION TO MY NEW INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS

First I have to thank Farah S. Kamal who is from Karachi, Pakistan.  She is the Executive Director for iEARN in Karachi, Pakistan (www.iearnpk.org).  I am honored to have had Farah’s assistance in finding willing participants to correspond with for this course and in the future.  I became acquaintances with Farah indirectly while hosting and working with exchange students from Pakistan.

I also want to thank my friend, Greg Wright, who helped put me in contact with Paula Gray from Perth, Australia.  Greg was host father to one of her sons about five or so years ago and I was the area representative for the host family and student.

The first individual who has volunteered his time is Siddig Barech.  Siddig is a social worker and has been working as a Research Associate/Master Trainer and Monitoring/Evaluation Officer for the last three years in particular to the Early Childhood Education field as well as dealing with marginalized and children who are considered to be “at risk”.

Siddig also shared some of his experience and observation concerning poverty and malnutrition.  He stated that, in his opinion, poverty/malnutrition has caused multi-dimensional effects on the children’s learning/education/thoughts/personality development.  He has a lot more to say and I learned a great deal from just this one conversation and look forward to learning more.

Paula Gray has offered to assist me while we try and find someone willing to help in the field of early childhood education in Australia.  Paula is retired from the Department of Education and is currently spending time traveling with her husband.  Their next trip is to Alaska. 

Even though we are still in the beginning stage of communication, I am already appreciating the contact with others who feel the same way as I do about ECE and working with children who are considered to be “at risk”.  I have always been interested in learning about other countries and their views but have never had the opportunity to reach out to those in a professional context in the ECE field.

I have done some research in the past about the effects of poverty and low-income on families who need quality child care in order to hold down a job but have not done a lot of research, until now, on the effects regarding ECE.

From a child care research view, the increased use of child care by individuals who are unrelated to the family is increasing each year.  This increase is largely due to the changes in the social and economic fabric of the United States.  One of the challenges with the increased need for child care services is finding quality as well as affordable child care.  This is especially true for individuals who are single parents and are financially in a low-income bracket.  The importance of finding quality day care for children is that it offers the potential for positive psychological development for the children and their families (ajp.psychologyonline.org).

New insights I have gained from this week so far are, but not limited to, the estimated number of individuals and families who are considered to be at or below the poverty level; how many aspects of our lives and those of our families are affected by poverty (either directly or indirectly in many ways).  I tend to get carried away when I research so I will not post all I have found in this forum.

References

Day care for early preschool children: implications for the child and
       family. American Psychiatric Association Task Force on Day Care
       for Pre- School Children -- 150 (8): 1281 -- Am J Psychiatry.
       (n.d.). The American Journal of Psychiatry. Retrieved
       November 15, 2011, from
       http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/150/8/1281

SHARING WEB RESOURCES

My personal opinion is that I can never have too many resources at my disposal whether it be needing answers to questions I may have, doing research for a class or work, or even just because the resource is interesting.  As I stated in my post from November 3, 2011, I have been a member of NAEYC for many, many years so I decided I wanted to expand to a few organizations which are based outside of the United States.  I chose the following organizations:

Early Childhood Australia:  The Australian Early Childhood Advocacy Organization

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Their mission is to advocate ensuring quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years.  This includes:  The rights of children; leadership; excellence; respect; courage; honesty; openness; collaboration; diversity; justice; and social inclusion of children.

This organization drew my attention since they stand for how I personally like to work and advocate for children.  I also subscribed to their newsletter - Early Childhood Australia VOICE…voice for young children.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/pdf/voice/Voice1104_screen.pdf

I highly recommend looking at this newsletter as it contains so much information about a variety of issues from a number of countries.  Learning about early childhood education from another country’s view is just so interesting to me.  I also find it to be a significant factor to understand others’ views for, but not limited to, bringing in diversity into my own program; and keeping my own knowledge level growing in a very diverse way.

Save the Children

http://www.savethechildren.org

Save the Children is the world's leading independent organization for children. Their vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. Their mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

This organization drew my attention since they seem to share the same goal I have, but in a much larger scale.  One of the program areas that caught my attention was their program for education and child development.  One of the examples was early childhood development in Mali.  This area is of interest to me since I firmly believe each and every child has the right to an education and the right to reach their full potential regardless of their race, where they live, or abilities.

I signed up for their email news updates in order to receive the latest from the field as well as stories about the girls and boys participating in their education and health programs. I will also receive reports about, but not limited to, their relief workers who feed babies struggling during hunger crises, protect children caught in the cross-fire of unrest, provide health care for AIDS orphans, teach troubled youth to read, and defend girls from exploitation.

UPDATE TO EXPANDING OUR RESOURCES

I am happy to say that despite no response to the dozens and dozens of emails and inquires sent all over the world to pre-schools and other organizations, my friends have come through for me with many individuals from Pakistan and Australia who are willing to assist me.  It is going to be very interesting to hear their perspectives on issues and trends in the ECE field.  I hope these relationships continue beyond the course, as learning other individuals perspectives who work in the field in some capacity is priceless.

Thank you again to everyone who have given me this wonderful opportunity!

EXPANDING OUR RESOURCES

“To create a program that revels in family

involvement, teachers must offer many high-quality,

meaningful, family learning experiences that not only

attract family members but also hold their hearts.”

                                                                                               ~ NAEYC

Welcome everyone to our new class, Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field).  I look forward to learning with all of you during this next eight weeks (and hopefully in future classes as well). 

When I first read the assignment for the class to locate and contact two early childhood professionals outside of the United States, I thought it would not be all that difficult.  Surprisingly it has been so far (though I am holding out hope that I will be able to do this). 

I started off with the resource list that was given to us and emailed every contact contained in them.  As of this posting, I have yet to hear anything back from any of the inquiries I had sent.  While waiting to hear back from those individuals, I contacted my exchange students I hosted since 2005.  Unfortunately, none of them know of anyone in their perspective countries who works with children.  I then posted a request on my Facebook for assistance.  I received two replies from friends who said they would ask people they know in other countries for some contact information.  I have yet to hear back but am hopeful that someone will come through with either a resource or receive a reply back from my emails.  I also contacted many, many individuals which I have met during my time as a licensed home child care educator.  Many of these individuals are sending out requests for me and I am, once again, hopeful I will hear from one of the sources.

The second part of the assignment for the class involved expanding our resources in the early childhood field of education.  I have been a member of NAEYC for many, many years so I decided I wanted to expand to a few organizations based outside of the US.  I chose Early Childhood Australia:  The Australian Early Childhood Advocacy Organization.  I also signed up for their newsletter.  I also chose Save the Children.  I also signed up for their email updates and eNewsletter.  I chose these websites/organizations since they were two that I am unfamiliar with at this time.  I also like to choose resources which fit into what I need when I need to be well informed or do research.

I wish everyone a great eight weeks!  I am sure we will each come away from this class with a much larger knowledge base.