Final Blog Assignment.

First consequence of learning about the international early childhood field for my professional and personal development is the improvement of my knowledge in global early childhood education arena. I have a better understanding of the differences and similarities in the field. I understand the issues and trends of the early childhood education as well as what is taking place currently in different parts of the world. My understanding of the interconnections among the economics, neurosciences and politics will always help me at times that I need to tap into these entities as representative of the early childhood field.

The second is the opportunity I have gained to broaden my understanding of different cultures and beliefs. Diversity matters in the early childhood arena more than ever now. I have gained the knowledge of why it is important for early childhood professionals to have an open mind on diversity. Understanding of beliefs, values and customs give a global perspective for the early childhood educators, so that they could work with native families as well as immigrant families in harmony.

The next one that I have chosen is the understanding of the intentional and unintentional consequences. I have gained a great amount of knowledge on this topic due the course materials. I am much more aware of them and I am consciously trying to avoid any kind of alarming unintentional consequence occurring due to a decision that I make. I am passionate about the advocacy on behalf of the children and families more than before, because to this course. I am thankful for the motivation and information that I have gained from the course about the representation of the early childhood community.

• All the above information helped me in my personal and professional development. My goal is to use the knowledge that I have gained to make the early childhood arena better for the children and families. Keeping up with the most recent knowledge regarding the changes taking place in ever changing world of early childhood education matters. Always getting involved in the advocacy and representation of the field in local and global events through the websites that I have collected from the course resources is very effective. My ambition is to continue my growth and development personally and professionally in the early childhood arena and be a strong advocate for the better changes in the field.

“On a separate note I would like to thank Professor Klein and the colleagues on their sharing of the wisdom, knowledge and passion through out the course - issues and trends in early childhood. I wish everyone all the best in up coming courses. Enjoy the rest of the summer and hope to meet everyone in the next course. Thank you and Take care!!”

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

In the UNESCO Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) website there are four major areas dedicated to the ECCE. Access, Quality, Investment, and Governance are the four areas. “UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children's holistic development. ECCE is part of a range of programs that promote inclusive education”.

·         Access:

Explains the importance of having access to ECCE to all the young children in any part of the world.

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

• Quality:

Explains the why is it important to have high quality early childhood education and care for all the children regardless of their financial backgrounds.

“Early childhood care and education programs 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”. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/quality/

·         Investment:

Early childhood education and care should be a part of the basic education provided by the government for all the children.

“The 1990 Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA), stated that countries should view early childhood as part of basic education. Once countries recognize the positive value of state investment in this area, the next challenge is to mobilize funds. In general, government funding for early childhood is extremely small. For this reason approaching the private sector (non-profit and for-profit) can be an effective strategy”. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/investment/

·         Governance:

Even though there are several entities involved in the governess of the early childhood education and care they all need to come to a common ground at the decision making process.

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

•  The right to education

This is one of my strong beliefs. Even with the involvement of UNESCO and United Nations there are still millions of children who are living in streets, factories, agricultural fields, refugee camps and many other places without receiving a bit of an opportunity to have an education.

“Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. It promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits. Yet millions of children and adults remain deprived of educational opportunities, many as a result of poverty”. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/right-to-education/

• Inclusion and diversity

Special education and education for all without any boundaries due to social order, gender or beliefs is not common especially in the developing world. I am excited to see the involvement of UNESCO on this matter.

 “For UNESCO inclusion and diversity in education are a human rights issue. The Organization promotes inclusive quality education by reviewing and monitoring education policies, training education officials to promote inclusive education policies and disseminating good practices. UNESCO’s 9,000 Associated Schools promote diversity through exchanges, twinning partnerships and common intercultural projects between schools and countries.”

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/right-to-education/single-view/news/do_one_thing_for_diversity_and_inclusion-1/

I came upon the link titled: Ten Questions on inclusion. Please read these ten questions and answers. This article made me think deeply about the discussions that taking place in the political arena today. For more and more people it seems like such a simple thing to cut money from the educational programs that matters to the children in poverty. I wonder if the stakeholders have a greater understanding on the issues and rights of the children because they are not the voters or the fundraisers for the policy makers. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/inclusive-education/10-questions-on-inclusive-quality-education/

I found more videos on the UNESCO website. Most of these are twenty-five minute videos on different topics from all over the globe. Please check these out because most of them have information that are important to the educators. The First Step TV series is one of the themes that carry videos on the children of Brazil, Uganda, and many other places.

http://www.rockhopper.tv/programmes/143/

My goal is to find ways to make early childhood care and education better for the children of the world. It is always inspirational and motivational to see the positive direction that ECCE is moving in globally. But at the same time there is much to accomplish. There are things that can wait a little longer, when other situations take the top of the priority list. Here is one situation that should be on the top of the priority list at this moment. Please take a moment to watch this clip and do what you can do to the humanity. (I received this via e-mail)

 “ONE co-founder Bono and Somali-born singer and poet K'naan talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper about the famine in the Horn of Africa — and what's being done about it. Click here to automatically sign ONE's petition calling on world leaders to end this crisis, and then check out the clip for your self”

http://act.one.org/go/34?akid=2370.1434830.WvZIeg&t=3

References:

UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/),

ONE website

http://www.one.org/

Sharing Web Resources

• Follow some of the outside links that you have not yet explored. Where do they lead?

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/

This is the website I choose to explore more as this site contains so much information regarding the early childhood education. I tried to find information on equity and excellence in their June newsletter. But it was not much of a success, but I ended up reading much on other areas of this website.

• Thoroughly search one area of the site. What do you find?

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/multimedia/interactive_features/five-numbers/

In the home page of the developing child website there are four areas; multimedia, news and events, publications, and faculty. I gravitated towards the multimedia section. It is full of information on early childhood. Here is one subject that took my attention.

       Five numbers to remember

 700 new Neural Connections per Second

18 Months: Age at Which Disparities in Vocabulary Begin to Appear

          3:1 Odds of Adult Heart Disease after 7 - 8 Adverse Childhood Experiences

           $4 - $9 in Returns for Every Dollar Invested in Early Childhood Programs

             90 - 100% Chance of Developmental Delays When Children Experience 6 - 7 Risk Factors

  What These Five Numbers Tell Us? Please check out the website to learn.

• If you receive an e-newsletter, follow a link related to one of the issues you have been studying. What new information is available?

Even though I signed up for several newsletters this is the one I have received so far. It is full of great information but not much about the topics we discussed this week. In this newsletter there is a discussion about one lady’s bravery behind the education of thousands of children in Afghanistan. It is a very inspirational story. What a difference one person can do, with all the difficulties surrounding her she was still able to accomplish drastic change for the children of the Afghanistan.

https://my.campuscruiser.com/em2PageServlet?cx=u&pg=papp&tg=Email-readmail&main=1&qi=I3FpCiNUaHUgQXVnIDA0IDIxOjQwOjM3IEVEVCAyMDExCmZvbGRlcklkPTEwMDA2MzEyMzIKX3NvcnRCeT1yZWNlaXZlZERhdGUKX3NvcnRPcmRlcj0xCm1vZGU9bG9hZApzdGFydD0xCg==&seq=10&msgId=1121195186##

http://voices.globalfundforchildren.org/ this link is to one of the best attractions I found in the newsletter. Please enjoy these short but moving videos.

• Does the website or the e-newsletter contain any information that adds to your understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education?

The article on education of the children of Afghanistan makes me motivated to imagine that change is possible for the children of the world. It is not an easy to accomplish ambition, but it is doable. With all the changes happening in the United States in the education field, it is easier to feel frustrated and disappointed. But reading the articles and watching the videos give me optimism that there is more than enough research based information to prove the need of change for the better of education from early childhood on. It is up to the families and educators to provide the information to the policymakers and be the advocates for the children of the nation.

• What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain this week from exploring the website and/or the e-newsletter?

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/inbrief_series/

There is a section called “In Brief Series” in the developing child website. In there I found four different video presentations on four different subjects. The videos are on:

·         Foundations of life long health

·         The science of early childhood education

·         The impact of early adversity on children’s development

·         Early childhood program effectiveness

“Early childhood program effectiveness” is my first choice. Prof. Hirokazu Yoshikawa of Harvard graduate school of education is the main contributor to this segment. The video discusses the five major effectiveness factors for ECE. They are:

·         Small group sizes and high adult-child ratio.

·         Qualified and well compensated personnel.

·         Warm and responsive adult-child interactions

·         Language rich environment

·         Developmentally appropriate curriculum

·         Safe physical setting of the program

I did enjoy and learnt much from the In Brief Series and I hope you will too.

Reference:

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/

https://my.campuscruiser.com/em2PageServlet?cx=u&pg=papp&tg=Email-readmail&main=1&qi=I3FpCiNUaHUgQXVnIDA0IDIxOjQwOjM3IEVEVCAyMDExCmZvbGRlcklkPTEwMDA2MzEyMzIKX3NvcnRCeT1yZWNlaXZlZERhdGUKX3NvcnRPcmRlcj0xCm1vZGU9bG9hZApzdGFydD0xCg==&seq=10&msgId=1121195186##