Week 8 - Issues and Trends

First off I want to thank all my fellow classmates for all your posts and comments and insights during this class. I have learned a great deal about our EC professional world and about the ideas and view points of others. I wish you all the best of luck and growth in the rest of your classes, professional career and life.

A consequence of learning about international early childhood field is that I feel in some aspects, in some parts of other countries they are ahead of us and provide a better quality early childhood environment but on the same note there are areas that are seriously deprived of enriched early childhood environments. I do not feel like I can do very much for children that live internationally. From learning about international early childhood field I feel like I have a duty to not only help children in my country but also internationally and i do not know how to do this.

Another consequence is that I was not as aware of the in-depth issues internationally and have come to realize that in some areas and aspects we (the U.S.) are not much better off. We declare ourselves a free nation, full of opportunities, education for all and equal rights yet our education system is lacking in several areas, not all children receive a proper and full education, our government has issues and our unemployment rate is extremely high. It makes me want to live in another country sometimes. 

A third consequence is that there are many issues and barriers between children and professionals and services all over the world. For example, there are a vast amount of languages that are spoken in the world. Even though English is the most universally spoken one, there are limitless areas that do not use English. Another issue is a lack of awareness (in general). For example, when a family moves to a new country they might not know how that country functions in general and not have an understanding of who things work. For example, if your child needs physical or speech-language therapy services, they might not know how to find or get this help for their children. 

My goal is to become more involved in poverty and equity and excellence in care and education of children, families, and EC professionals organizations that support internationally. I am going to do this by joining more organizations like UNICEF, and NCCP.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

I never had any luck receiving any contact back from any educational professionals. I read over the UNESCO website. The first fact that caught my eye was that "in the developing world, 10.5 million children under 5 die from preventable diseases every year." That makes me want to take all my money and donate it to help all underdeveloped children, even though I don't have a job. Our poor children!! They are our future and yet some of them don't even have a fighting chance, they barely get to live. 

 The UNESCO website supports my goal of making sure all children receive the proper health, nutrition, security and learning and holistic development, especially the underprivileged children. Access for all has become a new movement the past 5 or so years and is starting to be developed. In Vietnam in 2005, the government put into act a policy to support and develop programs for children in the poorest areas. There are four types of services: state, semi-state, people-founded and private services. The Vietnam government supports all 4 services but generally only supplies funding to the poor and poorest areas. There is funding from the central and local governments and communities.  

I learned more in-depth about the development of centered based child care. It is divided into 2 main origins dating back to the 19th century. The development of nurseries were for low-income, poor families and the middle class families received schools or kindergartens providing part-time education. Overtime these two environments have merged more into one for all families though there is still some inaccessibility. According to the policy, "The Early Childhood Workforce in ‘Developed’ Countries: Basic Structures and Education", I read that 'the dual origins have left a legacy in many countries: divided systems of early childhood services, with differences in administration, access, cost to parents, funding, regulation – and in the structure and education of the workforce.' The integration of dividing systems first took place in the Nordic countries in the 1960s and moved on to other places such as New Zealand and Spain. 'In Europe alone, there are now nine countries where early childhood services are the responsibility of one government department: either welfare or education.'

I read an article 'Curriculum in Early Childhood Education and Care' that discussed how the 'learning patterns of young children, social-emotional and cognitive progress will be at the child’s own pace, and take place through play and active methods, governed in so far as possible by the self direction of the child'. Children's learning should be based on prior knowledge and self-instruction. Their education should not be based upon seat work and such high academic standards. Children learn best from hands-on and child-centered. All programs should be pedagogically based and instructed by high-quality educated, trained specialists.     

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

Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families (Part 2: Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability)

I have continued to read over the Center for Child Care Workforce site and learned a great deal of information. (http://www.ccw.org/) This past week I have looked into the Public Policy part of the site. I thought this would be a good idea for me since I am not a very political person and know pretty much next to nothing about politics. According to the website there are several ways to address the compensation issues in Early Childhood such as apprenticeships, health initiatives, mentoring programs, public/private partnerships, Scholarship Programs, Unionization, Wage Incentives, and Tiered Reimbursement Rates. An apprenticeship is a position that combines education and work to learn all aspects of the profession. Health initiatives are when the company pays for their employees full health care benefits. Mentoring programs are when professionals in child care  team  up with new workers and offer advice, skills and productive insight into the field. Public/private partnerships are when businesses form partnerships and contribute financially to the early childhood field. Scholarship Programs are given to early childhood professionals for higher education and training. Unionization, which is unusual in the early childhood field, is when a union is formed and workers have more of a say in their wages, work conditions and their rights and responsibilities as well as their employers. Wage Incentives are rewards to early childhood professionals and teachers based upon their years in the field and amount of education. 'Tiered Reimbursement Rates have been targeted by several states as a way to increase compensation for providers of subsidized child care services.' (http://www.ccw.org/). All of these approaches are ways to get individuals to work and stay in the Early Childhood filed.
From what I could find this site really only gives information on the Child Care workforce for professionals and a little bit of information on early childhood in regards to children.