UNESCO

Share at least 3 new ideas or insights you gained about issues related to international early childhood education that relate to your professional goals from the UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage:

The first insight that I gained relates to my professional goal of continuing to work with low-income children and I found it in the section for the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP).  United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) currently has a research project evaluating access to quality programs for children considered to be in vulnerable groups such as low-income children.  The project “will generate a powerful means of identifying factors that provide a more powerful explanation of the educational achievement levels of vulnerable groups of pupils” (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 2013b, para. 7).

The second insight that I gained relates to my professional goal of learning how to manage an efficient early childhood program.  The UNESCO website provides training materials on management and supervision in the IIEP section.  The training modules include the importance of supervision, “roles and functions”, organization, managing staff, and many more (UNESCO, 2013a, para. 4).

The last insight that I gained also relates to my professional goal of managing a program.  I found a pamphlet in the IIEP section entitled “Preparation, Recruitment, and Retention of Teachers”.  While reading about teacher retention, I was surprised to learn that in the United Kingdom and the United States “30 to 50 percent of teachers leave within the first three to five years” whereas “rates in many other developed countries are low to negligible” (Cooper & Alvarado, 2010, p. 17).  Research has found that “the primary cause of teacher turnover rate seems to be due to poor or difficult working conditions” (p. 19).

References

Cooper, J. M. & Alvarado, A. (2006). Preparation, recruitment, and retention of teachers. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001520/152023e.pdf

UNESCO/International Institute for Educational Planning (2013a). IIEP training materials. Retrieved from http://www.iiep.unesco.org/capacity-development/training/training-materials/school-supervision.html

UNESCO/International Institute for Educational Planning (2013b). Strategies to improve access and retention of vulnerable students. Retrieved from http://www.iiep.unesco.org/research/equity-access-and-quality/improve-access-and-retention.html

Sharing Web Resources: Part 2

Follow some of the outside links that you have not yet explored. Where do they lead? Thoroughly search one area of the site. What do you find?

The Zero to Three website provides the following outside links:

1. The Early Head Start National Resource Center: http://www.ehsnrc.org/
2. Technical assistance for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program: http://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs/homevisiting/ta/index.html
3. The National Training Institute (sponsored by Zero to Three): http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1185937

 I chose to search the Early Head Start National Resource Center website.  I then chose to search the area of the site “News You Can Use”   http://www.ehsnrc.org/Publications/newsyoucanuse.htm which provided an article from October 2012: “Supporting Early Math Learning for Infants and Toddlers”.  It was an interesting article about how early childhood professionals can identify and support early math learning for infants and toddlers.  For instance, object permanence supports math learning for infants because it involves change and time which are necessary components of math.

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

Since I signed up for the newsletter, “The Baby Monitor”, I have only received it once (in May) even though, according to the website, it is a bi-weekly newsletter.  After checking the website, I discovered that no other newsletters have been published since the one I received last month.  Perhaps they are taking the summer off?

The newsletter did provide information related to the issue of accessibility.  Specifically, in the state of New Mexico a new bill was signed into law in April 2013 that will provide $5.75 million dollars for Pre-K and $2 million for home visiting.

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 website does contain a report, in the Public Policy section, which addresses the issue of increasing access to early childhood programs.  The report, “Expanding Access to Early Head Start: State Initiatives for Infants and Toddlers” (2012) details that “despite difficult economic time, 23 states have at least one initiative that builds on the federally-funded [Early Head Start] program” (Colvard & Schmit, 2012, p. 5).

References

Colvard, J. & Schmit, S. (2012, September). Expanding access to early head start: State initiatives or infants and toddlers at risk. Center for Law and Social Policy-ZERO TO THREE. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/pdf/expanding-access-to-ehs-paper.pdf

"Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 2"

Alternative assignment:

After reading about the descriptions of the podcasts on the World Forum Foundation (2013) website, I chose to listen to the podcast “Episode 3: Delfena Mitchell”.  Delfena Mitchell is the director of Liberty Children’s Home in Belize city in the country of Belize.  Liberty Children’s Home is a residential center for children that “have been abandoned, abused, or orphaned and many have special needs or are HIV positive” (World Forum Foundation, 2013b, para. 20).  According to Delfena Mitchell, Belize has “the number one incidents of child abuse in the whole Caribbean” (World Forum Foundation, 2013a).  Many of the children that arrive at the Liberty Children’s Home have endured so much abuse that they are “broken down” and they need time to adjust before they can attend school with the other children in the community.  She gave the example of a nine-year-old boy named Joseph who had not spoken in over a year because of the physical abuse that he endured.  However, after Joseph had lived at the Liberty Children’s Home, he began to speak again (she does not specify how long he had lived there).

The link that was provided for Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/) did not work; I was redirected to the home page.  However, after some searching I located it at: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/.  The website provides information about “Global Children’s Initiative” projects in Zambia, Brazil, and Chile.  The program in Chile, “Un Buen Comienzo” (UBC), or “A Good Start” is a project designed to “improve early childhood education through teacher professional development” (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2012b, para. 1).  I gained the following insights about the project “Un Buen Comienzo”:

• The project began in 2007, operating at four sites and it will eventually expand to 60.
• The project is designed to improve language development, health, socioemotional development and family involvement.
• Once the project has expanded to 60 schools it will involve a longitudinal evaluation known as “a cluster-randomized experiment” (Center on the Developing, 2012b, para. 4).

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2012a). Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/ubc/

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2012b). Un buen comienzo. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/ubc/

World Forum Foundation (2013a). Episode 3: Delfena Mitchell [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_03_DelfenaMitchell.mp3

World Forum Foundation (2013b). World forum radio. Retrieved from http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/world-forum-radio/

Sharing Web Resources-Part 2

As a former elementary school teacher, the early education field is completely new to me so the majority of the information that I have learned in this program is relevant to my current professional development.  While evaluating the Zero to Three website, I found the report Common Vision, Different Paths: Five States’ Journeys toward Comprehensive Prenatal-to-Five Systems (2007), which was co-authored by Pre-K Now and Zero to Three.  The report provides information about the history of early education in five states: California, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.  Since I live in California, this information pertains to my professional development.  For instance, I did not know that in California, early childhood education began 60 years ago, in 1943.

There is an article on the Zero to Three website which directly addresses economists supporting the early childhood field.  The article, Partnering with the Business Community & Economists to Advance a Birth to Five Policy Agenda (2007), provides several tips and examples of how early childhood programs can partner with businesses.

References

Dugger, R. H., & Rappaport, D. M. (2007). Partnering with the business community & economists to advance a birth to five policy agenda. Retrieved from http://zttcfn.convio.net/site/DocServer/Partnering_with_the_Business_Community_final.pdf?docID=4361

Pre-K Now & Zero to Three (2007). Common vision, different paths: Five states’ journeys toward comprehensive prenatal-to-five systems. Retrieved from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/Common_Vision__Different_Paths_Final.pdf?docID=4521

Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 1

If you chose the podcast alternative, report what you learned from the podcast as well as any results from communicating with the early childhood professional from the podcast.

Since I never heard back from either of the professionals that I contacted in Week 1, I chose to do the alternative assignment for this week. I chose the podcast interviewing Barbara Jones who “founded the Pine Grove School in Falmouth, Maine 25 years ago” (World Forum Foundation).  In the podcast, Barbara Jones describes her journey to founding the school.  Back in the 1960’s Jones had graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in education.  However, the public school system did not appeal to her so she chose to look for a job in a more alternative setting.  As a result, she traveled to California and found a job working as a Montessori teacher.  Several years later, while visiting the East Coast, Jones drove by a little school house, the property in Falmouth, Maine that would later become the Pine Grove School.  Unfortunately, the property was not for sale at that time.  However, when the owners decided to sell the property several years later, they remembered a letter that Jones had written them asking them to contact her if they ever decided to sell. The school and the grounds are beautiful.  Here is a link if you would like to see pictures of the school: http://www.pinegrovecenter.com/pages/photos.html

If you have not yet received a response, go to the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/), read about childhood poverty in one country, and share at least three insights or ideas you gained from studying the website.

I tried contacting Barbara Jones but I had not heard anything back yet.  Since I did not receive a response, I visited the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre.  I gained the following three insights about childhood poverty in China:

• As of 2003, “4.2 million children live in absolute poverty and 8.7 live in disadvantages conditions” (Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre, n.d., para. 5). However, the amount of children living in poverty has declined since the 1990’s. 

• Poverty is more prevalent in Western China than Eastern China. As a result, 15% less children in Western China complete primary school than those in Eastern China (Child Poverty Research, n.d.). 

• In Beijing, China, 75% of the families living in poverty in 2002 “could not afford all children’s education costs such as tuition fees” (Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre, n.d., para. 5). 

References

Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre (n.d.). Country overviews. Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=country

World Forum Foundation (Producer). (2013). Episode 9: Barbara Jones [Audi podcast]. Retrieved from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_09_BarbaraJones.mp3

Sharing Web Resources

I chose the organization Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families (2012) and their link is: http://www.zerotothree.org.  Zero to Three (2012) “is a national nonprofit organization that informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers” (Zero to Three, 2012a, para. 1).  The website provides information in numerous areas such as development, play, nutrition, school readiness, public policy and many others.

The issue on the website that caught my attention was school readiness.  The organization has a “School Readiness Interactive” tool that provides information about children from birth to 3-years-old in the following areas: “Language & Literacy”, “Thinking Skills”, “Self-Control”, & “Self-Confidence” (Zero to Three, 2012b).

I had to search rather extensively in order to find any information about the topic of this week: “Changing Demographics and Diversity”.  There were some archived articles about diversity but in order to read the articles, I would have had to buy the entire Zero to Three Journal for $15.00.  However, I did find a document created by Zero to Three in the “Public Policy” section about professional development which addressed both changing demographics and diversity.  For example, Zero to Three recommends: “professional development of the infant-toddler workforce should support practitioners in addressing the ethnic, racial, and linguistic diversity of the families they serve and prepare them for culturally competent and sensitive practice” (Gebhard, Ochshorn, & Jones, 2012, p. 5).

References

Gebhard, B., Ochshorn, S., Jones, L. (2012). Toward a bright future for our youngest children.  Retrieved from Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families website: http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/policy-toolkit/professional-development-final-for-web.pdf

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families (2012a). About us. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families (2012b). School readiness interactive birth to three. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/early-care-education/school-readiness-interactive-birth-to-3

Getting Ready: Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

The first professional that I contacted, Sibohan Fitzpatrick, was listed as the main contact for The Early Years Organisation aka the Northern Ireland Preschool Playgroups Association (NIPPA).  Unfortunately, the e-mail was sent back to me as failed/undeliverable. The second professional that I contacted, Mrs. Bimbo Are, is located in Nigeria and she works for the Niger Delta Academic Foundation.  The last professional that I contacted, Ms. Ivy Kok, is the program director for the Association for Early Childhood Educators in Singapore.  I have not heard anything back from either professional, but I look forward to hearing what they say.  For the second part of the assignment, I chose Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. The link for the newsletter did not work but I was able to register on the website and choose a newsletter as part of the registration process.