International Early Childhood Field For My Professional And Personal Development.

Learning about the international early childhood field for my professional and personal development was truly wonderful. This gave me the opportunity to contribute my voice on an international level regarding early childhood education. The topics discussed were quality child care, diversity, teacher qualifications, multicultural issues, children’s learning and sustainable development, recent issues in early childhood education and care and questions relating to their curriculum questions.

The first consequence was that I was able to gain new information, knowledge and develop a partnership. As a professional in the field of early childhood education we need to be connected with those on a national and international level if we want to promote healthy development for all children and families.  Learning about the international early childhood field not only expanded my knowledge on global issues that affect children and their families, but gave me new resources to draw upon.

The second consequence was that it gave me the opportunity to learn about the issues, trends, and challenges related to early childhood professionals in other countries are facing. Many of these countries still have a great deal of problems with regard to early childhood programs. Some of these countries are in what I call the developmental stage where as some countries had no idea of the importance of early childhood education. If they have some knowledge then it benefits those who are wealthy. The poor lay by the wayside.

The third consequence was being able to develop an awareness of the international early childhood community and the resources others use. Because of the issues and trends related to poverty and malnutrition many parents do not have the education they need. As a result they are not in a position to impact their child’s ability to learn. Parents need to be educated, and made aware of the resources that are available to them.

As a result, I have not gained new resources, but I have awareness for the international early childhood community and international organizations that promote the well-being of children and families worldwide. We can learn so much from others if we keep an open mind, and knowing that I can communicate with someone from another country or read about an initiative in another region is truly a wonderful experience. I now have a sense of how strong the early childhood community is and I have gained more confidence from discussing early childhood issues and trends with a professionals outside the United States.

I am very surprised at how many international organizations for the field of early childhood there are and my awareness of this field at an international level has increased. There is a large community of professionals out there with great ideas, opinions, advice, and perspectives that they are willing to share! We just have to reach out to them.

The one goal for the early childhood field in relation to international awareness of issues and trends should be to collaborate more with others and to share the resources we have with other countries. In addition we can assist them in providing workshops and helping them to create newsletters as it relates to the issues and trends of early childhood education. If we are going to promote healthy development of children and families then we need to provide and share whatever resources we have at our disposal. Developing a partnership and networking is the key. As an educator in the field of early childhood education I intend to continuously network and share my knowledge with others in the field no matter how far. Just like we need support they need the support as well. We as educators have to work to make that happen.

As my colleagues continue their professional path I wish all of you lot of success. I hope that we can also continue to network with one another and assist those in the field of early childhood education with the issues and trends that still exist.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

                                                          The Mother Tongue

Most of the immigrants who come from different countries and try to settle down here are facing the problem of saving their mother tongue. Some people try very seriously and teach the children from the beginning why it's important to learn their mother tongue and stress that if someone want to learn about the culture of their country it is very important to learn mother tongue. Of course books, information are available in English but there is a difference in understanding the culture, traditions, history of the nation learning through their mother tongue. It will be easy to understand when they become fluent with the mother tongue they can read the wonderful literature, history, about the customs, the changes that are taking place etc.

The three new ideas and insights I gained about issues related to international early childhood education that relate to my professional goals has to do with how children learn better in their mother tongue. In Iraq a new amendment law will allow Turkmen, Syriac and Asuri people to open schools in their localities for education in their mother tongue. The Iraqi National Assembly voted in favor of the amendment to add Turkmen, Syriac and Asuri languages to official languages of Iraq, bringing the number of official languages in the country to five after Arabic and Kurdish. "Turkmen, Syriac and Asuri minorities in Iraq will be able to open courses and educational institutions at all levels that serve to enhance the human potential.

In Burma the Mother-Tongue Instruction is being pushed for Burma’s Schools.  A seminar on multilingual education has called for the use of ethnic minorities’ mother tongue as their language of instruction, in combination with allowing local education authorities to draft ethnic language curricula for primary school students who do not belong to Burma’s ethnic Burman majority. “The attendees agree that children’s mother tongue should be used as the medium of instruction in order for ethnic children to be effective in their studies and balance the teaching of national and international language skills. . “It’s found to be more effective using students’ mother tongue as the language of instruction when teaching the Burmese language in its spoken and written forms. Currently, Burmese is the language of instruction at schools across the country. Since political reforms that began nearly three years ago, and amid ongoing national reconciliation efforts, a growing call to reinstate ethnic minority languages into classrooms has been met with modest success.

Children whose primary language is not the language of instruction in school are more likely to drop out of school or fail in early grades. Research has shown that children’s first language is the optimal language for literacy and learning throughout primary school (UNESCO, 2008a). In spite of growing evidence and parent demand, many educational systems around the world insist on exclusive use of one or sometimes several privileged languages. This means excluding other languages and with them the children who speak them (Arnold, Bartlett, Gowani, & Merali, 2006). 

Many linguistic groups are becoming vocal about the need to ensure that the youngest members of their communities keep their linguistic heritage. Some governments, such as in the Philippines, have recently established language-in-education policies that embrace children’s first languages. A compendium of examples produced by UNESCO (2008b) attests to growing interest in promoting mother tongue-based education, and to the wide variety of models, tools, and resources now being developed and piloted to promote learning programs in the mother tongue.

Questions need to be explored about what are the most important outcomes and how best to measure them in various teaching and learning contexts. How should assessment of pedagogical effectiveness take into account the different pace of children's growing competence in core skills including reading, writing, numeracy and problem solving when they learn through multiple languages? Family members play an important role as children's first teachers and research should explore the roles of informal and non-formal education and family interaction in promoting literacy, numeracy, and higher order cognitive skills using the mother tongue.

We need to involve community members with diverse language skills in formal school and train teachers with varying language capacities and levels of education to be effective in MTB-MLE classrooms.  As knowledge develops, we must get better at communicating research findings so that practitioners, policy makers and donors are informed and motivated by evidence about how the potential of MTB-MLE can be harnessed to achieve Education for All.

I believe that their own language enables young learners to immediately construct and explain their world without fear of making mistakes, articulate their thoughts and add new concepts to what they already know. In turn, their teachers can more accurately assess what has been learned and identify the areas where they need help.

Resources:

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

http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=126617

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/mother-tongue-instruction-pushed-burmas-schools.html

http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/children-learn-better-their-mother-tongue

Arnold, C., Bartlett, K., Gowani, S., & Merali, R. (2006). Is everybody ready? Readiness, transition and continuity: Reflections and moving forward. Background paper for EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007.

Sharing Web Resources:

One of the outside links I explored was Advancing ECE2 Policy: Early Childhood Education (ECE) and its Quest for Excellence, Coherence, and Equity (ECE). It led me to several issues relating to the need for excellence, coherence, equity, quality and culture. As I searched I found out that nearly 50 years of experience with a federal role in early education has produced important lessons about what works to guide future policy. 

While the goals of early education policy have veered from equity to excellence, and from equal opportunity to school readiness, I have learned from experience and research how the goals of excellence, coherence, and equity should guide effective early childhood policy. 

Some of the new information I received was the NCLB, (The No Child Left Behind Law). Though the NCLB legislation itself made few explicit demands on early childhood educators, its impact has been great. The law has fostered intense pressures to raise levels of quality in early childhood programs so that they can close the “readiness gaps” among children who differ by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status, as measured by cognitive scores (Lee & Burkam, 2002). In particular, the law has motivated policy efforts to:

(1) bolster the academic skills of young children and develop accountability systems through early learning guidelines;

(2) increase the competence of the early childhood workforce; and

(3) improve early literacy instruction.

“The No Child Left Behind law, was a response to persistent demands for excellence in public education and a need to close the achievement gap among children of different backgrounds. With increasing concern, policymakers also noted the differences among children in their readiness for 15 kindergartens (Lee & Burkam, 2002). Even so, while NCLB took dramatic steps to increase the federal role in public education, little in the law directly concerned preschool education, with the exception of the three following components.

1.      First, the law’s heavy emphasis on testing and accountability evoked a new focus on early childhood accountability and, with it, concerns regarding the “trickle down” of inappropriate curriculum and testing for young children.

2.      Second, NCLB’s focus on improving the quality of teachers affects early childhood educators in two ways.

3.      Third, NCLB significantly increases funding for Early Reading First (a program for children from birth through preschool age) and Reading First (a program for children from kindergarten through third grade), with the goal of helping children read proficiently by third grade.

There is a great deal of information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. One particular bit of information is in order to promote greater consistency across the states, guidelines should be established that specify what children should know and be able to do, how teachers should be qualified to teach young children, and what foundational elements of quality should characterize early childhood programs.

The new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field I gained, is that there is a great amount of change has occurred in the last 10 years. Here are some of the current trends that have had the greatest impact:

1.      Emphasis on learning standards – Head Start outcomes, common core & state Early Learning Standards.

2.      Increasing linguistic and cultural diversity (need to more effectively serve Dual Language learners).

3.      Structured activity in children’s lives (obesity crisis)

4.     Increasing role of digital media at home & in schools, and in professional development

Early childhood programs have the potential for producing positive and lasting effects on children, but this potential will not be achieved unless more attention is paid to ensuring that all programs meet the highest standards of quality. As the number and type of early childhood programs increase, the need increases for a shared vision and agreed-upon standards of professional practice.

Making this vision of excellence a reality will require a commitment from and a partnership among the federal, state, and local governments, business and labor, private institutions, and the public. As we stand at the beginning of a new millennium, we must join forces to advocate and implement the policies at the appropriate federal, state, and local levels that will lead to excellence in early childhood education programs.

Resources:

Kagan, S.L. & Reid, J.L. (2008), Advancing ECE2, Policy: Early Childhood Education (ECE) and its Quest for Excellence, Coherence, and Equity (ECE), Retrieved on April 11, 2014 from:

http://policyforchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/American-ECE-Policy-Final-2.10.091.pdf

Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: Social background differences in achievement as children begin school. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts – Part 2

The insights and information I have gained from my conversation with my international contacts is that early childhood is a critical time to help children develop the literacy and math skills that will ensure their academic success; to close achievement gaps before they emerge; and to set children on the path toward developing what have been called the social, or executive, skills of working with others, following directions, completing assignments and communicating effectively. These skills are particularly important for the development of a high-quality workforce that can successfully compete in a global economy. In response to the political and social revolutions that shook Europe in 1989, education and early childhood systems in the region embarked on an extended period of reform and innovation, drawing together ideas, evidence and practices from around the world. In the process, early childhood services have changed dramatically. This year's conference will bring together practitioners, researchers, experts and policy makers to explore the transformation of early childhood services over the past 25 years looking at the challenges of articulating such services that both fulfill the rights of all children and their families, and empower early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals as agents of social change.

Evidence from neuroscientists, economists, educators and child development specialists continues to reinforce the critical importance of the early years in establishing an individual’s lifelong trajectory. Yet few countries around the world can boast universal and comprehensive systems and services that support children’s optimal development in. At the same time, childhood institutions have not been static. Over the past 25 years increasing poverty, migration and disparities have challenged early childhood systems to scale-up and innovate to meet the needs of more diverse children and families. Those countries that embrace democracy focus on ensuring access, inclusion, equity and quality for all children, especially the most vulnerable.

The additional information that I acquired about issues of equity and excellence from my international sources is that by the time children enter primary school, the gaps in achievement between the most disadvantaged children and majority children are almost insurmountable. Yet, research repeatedly demonstrates that the most disadvantaged children make the greatest gains in high quality early childhood services. Prioritizing services for the most disadvantaged, thus, is one way of reducing or eliminating gaps in equity that form in the earliest years of life.  Reaching and supporting all children in the earliest years, particularly the most vulnerable, is one of the greatest challenges of early childhood systems. The most effective programs start in the prenatal period, promote responsive, stimulating interactions and are sensitive to the diverse needs of families. 

ISSA promotes inclusive, quality care and education experiences that create the conditions for every child to be happy and reach his or her full potential. The organization does this through three different pillars of action: ensuring equal access for all children; promoting high-quality and professionalism in early year’s services and supporting parents and communities to take part in their children’s development and learning.

Remember the challenge that President Obama issued: to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. The future demands that we work collaboratively across sectors to strengthen our educational system. This means providing excellent early childhood education as a strong foundation for learning, healthy development and longer term school success. 

Resources: 

                                                     

http://www.issa.nl/events

http://www.idra.org/IDRA_Newsletter/February_2013_Curriculum_Quality/Access%2C_Equity_and_Excellence_in_Early_Childhood_Education/#sthash.E6d8vThm.dpuf