Learning more about the early childhood field

Learning about early childhood educational trends and policies in other places in the world has been very interesting and informative.  As a teacher, I am always striving to improve my own teaching, and assist in improving the early childhood field. Networking with other early childhood professionals causes me to reflect on my own teaching, theories, and ideas, while gaining new or deeper insight.  Knowing about early childhood education throughout the world is one step towards doing this.  When learning and reading about this, I can compare what other countries are doing with what is happening in early childhood education here at home, and learn new ideas to administer or make a push for.  With American education system continually falling behind the rest of the world, learning about what is being done in other countries can help provide guidance for improving our own.  It is a goal of mine to continue working to improve early childhood education.  I believe that first and foremost, all children should be able to attend a high quality early childhood education program.

United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

Having still been unsuccessful in making contact with professionals in other countries, for this week’s post I explored the website of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

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

The UNESCO advocates for holistic development in early childhood children.  They also encourage and support programs that attend to health, nutrition, security, learning, and inclusive education.

In a recent news post by the UNESCO, the organization advocates and pleads for all children to attend a high quality early childhood program.  As they describe, it is the best insurance against poverty, and the best way to ensure that a child’s development and life is on the right track.

Another post discusses the need for all children to have access to early childhood education.  As do many, the UNESCO believes that quality early childhood education should be a right, rather than a privilege.  In our country, the privilege goes to those who can afford it.  In many countries, enrolling boys in early childhood is a higher priority than girls, so while early childhood education may be free or more reasonably priced than in America, it is still not available to all.  It was very surprising to me to hear of this.  Living in America, it is easy to forget that there are still countries that value men as superior to women, even in the earliest stages of life.

Diving Deeper into the NAECTE Website

This week I continued to explore different sections of the website for the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators:  http://www.naecte.org/

One link that I had not yet searched was ‘Books Published by NAECTE Members.’  Members of this organization post on this section any published books that they have written.  There are currently 13 books listed, the wide range of topics of these books include issues faced by immigrant children, current theories and innovative strategies in early childhood education, reaching out to struggling learners, and even textbooks about teaching literacy and dealing with challenging behaviors.

A section of the site that I had not yet explored was the links to related organizations.  This section contained 18 different links to other organizations or informational websites.  Some were national websites, even some I was already familiar with such as naeyc’s website.  Other websites includes certification information and educational programs for early childhood educators.  The most interesting to me were the 2 links that directed me to information about other nations and their early childhood programs; Canada, Australia, and Europe.  Unfortunately so of the links I explored were inactive.

Unfortunately due to high fees, I do not subscribe to this site’s newsletter.  While they do publish quarterly newsletters to be viewed on the site, they have not yet released their summer issue.

As for equity and excellence in education, this organization gives awards to those in the early childhood field who are working to improve the equity and quality of early childhood education.   

Harvard University: Center on the Developing Child

This week I explored Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website in search of new information, ideas and/or insights.  Here is what I found:

·         One section of the website was a National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs.  This forum was established in 2006, and focuses on why investments should be made, what investments should be made, and how it could be gone about.  The forum is made up of scholars from Universities across the nation.  These scholars use behavioral and neuroscience research to guide policy and program decisions.  Currently they are working to build a comprehensive meta-analytic data base about intervention services for babies in the prenatal period through the age of 5.  A goal of this forum is to inform civic leaders, policy makers, and business executives about the basic science of early childhood and brain development.  I was pleased to learn that scholars at such prestigious Universities as Harvard are working to improve the development and education of young children.

·         I also found and learned about the Global Children’s Initiative.  As is obvious from the title, this initiative focuses on building an internationally integrated approach to improving the health, development and survival of babies and young children.   Their goals are to educate and inform global policy and decision makers about the science of behavior, health and learning that begins in the earliest years of life.  They also aim to educate those around the world on how healthy development occurs, how it can be derailed, and if necessary how to get it back on track.  They are especially working to inform those in middle to lower income countries so that they can advocate for their children.  In my opinion, the way a child is raised can be based on culture and/or personal lifestyle choices.  However, the science behind a child’s health and development is consistent throughout, and improving the development of our world’s children will in turn benefit us all.

·         There are several resources available from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.  Resources range from paid, undergrad or graduate courses, to free information and lectures to the community, and a free newsletter which I have signed up for.  I commend Harvard in working not only on the science of young children’s health and development, but also focusing on getting that information to their students and community, other communities and countries, as well as policy and decision makers.

There is a wealth of information, facts, initiatives and suggestions on this website that I plan to further investigate and report on.