Issues and Trends: Change, Contexts, Consequences, and Constraints Revisited

I understand more in depth about the field of early childhood education after learning more about it internationally. I learned information that was deeper than I imagined and I realized the importance of being aware of what’s going on in the field all around the world not just locally. I believe that because I learned more about the international early childhood field I will be able realign my goals and further my career professionally and realign my thinking and goals personally as well. I learned to not take so much for granted, I learned what I can do to advocate for early childhood education around the world and I learned about some valuable resources that will help me to continue develop and grow. It is my goal that I continue to use what I have learned to help others to grow and develop as well.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part 3

Since I still haven’t received word from my contacts, I decided to so the alternative assignment of reviewing the UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” website.
(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/).  After taking some time to thoroughly explore this site, I have gained some new insights.

First of all I learned that UNESCO is dedicated to the child as a whole and the holistic approach to early childhood development.

Secondly, I learned that global action week is coming up on April 22. Global action week provides awareness about the need of early childhood education

I also learned that UNESCO had a group of experts conduct reviews of indicators related to early childhood development such as health and nutrition, social protection, and policy and planning. Then reviews are now published and provide recommendation for the content of the Holistic Early Childhood Development Index.

I read lot s of interesting information on this website. I read about empowering girls in Ethiopia and the push for literacy in Nigeria. I also read about the Nokia challenge for mobile communication ideas that help expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education.

Overall, I learned a lot about this organization and they are doing around the world to advocate for children and early childhood care and education. I believe in advocating for our children and support all the efforts that are being made by organizations like this one.

Sharing Web Resources

I began searching for some of the outside links that I have not yet explored on the sites that I began looking at the beginning of the course and I was unable to find very many links to other websites. There was one link to a childcare center in Northern California which I look into before and posted about. And then there were links to ICRI in other countries so I decided to look at the link to Kenya. http://www.icriafrica.org/ . Their mission in Kenya is to fight poverty and assure health and safety for children and families. As I read more about their mission in Africa I was impressed to read that they are training early childhood providers on appropriate care and education. I think that is definitely an important step in the right direction and something we need to focus on more over here as well. I also noticed a lot of emphasis on proper hygiene and empowering women and children. I think that the biggest insight or trend that really stands out to me in many of these countries is that it seems as though many organizations group early childhood care and hygiene and empowering women and children all together and they work to help each area as a whole. I understand that it is important to teach proper hygiene at an early age so it doesn’t become a continual problem as they get older and I also understand the importance of building self-esteem and empowering others at a young age as well so I suppose it only makes sense that they would group those areas in with early childhood education, however it isn’t something I would have thought about originally.

Getting to Know International Contacts-Part 2

I visited Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/), and had fun exploring the site. I learned about the collaborative project in Chile, “A Good Start.”. This project is focusing on professional development of the teachers in order to provide higher quality programs in language and socioemotional development for children 4 to 6 years of age.  Another focus is on improving the attendance as well. In order to achieve this, the project is focusing on deepening family involvement.

I also read about Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, collaboration between Global Children’s Initiative and local experts in Brazil who are all working to use the science of health and development to gain stronger policies and larger investments to benefit children and families.

Overall I learned that locally and globally we all have the same goal, to work together to provide more effective programs that foster a more successful society.

Sharing Web Resources II

The organization that I have been learning more about is called the International Child Resource Institute - http://www.icrichild.org/ . ICRI operates and/or oversees six child care centers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The centers provide study and learning exchange opportunities for educators from around the world. As I explored one of the centers websites more, I found that the organization believes in learning through play and provides an environment where play is encouraged. I found this interesting because it is something we were discussing in this week’s posts. As I looked into the organization further I read about Hearts Leap Childcare Program. At Hearts Leap they utilize discovery-based emergent curriculum.  Emergent curriculum is about children constructing or directing their own learning process. In order to provide an environment that supports this type of learning, childcare teachers need to be dedicated to observing the children, learning with them and researching. Teachers in this environment need to be well educated and trained, qualities that most early childhood programs can’t afford to pay for when hiring staff.

As I explored the website a bit more I looked at the board of directors to see who is supporting this organization and I found a diverse group of people from former Ambassadors, engineers, lawyers and educators. After reading this week’s learning resources and reading about the board of directors and the staff I realized that it is beneficial for children and families to have the support of not only educators but economists, neuroscientist and politicians as well. A long as the team as a whole is dedicated to the wellbeing of the children and focus on each individual child’s needs rather than monetary gains, everyone can benefit.

International Childhood Poverty

INDIA

400 million of India’s populations are between 0-18 years old. Life for most children in India is very hard. About 62 million children are under the age of five and are malnourished. This is about half of the children in India.  34 percent of newborns in India are significantly underweight. India accounts for 20 percent of the world’s children out of school; it has the largest numbers of working children in the world, third of children below 16 years of age are working. There is a lot of gender discrimination in India and girls' chances of survival are worst than compared with boys. Boys are viewed as more permanent members of the family and  ongoing gender discrimination has lead to lower rates of school attendance among girls and less exposure to the outside world, with more emphasis on domestic work.

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo

Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I was interested in learning more about is call the International Child Resource Institute - http://www.icrichild.org/

This organization believes that all children deserve access to high quality care and a safe environment free of abuse and violence. They believe in the empowerment of girls and women and that women and children have access to health interventions. Overall, they believe in a community that has access to all the necessary resources to overcome poverty.

ICRI has developed or operated over 300 projects in over 50 countries since 1981. One of the projects I read about involved a partnership with the Brazilian National Movement of Street Children, where ICRI help develop support centers for homeless youth in Brazil. ICRI also developed an international awareness campaign about the violence and brutality against street children. I was really interested in this particular project because my children at my afterschool program have recently been studying Brazil and have created a blog where they are able to communicate with the children in a program in Brazil. The children discuss what life is like here compared to what the children experience in Brazil.  Besides Brazil, ICRI has done a lot of work with Nepal, Kenya, India, Norway, Malaysia and many more international countries. They also do work in the U.S. – providing expert consulting and assistance in improving child and family programs.