Summary

Learning about child development from an international perspective throughout this course has helped me to become more culturally responsive. In order to be culturally responsive, I must keep an open mind to differences and by learning about other cultures it reinforces this behavior. It is important to learn about cultural diversity in order to understand the issues that children face today. In order  to truly be a child advocate, one must understand more about children from around the world. I found it very interesting that many parts of the world are working towards similar goals in the field of early childhood. We face different obstacles, but with having similar values and by using current research about the importance of the early years in regard to brain development and the impact of toxic stress we work together to support and protect children everywhere.

One personal goal that I have from this course is to continue to learn more about the issues that children and families face around the world today. By paying attention to the news or visiting some of the websites I learned about in this course, I can stay more up to date on current events related to the global field of early childhood.

UNESCO's "Early Childhood Care and Education" website

From exploring the UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage I learned about a few new things this week that are happening around the world in Early Childhood Education.

1- “On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170  declaring 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world”  (www. unesco.org).  I thought this was really cool and enjoyed reading about what is being done to help create equal opportunities for girls around the world.  Here is a video to watch about a project being done in Senegalese:

2- Under the Access and Equity tab, I found out about an Education for All (EFA) initiative. “Participating countries committed themselves to “expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.” Governments were particularly urged to expand equitable access to quality early childhood services underscoring the importance of instituting policy in favour of the poor” (www.unesco.org).  Education for All tries to promote early childhood education as being a part of a child’s basic or primary education. The importance of early childhood needs to be understood and valued before governments and businesses invest in it.

3- Visiting the UNESCO “Early Childhood Care and Education” website helped to remind me how important child advocacy is. It is key to making improvements and promoting equity and access to quality early childhood care and education around the world.

Reference:

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2014).  Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Exploring the NAEYC Website

Featured on the NAEYC website this week is an article titled “10 NAEYC Program Standards and Accreditation.” This relates to the topic of Equity and Excellence in a couple of different ways. First it explains the standards that the NAEYC created to promote quality in child care programs for accreditation. “The standards define what NAEYC—the world’s largest organization of early childhood professionals—believes all early childhood programs should provide” (NAEYC, 2014). The article explains the ten standards to parents so that they better understand what a high quality child care program, preschool or kindergarten should look and feel like. The standard categories are: relationships, curriculum, teaching, assessment of child progress, health, teachers, families, community relationships, physical environment, and leadership and management (NAEYC, 2014). By educating parents on what quality should look like, parents are more likely to expect programs to meet the standards and select a program that is of higher quality.

On the position statements link, the position statements on diversity and assessing English Language Learners in the early years address the topic of equity and excellence as well. I also found a whole new section of the website specifically geared toward families by clicking on the “For Families” link at the top of the home page. NAEYC For Families webpage offers parents a variety of resources including advice from other parents on a blog, music, a newsletter to learn more information about a specific age group and more. There are a wide variety of articles written by T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. and Joshua Sparrow, M.D. that offer parents advice on many different topics including mealtime and having an only child.  Under the “Topics” tab at the top of the home page, there are even more articles on topics related to promoting your child’s development. Another page on the website allows families to search for local NAEYC accredited child care programs and offers many different articles about selecting quality child care. The NAEYC For Families web page seems to be an excellent resource to share with families.

Reference:

NAEYC For Families website. Retrieved from http://families.naeyc.org/

NAEYC. (2014). The ten NAEYC program standards. Retrieved from  http://families.naeyc.org/accredited-article/10-naeyc-program-standards#sthash.MPqzJHa9.dpuf

Global Research on Surviving Child Adversity

On the "Global Children's Initiative" website this week I read about research that is being done to understand the long-term impact of children around the world surviving adversity in childhood. The first study I read about is currently being done to learn more about children that became child soldiers in Sierra Leone during the civil war and to understand more about how that is affecting their current relationships and family situations. By learning about the impact of major adversities, researchers hope to create ways of helping and developing effective intervention strategies. "In Sierra Leone, for example, 'We’ll be able to understand the longer-term adult functioning of people who’ve been through a range of toxic stress exposures—and the impact on their intimate partners—and understand the dynamics of parenting and child-rearing where interventions might be helpful"(Lawton, 2014).

The second study that I read about is being done in Rwanda to research the affect on children in families where the parents have HIV. According to the research, many parents view the disease as a "death sentence" affecting the way they interact with their children. In turn, "their children can harbor lingering fears and misunderstandings about HIV infection—in some cases, afraid to touch their parents or eat from the same cooking pot" (Lawton, 2014). By learning about these family situations, researchers hope to help parents meet the needs of their children (Lawton, 2014).

“There are very few prevention-oriented interventions in global mental health for children,” Betancourt notes. “And doing that work earlier in a preventive model is going to be so much more cost-effective than waiting for [children] to get severely depressed and suicidal, or drop out of school. Then, you’re trying to undo those very severe sorts of consequences” (Lawton, 2014).


This article opened my eyes to some of the severe adversities and stress that children and families around the world are facing. Much of the research I read about is focused on children and families in the United States, but I think this research being done globally is very important to fully understanding child development and learning about ways to help children fro around the world.


Reference:
Lawton, M. (2014). Studying the Effects of Global Adversity, Two Generations at a Time. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/faculty_and_staff/faculty/faculty_spotlights/theresa_betancourt/

"The Common Core"

The NAEYC, remains a strong voice and guiding point for early childhood professionals to turn to for research-based knowledge and information. The NAEYC website has many topics that address current issues and trends in education. The topic of “Common Core State Standards” stood out to me this week on the website. The Common Core affects children in grades K-12 and may begin to affect what is expected to be taught at the preschool level. The Common Core is a set of national standards that has been accepted by most states. The idea is to make the standards for English Language Arts and Math consistent across the nation for each grade level and for completion of high school (NAEYC, 2012). I teach at the high school level in Oregon, which has adopted the standards beginning this school year, and the standards have been the topic of many professional development meetings. It is a change that requires much adjustment and worry for our students trying to pass a new standardized test for graduation. Are the standards too high? Are all schools provided the same resources and means to meet the standards?

The article, “The common core state standards: Caution and opportunity for early childhood education,” focuses on the impact that the Common Core may have on the early childhood field and discusses concerns of early childhood professionals. “These [unintended] consequences include concerns about the allocation of time and resources to support the content of the Common Core relative to areas not included in these standards, and about the means by which schools will assess children’s progress in meeting the standards” (NAEYC, 2012 p. 4). Will the Common Core create a large push for language arts and math to be the main focus in pre-K programs across the nation? Are the standards developmentally appropriate? “Especially critical is maintaining methods of instruction that include a range of approaches—including the use of play as well as both small- and large-group instruction—that are considered to be developmentally appropriate for young children” (NAEYC, 2012 p. 7)

Reference:

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 2012. The Common Core State Standards: Caution and Opportunity for Early Childhood Education. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Childhood Poverty

Unfortunately, I never heard back from the international early childhood professionals that I reached out to through e-mail. So I visited the UNICEF website to read about childhood poverty. I chose to read about poverty in Mexico, because it is so close to the United States and seems to affect our country a great deal also.

Although the economy in Mexico is slightly improving, poverty is still prevalent in the country. “In 2010, 46.2% of Mexico’s residents lived in poverty – a figure that rises to 53.8% among children, who are overrepresented among the poor. Nearly 14% of Mexican children under five are stunted – a figure that is higher in rural areas and reaches nearly 33% among indigenous children” (UNICEF, 2013 p. 1).  The rural areas of Southern Mexico have the worst poverty, with higher under-five mortality rates and maternal mortality rates. Access to health care and sufficient nutrition remain a problem especially in rural areas. “Chronic malnutrition amongst children remains high: 13.6% of under-fives in 2012 (1.5 million) and 27.5% in rural and indigenous areas in the south” (UNICEF, 2013 p. 2). Another problem resulting from poverty is a child’s access to an education. Many children living in poverty in Mexico have to work instead of going to school, making it almost impossible to ever change things for their personal future (UNICEF, 2013).

Reference:

UNICEF (2013, Apr 3). Mexico: Government and UNICEF launch ground-breaking

study addressing child poverty. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/media_68584.html

UNICEF (2013). UNICEF Annual Report 2013 — Mexico. Retrieved from

http://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Mexico_COAR_2013.pdf

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Website Resource

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

http://www.naeyc.org/

The NAEYC website is an excellent resource with information about a broad range of topics related to the early childhood field. “The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children” (http://www.naeyc.org/content/about-naeyc). The NAEYC provides professional development opportunities, including a national conference for early childhood professionals and by becoming a member you can receive a periodical with research articles related to current topics and issues.

The organizations policy statements are available on their website and provide a great resource for creating your own policies and for learning about what is considered best practices on topics varying from technology to school readiness and literacy. One issue that caught my attention was the position statement on “responding to linguistic and cultural diversity”  (NAEYC, 2009).  The statement reminds early childhood professionals of the importance of maintaining the child’s home language and the value of involving parents in the program. It is a teacher’s responsibility to make sure families feel respected and valued (NAEYC, 2009). Another position statement that caught my attention was on the topic of violence in the media. The statement explained that the research shows that exposure to violence in the media has three proven negative effects on children, “children become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others; they may become more fearful of the world around them; and they may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others” (NAEYC, 1994 p. 1). Although this information is nothing new, it is still resonates with me because of how much television most young children watch. My family watches movies at home but we do not watch T.V. and it is always surprising to me when I do watch television somewhere away from home. Even the commercials are so violent sometimes. My daughter has not been exposed to much television and is very sensitive to action and drama in movies. Most Disney movies are even too scary for her to watch. I think it is sad what some children are exposed to by television.

Resources:

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1994). Media Violence in

 Children’s Lives: A Position Statement of the National Association for the

 Education of Young Children. Retrieved from

http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSMEVI98.PDF

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2009). NAEYC: Where We

 Stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved from

http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf