Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field Final Blog

I have enjoyed learning about the international early childhood field and about the issues, trends, and challenges early childhood professionals in other countries are facing. With these resources in mind gave me new insights on three main consequences into the early childhood field:

First consequence, in order to be effective in the early childhood field is to have new resources to draw upon. We have to learn how to get along with others in order to promote healthy development for our young children. By me learning about the international childhood field has helped my knowledge on different global issues around the world.

Second consequence, with me studying different website opened my eyes to issues and challenges that others are facing and also how they are overcoming them. As I sit back and complain about the recession and how the budget has been cut gave me an eye opening on how thankful I am to live in a country with all the resources we have here, compared to how other countries are lacking resources.

Last consequence is awareness.  I have gained new resources, and I also have awareness for the international early childhood community and organizations that promote the well-being of children and families worldwide. Being able to read or communicate with someone from another country is a good thing because you can learn so much from other by sharing resources and collaborating on ways to promote healthy development of children worldwide and provide high quality services for all.

I would like to thank all my classmates for your wonderful thoughts and comments throughout this course. I really enjoyed reading all the blogs as well as the discussion boards. I look forward to working with some of you as we continue our journey.

Best of luck to all!

Tracey

Week 7 Blog Assignment

Insights that I gained from this website:

What is UNESCO? UNESCO is a great program that advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning which provide for children’s holistic development. This program is part of a range that promotes inclusive education. UNESCO leads the international policy drive for an integrated early childhood care and education system that encompasses both the well-being and holistic development of the child.

Early childhood care and education is often the concern of several government sectors and usually these are education, social affairs and health. The multi-faceted nature of early childhood care and education gives rise to the challenge of effectively coordinating provision of policy development and implementation across the different sectors. According to EPA, too many children are receiving an education of such poor quality that they leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills.  Deep and persistent disparities based on wealth, gender, location, ethnicity and other markers for disadvantage are acting as a major barrier to progress in education. Cross-sectoral coordination is difficult, especially at the national level. It is one of the main challenges facing governments of both developed and developing countries trying to promote a holistic approach to early childhood. Responses vary and some countries have sought to remove the problem by integrating cross-sectoral responsibilities into a single ministry.

In my opinion, if our world's governments are serious about education for all, they need to get serious about tackling inequality. 

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

Sharing Web Resources

The web-site I chose was the National Association Early Childhood Teachers Educators (NAECTE).  According to the e-letter, the NAECTE will be holding a Fall Conference November 2, 2011 in Orlando, Florida.  The theme of the conference is The Future of Early Childhood Teacher Education. One of the keynote speakers will be Kathryn Castle and she will be speaking on New Teacher Research Text. How do teachers apply research results to effect change? She talks about how Early Childhood Teacher Research is an exciting new resource that will address the sorts of questions and concerns that pre- and in-service teachers of young children frequently have when engaging in teacher research, how the book touches upon the important issues every early childhood teacher should know—the uniqueness of early childhood teacher research, reasons for doing it, and how to do it.

The other keynote speaker will be Doris Fromberg and she will be speaking on New Kindergarten and Pre-K Curriculum. The All‐Day Kindergarten and Pre‐K Curriculum provide an activity‐based and classroom‐proven curriculum for educators to consider as they plan and interact with pre‐k and kindergarten children. Allowing young children the opportunities to become independent, caring, critical thinkers who feel comfortable asking questions and exploring possible solutions, the Dynamic Themes Curriculum offers children the skills they need for responsible citizenship and academic progress. This book describes a culturally‐sensitive pre‐k and kindergarten curriculum in the context of literacy, technology, mathematics, social studies, science, the arts, and play, and also discusses:

learning to meet and exceed content learning standards

• How to organize for differentiated instruction and to

integrate multiple forms of assessment

• How to teach literacy tools and skills in fresh ways

• How to work with families, colleagues, and community

Building off of author Doris Fromberg’s groundbreaking earlier work, The All‐Day Kindergarten and Pre‐K Curriculum presents a practical curriculum centering on how young children develop meanings. This is a fantastic resource for pre‐and in‐service early childhood teachers, administrators, and scholars.

Although the newsletter mentioned anything about the issues and trends of equity and excellence in the early childhood field, I feel as though it will benefit new teachers who are going into the early childhood education field.  There has been nothing new since my previous post concerning the website.

Also, to learn what is happening in your region, you can see the Regional Reports on the NAECTE News page as listed below:

http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=co

m_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=29

:

http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=co

m_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=53