EDUC 6163: Research Around the World

Early Childhood Australia: This is the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC. 

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

What are some of the current international research topics?

Baby and toddler Sleeping

Child health and childhood obesity

School readiness and children's transitions

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

I found the section on Baby and toddler sleeping to be very interesting. One of the topics was about babies and their crying patterns. Babies often cry a lot in the early weeks. Some babies cry for 2 hours or more each day. For many babies the time that they cry often gets longer until they are around 6 – 8 weeks old, then gets less by the time they are around 3 months old. i found this interesting because I am not yet a parent myself and have no had any one on one interaction with young babies

What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

The Oslo Challenge was something I found which was also interesting to me. This is a call to action. It pertains to everyone engaged in exploring, developing, monitoring and participating in the relationship between children and the media. This includes governments, organizations and individuals working for children, media professionals at all levels and in all media, the private sector including media owners, children and young people, parents, teachers and researchers.

EDUC 6162: Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

I visited Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/


Three new ideas or insights I gained about early childhood systems around the globe:


1.Emotional and social development are inextricably linked to cognitive development, and we can’t have one without the other. Emotional well-being is a critical part of the foundation of social and functional competence that is developed in the first years of life and affects a child’s later ability to achieve in school and form successful relationships throughout life. 


2. Neuroscience, molecular biology, and genomics tell us that early life experiences are built into our bodies. They get under our skin and into the brain and other organ systems, with lasting effects on individuals, communities, society, and the economy. 


3. Many of our nation's policies, such as those that regulate child care provider training, availability of early childhood mental health services, and early identification and treatment of behavioral disorders, overlook emotional development as a focus of evaluation and intervention.

EDUC 6162:Sharing Web Resources

• What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development?

I took special notice to the information about 2011 International Mud day. The very first 'Mud Day' was started in Nepal and Australia.  Two doctors who are a part of the Nature Action Collaborative for Children, a committee in the World Forum Foundation, planned with two groups of children a day to "take a step closer to Mother Nature (Bhatta)."

• Which ideas/statements/resources, either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you find controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?

I didn't find anything really controversial on this topic. However, as I was reading the "stories" section where people around the world could discuss their experience with Mud Day which was really interesting. One woman who works in the city discussed how her  center took the children to a local woodsy park where they were actually able to find  a mud puddle. I really liked how they prepared for the celebration by  announcing the day to parents and giving them the articles from the web site as handouts.I have never heard about Mud Day before reading this article but I think it's a great way to bring children of the world together on the same day and have them participate in the same activity. Even though they are not "together" it promotes a sense of commonality amongst people who are so different from one another. 

• What information does the website or the e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field?

I believe that the 2 doctors who began this tradition really had a unique and wonderful idea of not only how to support the field of early childhood education, but also to bring the children of the world together.

• What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?

I can honestly say this is the first time I have thought about early childhood education "togetherness" on an international level. I wish this was something I had known about when I was working in the classroom. I also think it's a wonderful way for children to express themselves.

EDUC 6162: Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

I unfortunately do not have any international contacts. I went to the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/), and read about childhood poverty in one country instead.


The country i chose to read about was Mongolia


1. In 1998 a major survey indicated that 36% of the population were living below the income poverty line and that poverty in Mongolia tends to be higher in many urban areas than in rural.


I am very interested to see a more updated survey to see the difference in the percentage of the population living below the income poverty line today.


2. It is difficult to assess the numbers of children living in poverty in Mongolia, but many of the poor live in female headed households or are children aged 0-16 years.


This fact makes me wonder at what age are women having children in Mongolia and what the ratio of children to mother is


3. increasing numbers have been forced by circumstances to work for money outside the home, for example fetching and cutting wood for others and working in factories and markets. As a result, some children never enter school, others drop out of classes. The numbers of street children and families in urban areas increased during the 1990s - in a country where harsh temperatures reach as low as minus 30-40 degrees in winter.


This is a disturbing fact to me. Children don't really seem have a childhood at all and are being denied to right to education for a chance to chance these devastating percentages. 

EDUC 6163

Option 2:Imagine that you possess the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field. Imagine further that you are not restricted by the reality of the present. Imagine that your study will make a major positive contribution to the well-being of children and/or their families. What topic would you choose? What can you imagine the positive contribution(s) would be?

I would choose the topic of childhood cancer. Unfortunately, for some children the battle with cancer doesn't end in the word "remission" or "cure", but in death.For a parent, watching their child grow and move forward through developmental milestones such as learning to sit, to crawl, to take the first tottering step are all joyful events! Imagine how frightening it would be to watch your child suddenly seem to grow backwards.If I could cure childhood cancer it would give so many children the opportunities to live their lives to fullest potential that this crippling disease otherwise prevents.

World Forum Foundation

World Forum Foundation. “A foundation whose mission is to promote an on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings.”


 http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/about.php 

My Personal Research Journey

This week I read three different articles relating to gender diversity within the early childhood classroom. I choose to focus on the gender diversity of the staff in early childhood facilities opposed to gender differences among young children. I am hoping that by digging deeper into gender diversity it will present some insight on not just parent involvement but male parent involvement as well. I found that when I was working in the early childhood field all of my volunteers were female.

I found this to be a very interesting topic to study. I personally have struggles with the idea of men in a early childhood class for many years myself. While I understand the importance of having dual role models within the classroom the idea of a male working with children before the age of kindergarten makes me a little uncomfortable. I believe that children will have plenty of time throughout their grade school years for dual interaction with both genders and it is not a necessity to have men in the classroom while children are still in diapers and pre-toileting phases of their life. However, in cases such as head start where potty training and volunteering is mandatory it would be interesting to see the amount of male volunteers if there were more male teachers.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I thought this assignment would be easy for me to contact 2 professionals in other parts of the world since my family is from Trinidad and Tobago and we have many teachers in the family. However, after almost two weeks of trying I have no successfully been able to reach out to anyone. Thus I have decided to do the alternative assignment where I will be working with the website, "  World Forum Foundation. “A foundation whose mission is to promote an on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings.” The reason I choose this website was because they take a look at a topic that I am very interested in, men in ECE. In my past experiences I have only encountered one male teacher in a Pre-K setting. I find they are more common in Kindergarten-Third grade but less prominent before that. I personally struggle with my thoughts on males Pre-K teacher's so I think it will be very interesting to learn more about this topic.