I would first like to bring up the words Developmentally Appropriate Practices. This is something that means a lot more to me after talking to my international professional. The United States as well as Capetown Africa need to work on policies and issues regarding the way that our children learn. We need to start including the physical, social and emotional as well as cognitive. This is something that will make a more well rounded child and community.

Another consequence of learning is economics. This is something that is an issue in Capetown as well as the United States. We need to provide more home visits in the United States and overseas we should be more concerned with the education of young women.

The last consequence I would like to bring up is looking at children as a commodity. When we do this whether it is in Capetown or the United States, children lose their childhood. We forget about play and focus on testing to try to “catch up” with everyone else

A goal for international issues is that I help with more of the poverty issues and the education of girls. I did donate to Pennies for Peace and used the lesson plan to help build schools for girls and would like to do more in the future. This is a cause that I do believe in.

I received a late response from my contact in Africa and I wanted to share this with you

Dear Jen,

Apologies for the late response but I was busy with the students last week and it became a very full week indeed!

There is currently a difficulty with career-pathing within the Early Childhood Development sector. We have Level-4 and 5 Certificate courses and then there is quite a big jump to the Early Childhood Diploma.

We also have a Foundation Phase degree for Gr. R – Gr. 3 (national curriculum), but this doesn’t fit with our way of working which does not separate the Gr. R (6 yr old child) from the 4 and 5 yr. olds.

Our Diploma is a very rich and in-depth course which covers the 4 -6 yr. old but this is usually very difficult for our second language speakers.

Our government is currently looking at a Level-6 Diploma which focuses ONLY on the Gr. R (6yr old) year. We do not agree with this at all, and many other ECD organisations and educators are against this as well.

Personally I would like to be able to do an Early Childhood Waldorf degree training, and we are looking at this but it seems a long way off at this point.

In the meantime I attend workshops, courses and conferences whenever possible, to further my professional development.

Our government has also stipulated that further professional enrichment for teachers every year, is a mandatory requirement for further development (teachers get credits for these ongoing courses).

I hope this has been useful information for you, and I wish you well on your journey ahead.

Warm regards,

Robyn

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Six Educational Goals

I found this on the site and I thought these were amazing goals for anyone in the early childhood field but especially amazing if it was accomplished by 2015

The first would be improving education for all children but especially those with special needs. My nephew is seven and was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. He was told by after care programs that they did not accept his kind. We need to educate teachers who work with young children on what it takes to care for those who are different.

The second would be by 2015 that all children have access to free primary education. Especially girls. This is very important because without a stable education these young woman grow into mothers who raise children themselves.

The third is that childrens needs are met through programs where they are taught skills that are not only academic but will help with growth

The fourth is that we have especially women literate. At least 50 percent

The fifth is that there is gender equality.

and the last is we need to make sure that there is some sort of measurement in place so we know where we stand in early childhood education

retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/efa-goals/

What it is to be a professional

Brunei Darussalam is where five year old Irfran Bin Md Zulkili lived when he was asked the question what is a really good childhood. This contest was for people living in the Asia-Pacific region. There were 900 entries from 23 countries. I would like to express three things that I learned from this site through this child. I will also include my professional goals.

1. The child's world is full of color and love. As a professional I would like not only children to participate but have a smile on their face as they do so. If you look closely at the picture the young girl has her hand on the teachers arm. This woman is loved.
2. The woman is showing the pictures. As an educator this teacher is in tune with the children and teaching them with information that relates to their world. In the picture it seems to me the birds are not even caged, they are there because they want to be.
3. The third would be as a professional the children are reflecting the demeanor of the woman. This is something that I strive for. To be an example. 
   
   I also wanted to share this picture. If you look at the picture below even though it is a family and the one above. There is unity. I believe as a professional this is what we need to strive for. To fill a child's world with color and love                                                                                    resource                       "Five year-old boy won the regional Photo and Drawing Contest  What is a good early childhood?” (2012) retrieved from “http://www.unescobkk.org  

The site that I decided to visit was the Urban Institute. I went to the children and youth section and came across some really interesting links. I went to the Education Policy and then to Education Reform. Young Children of Immigrants and the Path to Educational Success Key Thems from an Urban Roundtable was really interesting to read. It talked about children of immigrants changing the demographic of the school system but yet no one seems to mention this when talking about early childhood education. I did not realize either that 63 percent of immigrant children lived in Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Another thing that I thought was interesting, Arizona pulled children out of the classroom to work on their English skills. I initially thought this was a great idea until I read that this just put them back academically.

I also read NAEYC State and Local Quality Improvement Support Efforts. On this site I found the NAEYC Accreditation and quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) to be interesting. They said that this can be linked to be accredited by and NAEYC and ensures that the child is going to have a well rounded experience when in care. I thought it was nice that in Arkansas and Maine the parents received a tax credit of their child was going to a NAEYC accredited center. I do work in a NAEYC accredited center so I do understand how tough it is to become accredited and the pride you feel once you are.

Resources

Golden O Fortuny K (2010) Young Children of Immigrants and the Path to Educational Success:

Key Themes from an Urban Institute Roundtable

NAEYC (2010) State and Local Quality Improvement Support Efforts

I wanted to share my email that I received from Robin in South Africa. This class has been an amazing journey for me. This is what she wrote.

This seems to be a world-wide problem in early childhood education. I’ve been to a number of international conferences where the same questions and concerns are being raised.

In South Africa we have a history of inequality in education which has caused great inadequacy in levels of education. Our National curriculum is trying to address this imbalance by

Creating more ‘formal’ and academic learning in early childhood. This is known as Grade R (reception year), for the 5-6 year old child, preparing them for school.

This academic approach is putting both children and teachers under a great deal of pressure and forcing the child into early learning.

Our pedagogy does not support early learning as we firmly believe that this does not truly meet the child at their developmental stage. We base our work on very valuable (international) research that supports the fact that formal learning is detrimental to the child’s development as it forces them into an unnatural intellectual situation before they are ready. We work in a way that supports the child’s ‘emergent’ (or unconscious) knowledge, so that by the time they are ready this will become conscious knowledge (rather than forcing them into conscious knowledge when they are still in a largely unconscious phase of life).

As you so rightly point out, there are many aspects of child Development, with each area integrating into the other and we have huge concerns about the focus on academic learning. We have a very  ‘common-sense’ wholistic approach to early childhood development which we bring into our training of teachers. We do also make sure that they understand what the National curriculum expects from them so they are well informed , and by comparing these methods, have a better understanding of how to truly support the development of the child.

In our poorer communities we have huge problems with the lack of qualified teachers and there are a number of ways in which our government is trying to address this. All Early Childhood Centres/schools have to be registered, and one of the main criteria for this is that the teachers have to be qualified. There are many training programmes running to support this need but often the education (schooling) of the teachers themselves has been so poor that they struggle with the training and need much support and mentoring to be qualified. Many children in these communities are not being properly prepared for school – an ongoing challenge for us all.

As far as funding goes our teachers, especially in Early Childhood, are very poorly paid. At present there are moves in government to address the lack of ‘career -pathing ‘in ECD and the professionalism in ECD where these teachers are often considered ‘less than’ the Primary and High school teachers. There is also a lack of sufficient funding for the research that is hugely necessary for early childhood.

Robyn Davis

   
I wanted to add some additional information that I found on this subject according to saep.org. According to this site many of the schools are overcrowded, lack education and the ratio is 60 children to 2 adults. According to the site there are not a lot of resources for the children, not many children make it to higher education and many children live without electricity. It was really interesting to read that there is intensive training in HIV and also classes in hygiene.

resource http://www.saep.org/media/docs/134053962824.pdf