International Early Childhood Field: Week 8

Consequences for learning about the international early childhood field:

          

           Learned that poverty exist in other countries and greatly effects the education of children. 

      Learned that other countries have their own initiatives for providing quality early childhood programs

      Learned that poor health conditions in other countries also effects their education and development.

My goal is to continue to research and connect with international professionals to provide quality childcare for all children.  

UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education"

I chose to review the UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage.  While reviewing the webpage I came across information related to accessibility, equity, and quality.  The organization states that there are countries that promote services for low-income families that have limited or no access to mainstream early childhood services.  Although those services are available to them, that doesn’t necessarily mean those services are considered “quality”.  The government has limited resources to put into services for low income families, therefore high quality services are going to those who can afford it. 

The website also focuses on the benefits and factors of high quality childcare programs.  The benefits are that children are more motivated to learn, confident, and ready for school.  Factors that play into high quality programs include, culturally and adequate learning materials, teacher training, and parental education and involvement.

Lastly the organization focuses on investment and financing.   It states that developing countries, in particular, have to put early childhood programs on the back burner to focus on more pressing issues such as healthcare and universal primary education.  There’s just not enough money available to put into investing in high quality childcare services.  

Sharing Web Resources

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has a link called "topics" that I chose to explore further.  Under the link was the topic of family engagement. The website offers ways on how to better communicate with families and get them actively involved in their child’s development and education.  When families are involved children become more motivated to learn when they have a strong support system.   This specific topic addresses the issue of responsiveness and how early childhood professionals can address the needs of all families.  NAEYC’s has a project called Engaging Diverse Families and has six principles of family engagement. 

Principle 1: Invite families to participate in decision making and goal setting.

Principle 2: Engage families in two-way communication.

Principle 3: Engage families in ways that are truly reciprocal.

Principle 4: Provide learning activities for the home and the community.

Principle 5: Invite families to participate in program-level decisions.

Principle 6: Have programs that implement a comprehensive program level system of family engagement.