Final Blog Assignment

Unfortunately I was not ever able to hear a response back from the international contacts that I had reached out to, but I did explore several websites that were very informative and have deepened my professional development. 

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field for my professional and personal development are:

v  Whether you live in the United States, Italy, or China, the focus on providing high quality early childhood education for all children is worldwide.  Issues such as poverty, language barriers, access and availability stretch across the world.  With the knowledge of these similarities it would be my hopes that we could pull together and share resources to make the goal of providing early childhood care and education to all.

v  I continued to build a list of resources that provides me information that is useful both personally and professionally.

v  I was introduced to several new ways in which I can involve myself as an advocate for the ECF.

A goal that I would like to make would be to continue to reach out and try contact international professionals. I feel that as professionals in the field we have so much to offer each other and can learn so much from our similarities and differences.  I would also like to share my international findings with my teaching staff and allow them to incorporate ideas into their daily teachings to the children.

“UNESCO, a worldwide network (headquartered in Paris), advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children's holistic development.” (UNESCO, 2011)  UNESCO looks to achieve the ultimate goal of inclusive quality education by ending all forms of discrimination and foster social cohesion.

Improving the quality of education is a global issue. UNESCO supports the idea that education is a universal human right for both boys and girls.  It is a key for empowerment.  Gender discrimination still persists across all educational levels worldwide.  In 2000, governments pledged to addressing this gap and achieving gender equality in education by 2015.  The 2011 Global Action Week will take place from 2 to 8 May. This year, the campaign will focus on the theme of "Girls' and Women's Education", a UNESCO priority.  Unfortunately challenges still remain getting all girls into school. These challenges include advocacy, legal necessities, programs and trainings for teachers, literacy and lifelong learning.  The benefits to advocating equality for females and female education have very high returns on human development.  Educated women are more likely to:

·         Resist violence

·         Delay marriage

·         Have access to prenatal care and better medical care

·         Improve their children’s health

·         Be Advocates for Early Childhood Education – send their children to school

UNESCO is committed to STRENGTHENING EDUCATION SYSTEMS

·         ACCESS – Benefits to all children especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds

·         QUALITY – A holistic approach which promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness.

·         INVESTMENT – Greatest challenge of their movement is funding and resources.

Resource

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/. Retrieved on April 15, 2011.

This week I have decided to explore the website http://preknow.org/

The website allows supporters and policymakers to lead the cause for high-quality pre-k for three and four year olds, with the mission that all children enter Kindergarten prepared to succeed.

Links provided

v  Resource Center

v  Pre-K Advocates

v  Policymakers

v  Media

v  Business and Community Leaders

v  Educators

v  Families

There are numerous resources available on this website that is related to this week’s topic such as:

v  Quality and what defines a quality prek program

v  Resources for parents to help find a quality prek

v  Promoting Head Start and Prek – making quality accessible

There is a monthly e-newsletter that will mail out PreK news and alerts     

This week I was able to add another resource to my growing list.  I like that I will be able to find information that I will be able to pass on to my teaching staff and will also be provided with opportunities to advocate for quality within the ECE field.

Week 5

GLOBAL CHILDREN’S INITIATIVE

Promoting child survival, health, and development in the earliest of years on an International level

Three areas of focus and current projects:

Ø  Early Childhood Development

o   Evaluating quality globally

o   Conducting test that measure links to child development outcomes to malaria control strategies in Zambia

o   Improving quality preschool programs in Chile

Ø  Mental Health

o   Evaluate mental health services in China

o   Developing strategies to prevent mental health issues for children effected by HIV/AIDS in Rwanda

o   Addressing child abuse and mental health effects in three Caribbean nations:

Barbados, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,

and Suriname

Ø  Children in Crisis and Conflict Situations

o   Exploring child status after earthquakes in Haiti and Chile

o   Addressing malnutrition

Global children’s initiative. (2010).  Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/