I have to admit that coming into this class I was very nervous about the topic and the types of assignments it would bring. I was very unfamiliar with researching, and had never formally done any type of big research project. Yes, I had done small amounts of research in undergrad, but nothing earth shattering. At the end of this eight weeks I can say that I am still wary, but feel much more confident in my abilities now.

            One thing I have learned is that I am technically a researcher in my every day job as a kindergarten teacher. I say this because I am continually collecting data on my students and analyzing it in a way to better my teaching, and better their education. I had never thought of myself as a researcher before, but now I know that I am walking the teacher-researcher line.

            I have definitely met some challenges throughout this course. One is the lack of confidence in myself. Because of the nervous feeling I had coming into the course, I found myself doubting my answers or my abilities at some points. I have learned to trust myself and just go with it. This has definitely been a learning process for most of us I believe, and I am glad to have gone through it with my colleagues there to support me.

This week I chose to look at the Early Childhood Australia website that can be found at http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/. I chose this website because Australia is a place I would like to someday visit, but is also a place that I do not know much about as far as their education system goes.

In looking through the website, some of the current research topics I saw were:

-         Learning and teaching through play

-     Use and cost of family daycare

-     Misconceptions about mathematics

-     Teachers support of Children's scientific learning

-     Parent and staff expectations of continuity of home practices

Surprising facts/insight I found:

-         Not only does Early Childhood Australia work with government, professionals, and caregivers, but it is important for them to include and work with parents and grandparents. I find this to be amazing! Parents and other family members should be included in the care and education of their children, and I think this is something that the United States could use more work in.

Other information:

-         Early Childhood Australia is affiliated with NAEYC

-         They believe in fully including children with disabilities into classrooms

-     There is an ECA branch in every state/territory of Australia

Option 2- Research Studies

If I had the means to research any topic related to education, I would like to look at assessment in the elementary grades. These days, too much emphasis is placed on standardized testing, and I feel that our kids are over-tested. Teachers are "teaching to the test" and no one takes into consideration what our children may have faced that morning. We look at unsatisfactory test scores and automatically blame the teachers and the children. Could it have been that the child didn't get enough sleep the night before, missed breakfast, isn't feeling well, or is going through family troubles? I would like to look at other countries and how they view or carry out testing, and their findings.

Teaching Diversity in Education

"Building positive identities and a respect for differences means weaving diversity into the fabric of children's everyday lives. Working with families is an important first step in helping children accept, understand, and value their rich and varied world" (Gonzalez-Mena, J & Pulido-Tobiassen, D, 1999).

I was given the amazing opportunity to live and teach in Ghana, Africa and ever since it has been important to me to share my story, and the story of my students, with my current class. I teach in a small rural, predominately caucasian-catholic town. There is little to no diversity. The majority of my students have not been exposed to others who differ from themselves in terms of race, religion, learning abilities, class status, etc. They amaze me every year with their excitement and curiosity in learning about my friends from Africa. Because of this, I chose to make teaching diversity in the classroom my personal research journey.

In researching this topic, I have found a lot of suggestions and ideas in how to bring diversity education into your classroom. This is all well and good, but I would like to narrow my research to things like how many schools teach diversity education, where are they located, is it mostly urban schools that teach this topic, etc.

The United States continues to grow and change, and it is a place of freedom. Our differences need to be celebrated and talked about. Diversity is not something that should only be taught in places where it is predominate, but everywhere, even in the small towns like the one I teach. It is important that our youngest learners know that everyone is different, and that's okay!



Final Blog for EDUC 6162

Throughout this course, I listened to many different pod casts from educators around the world. While I would have enjoyed exchanging e-mails with educators in different countries, I know firsthand how difficult it is. My experience in Ghana taught me that the Internet isn’t always as readily available, or a top priority, like it is here in the United States.

Three consequences about the international early childhood field are; funding is not always high in some areas of the world, there is a lack of necessary tools in some areas, and acceptance of differences and disabilities is not always high in all parts of the world.

My wish for the field of education is to bring international awareness into teacher preparation courses. As an undergrad, it was not until I was immersed in a global setting that I had heard anything about education in areas other than the United States. This experience ultimately made me a better, more aware, educator. I think it would be very beneficial for our future educators to learn about how things are done in other parts of the world.

UNESCO- Early Childhood Care and Education

Since I chose to do the alternative assignment, this week I was able to visit the UNESCO website (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and explore the early childhood education section. Three new insights that I gained from this website were:

1) Important conditions are that learning environments should be well-resourced and that child-staff ratios should reasonable. The notion of a reasonable ratio differs across countries, but fewer numbers help children to generate peer communication and engage together in project and group work according to their affinities and interests. The presence of sufficient numbers of staff also ensures that each group can enjoy the support of a trained professional who will lead children toward the attitudes, skills and knowledge valued in a particular society. In Sweden, for example, national statutory requirements for child-staff ratios do not exist, but the average across the age group 1-6 years is 5.6 children per trained staff member. In the pre-school class for 6-7 year olds, the national average is one teacher + assistant for 13 children (UNESCO, 2004, September).

This is something I believe should be put in place in the United States. We have classes with upwards of 30 students with only one teacher. We cannot possibly reach every student, and attain to their specific needs, without extra support and help.

2) Even with higher levels of education, work in early childhood services may still be less socially valued than, for example, teaching older children in school. A high proportion of students taking the new integrated Swedish teacher education, in which they need only choose their area of specialization after starting their course, are choosing to specialize in teaching school-age children. Preferring to work with older children may reflect the continuing lower status of early childhood work, and the inferior employment conditions that still apply to teachers in Swedish early childhood centers compared to schools (UNESCO, 2004, October).

This boggles my mind that Early Childhood teachers are valued less. In my opinion we should be valued more because this is such an important age where the children’s minds are like sponges and they learn the basics that will carry them through their educational journey.

3) Brazil has a mandatory education fund for primary education called FUNDEF (Fund for the Development of Primary Education and Teacher Development). The scheme, which requires 60% of the local governments’ – the states and municipalities – education budgets to be spent on primary education, helped increase net enrolment in primary education from 92.7% in 1994 to 96.4% in 2000. This increment of net enrolment, which brought the country closer to the ideal of universal primary education, is significant, given that the growth rate of enrolment normally slows down at the higher level. More importantly, the fact that it is mostly the children from marginalized populations who benefited from the initiative makes FUNDEF a politically important achievement (UNSECO, 2003, October).

References

UNESCO. (2003, October). Mandatory Funding for Early Childhood Education: A Proposal in Brazil. Retrieved April 21, 2013, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137406e.pdf

UNESCO. (2004, October). The Early Childhood Workforce in ‘Developed’ Countries: Basic Structures and Education. Retrieved April 21, 2013, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137402e.pdf

UNESCO. (2004, September). Curriculum in Early Childhood Education and Care. Retrieved April 21, 2013, from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137401e.pdf

Sharing Web Resources

The website I have been looking at these past weeks is the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators.

1) Outside links: The NAECTE website has multiple links to related organizations such as; the Association for Childhood Education International, Council of Exceptional Children, Education Commission of the States, National Association for the Education of Young Children, etc.

2) When I looked at the annual conference section of the website, I found out that the NAECTE meets twice a year. They have a fall conference and June conference, with their fall conference being the main one. They have information on the upcoming conference, as well as overviews of previous years conferences.

3) The NAECTE e-letters are sent every season (fall, winter, spring, and summer). They contain information about the association, but do not contain outside links.

4) The Association has its own by-laws, policies, and position statements on education. These statements and positions talk about teacher preparation and providing children with a quality education.

5) While I enjoy looking at this website, I wish that it contained more information, issues, trends, and research on current early childhood education topics. If you are a paid member, you can access the members’ only section and view different manuscripts. I wish that this was available to anyone.