Final Blog Assignment

One consequence I learned about the international early childhood field regarding my professional development is the necessity to broaden my networking circle. My attempts to form relations with a professional that is outside of the United States have not been successful. I have made many connections within my community and surrounding neighborhoods but noticed the importance of forging collaborations with people in other countries. I will continue my quest to make friends with someone from the Netherlands as I have now knowledge of their educational system. A second consequence within my professional development is the need to communicate to others in the field the importance of open communication, if not with individuals, with international organizations. Within this course, I was presented with many organizations. A third consequence is that with the blog assignments for this class, I was able to expand my parent and teacher resource binder to include a section dedicated to international issues and trends.

One goal I found for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations is the need for a broader base of support amongst professionals. I read from my online colleagues that the same main issues related to inequity and accessibility are the same throughout the nation. Some professionals (including me) in the field do not seek support from the larger community. I was at fault to view this outside help as a sign of weakness and wanted to feel self sufficient. Thanks to Walden , I already see myself as a part of this larger social networking community. I have broadened my perspective that includes the ECE field beyond my community and have started to use the feedback from those areas.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

After exploring the website by UNESCO (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/), I have come across three insights pertaining to issues related to international early childhood education that are related to my professional goal.

1. I live in California and my professional goal is to work for the Los Angeles County of Education (LACOE). The organization UNESCO has a similar agency but this one does not only cover a single county but many parts of the world. It is called the International Bureau of Education (IBE). A few of their jobs are to track the starting age of compulsory education in many areas and legislation concerning early childhood education. This is a great source to have to be able to find out about ECE issues in many parts of the world.

2. Another insight is the websites photo gallery. As I read many research articles on poor countries which families are not able to afford an education for their children, it is nothing compared to imagers reelecting it. One picture is worth one thousand words. For example, in the Congo of Africa, a town called Kitschoro has an issue where very few families are able to send their children to school due to economical and security issues. I currently work with families that are struggling to pay for preschool because their income is not enough. They, for the most part, just have relatives babysit them. Sadly, most of these children's minds do not get stimulated might live an educational gap early on in life.

http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/509/B626EazO5ll4gq42uY88yvr0.jpg

3. My last insight from this website is the information I gathered from the collaboration this organization pulled off. One of the issues related to inequity and accessibility is the type of early child care programs that are offered to families . Their conference on Early Childhood Education was composed of many  different types of organizations. It had legislators, government representatives, UN agencies, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental agencies, private foundations and civil society institutions. I have been to several conferences that discuss the issues within ECE but I find it sad that I do not see many diverse agencies present. This organization is a great example of unity and the power of change it can bring.   

Sharing Web Resources

This week I continue to navigate through the National Association for the Education of Young Children website(NAEYC) located at www.naeyc.org.I visit many links that lead me to the organizations affiliates and sponsors. These organizations are supporters of the ideas being offered by NAEYC. I ventured out to a link that allows people to download informative handouts from presenters of conferences and workshops at http://www.naeyc.org/conference/presenters. I think this is a great reference as I cannot afford to travel to the national conferences that this organization holds. This helps to address the issues of responsiveness as I can bring the handouts to my fellow staff and present new ideas to families. The information is attainable to a wider audience and diverse groups. A new insight about issues and trends in the early childhood field I gained this week from exploring the website is that the organization offers position statements that address the inequities of early child education but I could not find and offered solutions to them. I feel these issues of inequalities must be addressed in forums where the general public are and not in a website where mostly people in the field reside. We can all agree but it would not do much good if other people know what we are agreeing one. Child advocacy is very important for our ideas to be put into actions with more ease.