When I Think of Research....

When I first began this course the thought of research terrified me and having 3 different professors really worried me. After it is all over I realize how important research is in working with young children and their families. I want to be able to provide them with the correct information and make them comfortable in every way possible.

This year in my classroom I have a child from India, this being rare in our area. This child and his family are also vegetarians, which put a bind on our cook, who has never dealt with this in her years of head start. It began as a challenge for our staff but through research and communication we have done our best to make this family as comfortable as anyone else in our classroom. Every time I speak with this family I hear from them, thank you and you are so kind. If it wasn't for research on his culture and beliefs I would not have known how to accommodation them and for this I am thankful.

I want to say thank you to all of my colleagues for all your support, ideas and sharing of your knowledge that helped me though this course.

I especially want to thank you Dr. Walker for taking over our class and being so kind to us and not making and major changes to the course. Again, Thank You!!!

Best wishes to you all and I hope to continue this journey with you.

Research Around the World

I decided to explore Early Childhood Australia, A Voice for Young Children,   http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/. Their mission statement: Early Childhood Australia will advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years. This says to me that we are all striving for the good of the children.

The resource themes explored on this site are Being Belonging and Becoming, School Readiness, Baby and Toddler Sleeping and Childhood Obesity. These are all issues that we have explored and experienced and should have further research.

I found the Research and Practice Series very informative, the discussion of topics such as Partnerships, Respecting diversity and The Code of Ethics are just a few of important issues deserving further research.

This is a website that I will go back to for more research to gain new ideas for everyday classroom issues. This site contains an abundance of information for educators.

Research that Benefits Children and Families

If I possessed the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field, it would be autism and special needs children. I have worked in the special education field and have worked with children with very different autism spectrums. I grew to love these children and want to learn more about their condition, so that someday I may go back into the special needs field and be able to understand how they learn.

One of the teachers I worked with at this time had a little girl and she was about 15 months old and she noticed that she wasn’t talking, was showing signs of being sensitive to sound and touch, she didn’t like mom to hug or kiss her and she was would get very upset when their routine was interrupted. This mom had her daughter put through a series of tests and the doctors diagnosed her with autism, after this mom blamed herself for things she ate, working in a school with asbestos and having her child vaccinated. 

We have all heard these stories and we know that none of these can be determined to cause autism, nor can they be ruled out as the cause. I would like to do extensive research and be able to figure out the cause and be able to help these families. If we can’t find the cause then I want to be able to help families deal with what life has given them and be able to reach out to the children.

My Personal Research Journey

For my research simulation I have chosen, how to get parents involved in their child's learning environment. I work in Head Start and a big part of my job is to get parents involved, so naturally I want to learn more. I am currently a teacher and have recently applied for the position of Disabilities/Mental Health Specialist. In previous courses and in my position I have learned how important parent involvement is so now I want to now how to effectively communicate with parents/grandparents/guardians. I know that sometimes it is hard to reach parents and not offend them.

I have found article on the subject but would love to have some input from my colleagues/friends. I would like to hear from some of you about personal experiences and if anyone would like to share any literature with me that would be just grand. 

Resources that I have discovered so far in my quest:

Tyler, V. H. (1993). Teacher attributes and school support structures that promote parent involvement in early childhood education programs. University of South Carolina). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 151 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqcentral/docview/304069694/fulltextPDF/1393118F6914FB42E32/3?accountid=14872. (304069694).

Hilado, A. V. (2010). Understanding the relationship between social resources and levels of parent involvement in illinois early childhood programs: A program-level perspective. Loyola University Chicago). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/pqcentral/docview/763008450/abstract/1393118F6914FB42E32/8?accountid=14872 . (763008450).

Final Blog: Issues and Trends

I want to start off by saying thank you to my international contacts for being so understanding and taking time out of their busy schedules to correspond with me. I would also like to thank each one of my course mates for all their posts and feedback on my posts. I have learned so much from each and every one of you.

The three consequences I discovered as as follows:

1. There are the same issues being discussed around the world. Examples: quality care, poverty, issues with standards, etc.
2. Quality care is the number one issue discussed among all that I have been in contact with.
3. There is a need for a better compensation for educators and to provide better opportunities
   
   
   The goal that I would like to see implemented in the early childhood field is to create a universal set of standards.
   
   Again, thank you all for your support and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Catherine

Getting To Know Your International Contacts Part 3

My Australian contact lost her father this week so she was unable to correspond; thoughts and prayers are with her. I did reach Dr. Sahin and posed the following questions to him with his responses below.

What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

We believe in improving quality through family and community interactions. Children learn at home and at school, or should I say all the time. Keeping families and communities involved helps carry over what they are learning.

What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

There are many opportunities such as workshops, observations of other classrooms in other schools, mentoring, etc.

What are some of your professional goals?

To improve the quality of early childhood education, to raise awareness about early childhood education in the society, and to conduct national and international level studies to support family programs.

What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

I hope to be able to create awareness about the importance of preschool education nationwide, there are always going to be challenges in anything we do, we just have to keep pushing to make things happen.

I have enjoyed getting answers from my correspondents. It just shows how we can be worlds apart and still have the same goals and the same issues. It was nice to discuss things and see how we handled them either the same or different.

Week 6 Sharing Web Resources

The early childhood organization that I have followed along with this course is the “Children’s Defense Fund”. The outside link that I decided to follow and research is that of NPR News http://www.npr.org/2012/06/11/154761297/why-is-poverty-inequality-growing. Within this link was a transcript entitled “Why Is Poverty, Inequity Growing?” This is a conversation between the host and Peter Edelman, Professor of Law and faculty director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Professor Edelman speaks of the economy and low wage jobs playing a majority part in poverty. I learned that in the United States there are 103 million people that have incomes below twice the poverty line. I was shocked to learn that this line is $44,000 for a family of four. This puts myself and my family in this category, and that scares me.

When researching the organization “Children’s Defense Fund”, I found what is called “What this State of America’s Children Handbook.” This provides key national information in different areas to better inform and enable people to stand up for the children in their communities. There are charts showing how the children in each state are faring in protecting children. Here is the link for anyone who wishes to research http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/soac-2012-handbook.pdf.

I have learned that we need to educate ourselves as well as the families we work with and ones in our own communities about the challenges that face our children and insist that our nation make better investment choices for their futures. We need to work on making sure that we ensure every child’s chance at thriving and surviving.