Perspectives on Diversity and Equity

If I had to quickly move to another country and could only take 3 small things, I would bring:

1. My mini laptop. It has my friends and family in it. Once there, I would search every bit of that country until I found internet. So much of my daily interaction is conducted online these days that I could be in Siberia and, as long as there was internet, still remain in contact with everyone I care about.

2. My engagement ring. It reminds me of the good times in life to look forward to.

3. My Ipod, so I could listen to familiar music no matter where I was.

I would be pretty sad if I had to give up two of the items. I would choose to keep the laptop because it would do the most to keep me in touch with my old life in this country.

In doing this exercise, I learned that interaction with the people I care about  is more important to me than possesions are. Also, that people who immigrate to a new country must feel much like their former lives and friends have been stripped away. That loss would be extremely difficult to overcome.

Building Research Competencies Week 8

I have to say that I just dreaded this class. I am not a ‘facts and figures’ kind of person, hate dry reading, not a fan of research...

In some ways, it was every bit as horrible challenging as I thought it might be. I hated the endless reading, forgot the meanings of terms, mixed up the answers on worksheets, panicked about the applications, and resigned myself to getting a lousy grade. In the end, though, it all came together and I did well. Yay!  I am very grateful to the awesome (and patient!) Dr. Ferrari. She really helped to guide me and relieved a lot of my anxiety with her explanations and good humor!  :  )

One of the big lessons I learned is how important it is to carefully follow all of the steps necessary to ensure equity and validity in your research. This includes recognizing and addressing our own personal biases. You can’t achieve accurate, unbiased results without a lot of effort and skill. Also, I learned that when conducting research on children, it is vitally important to make sure parents are in agreement with their child’s involvement – and that children are not coerced into doing anything that may be physically or emotionally harmful to them.

Before this class, I didn’t really give research much thought, and didn’t consider it to have much to do with my own job. However,

I have learned that research is extremely important in the early childhood field, partly because research results are the basis for most, if not all, policy-making and program funding.

I’m pretty sure the end of this class means we are halfway thru our MSECS degree. Hooray for that and thanks to all of you who are on this path with me. Your comments and advice, here and on the DB, have been great!

Research Around The World

The website that I visited was early Childhood Australia. There is an extensive research section (Research Practice Series) in the RIPS listing. There were over 25 resources listed, covering a wide variety of current international research topics, such as child development, literacy, and diversity. The information was easy to locate and read – a helpful resource for child care professionals.

I was surprised to find that many of the issues discussed on the website are also issues that we deal with here in the US. One of the more noteworthy topics was about early childhood reforms, and how different states rate in the implementation of them. Another focused on how teachers in the US teach math; it was very interesting to read some opinions about US teachers that were a little less than stellar!

 I was surprised to read an article about how to minimize stress in young schoolchildren. Once the novelty of being in ‘real school’ wears off, the first year of school can be exhausting and difficult for young children!

Overall, I found this website to be well-organized and full of useful information for early childhood professionals.
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

I’m not sure whether or not this fits into the category of ‘uplifting stories’.  Still, I am very glad to see that Dr. Andrew Wakefield has finally admitted that his study linking autism to childhood vaccines was a fraud.  The ‘results’ of that bogus British study have really done long-lasting damage to public health in the UK and the US.

     One of my duties as a preschool director is making sure all of the children in our care have the recommended (in many cases, required) vaccines. Ever since Dr. Wakefield’s ‘findings’ became well known, many of our parents have been hesitant to get their children vaccinated. The fear of possibly causing Autism has led some to leave their children unvaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. “Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years. In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (Retracted autism study, 2011). This is a dangerous situation - it wouldn’t take much for previously controlled, life-threatening diseases to begin spreading again- with devastating consequences.

I hope all of those parents who did not vaccinate their children because of Dr Wakefield’s claims will now rethink that decision. Here is the link to the CNN artcle:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' british journal finds. (2011). CNN Health, Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html

Building Research Competencies

The topic I decided to research is the value of play time as a scheduled component of the school day in public school systems.  My interest in this topic is both personal and professional. I live in Gloucester, Ma, the oldest fishing community in the United States. People here depend on making a sustainable living from the ocean. Due to serious government over-regulation and fishing quotas, my town is suffering financially. As more and more budget cuts become necessary, our city leaders begin looking at what can be eliminated from school programs. Sadly (but predictably), our local public school administrators seem to feel that play time takes up valuable teaching time.
I broke this general topic up into three subtopics:
I'd like to see if I can find studies that show the benefit of play in the school day.

·         What areas of development are enhanced by daily play?

·         Are children who experience daily play better students?

·         Does daily childhood play decrease the incidence of adult obesity?

I am a little bit confused about a final topic for research because I think all three sub-topics combined are relevant to the question re: benefit of playtime at school. However, at this time I believe I will concentrate on "children who experience daily play are better students" .Would love to get any advice/input from fellow students on this! Thanks!

Anyway, right off the bat I can see that I am going to have trouble sifting through the scads of stuff on the internet to find relevant information for my research. In chapter 2 of our textbook, the authors pointed out that this tends to be an area of difficulty for many beginning researchers. Whew!


                               

Last blog post of Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field (EDUC - 6162 - 1)

Some of the consequences of learning from my international contacts:

1. I am now aware that other countries share the same issues and trends that we do. For example, both of the countries that my contacts were from have poverty and equity issues that affect the education and care of young children.

2. It is extremely difficult to set national standards for early care and education, because special interest groups control politics. What should happen is not always what does happen.

 3. Lack of funds for quality programs is a constant problem. Early childhood professionals across the globe have to deal with budget cuts and reduction of services. Both of my international contacts were experts at 'making do' and providing the best possible programs with the totally inadequate funding they had to work with.

One of my professional goals is to remain as aware as I possibly can of what is happening globally in the early childhood field. I have a good start on this with some of the websites I have gotten from my classmates in this course. Thanks to you all!

Getting To Know Your International Contacts

I asked Jill, my contact in Ireland, to answer this week’s questions. Jill works at Saplings Westmeath. There are five Saplings schools, each located in a different area of the country. Saplings schools are for children who have been diagnosed with Autism. Jill has been employed with Saplings for 6 years.

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

Jill: When I first came to Ireland from the US, Ireland was in the midst of a national push to deal with an increasing incidence of Autism in Irish children. New schools were opening everywhere, and the Irish government was throwing tons of money into any programs that were geared towards Autism. I was living in Boston at the time and working with Autistic children at the New England Center for Autism (formerly the Efficacy Research Institute). I came to Ireland because I wanted to be on the cutting edge of this new mission to help Autistic kids. I wanted to help set up programs, and collaborate with other teachers. The first year was GREAT!! And then, suddenly, Ireland’s economy tanked. As the government scrabbled to right itself, they started making cuts. And the deepest (and fastest) cuts went to health workers and educators. We all took cuts in pay.....and any upcoming projects were all put on hold...indefinitely.

·         What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

Jill: Again, due to the economy, any and all professional development opportunities have been shelved for the time being. We do try to conduct our own in-house trainings, usually using online videos or other resources on the web.

·         What are some of your professional goals, dreams, and challenges?

Jill: As unrealistic as it may sound, I dream of living and working in a society that doesn’t deal with adversity by immediately cutting services to the people who need them the most! That is the biggest challenge for all of us who work with children in this country, I’m sure. Trying to make progress with our  Autistic clients, helping them get services, medication, or treatment, offering them a secure and stabile environment –it’s all so much harder than it needs to be because of the budget cuts. The fact that we’re able to help as much as we are is testament to the devotion and self sacrifice of teachers in Ireland. Just think what we could accomplish with adequate funding – THAT is my dream!