Practicing Awareness of Microaggression

One example of gender microaggression that I have encountered was at an automobile service shop.  My car was acting up and began shaking a lot.  I knew that I needed more transmission fluid.  I called the service shop and told them that I did not have enough transmission fluid in my car and needed to make an appointment and the man on the phone stated "you need transmission fluid, are you sure?  Are you sure you need more, why don't you bring it in so the mechanic can look at it."  I took my car into the shop and the mechanic drove it around for a few minutes and came back to tell me I needed more transmission fluid. 

The mechanic thought because I was a woman that I did not know what type of service that I needed on my car to fix the shaking.  I believe that a lot of automobile shops stereotype woman to not knowing anything about cars. My brother made sure when I was growing up to teach me a few things!

Learning about microaggression this week made me more observant about conversations around me.  Listening to conversations made me realize that we sometimes stereotype people without even knowing it.  I caught myself this week saying something that would have stereotyped someone but I stopped in mid sentence because I knew I would have offended them.  The motto "think before you speak" really comes into play this week after learning about microaggression.

Perspectives on Diversity & Culture

Definitions from individuals about Culture and Diversity

1. "Culture to me is following the traditions in the country you were born or where your parents were born. For example eating foods, dressing from the country, listening to the music, speaking the language. Diverse to me means being open minded to other peoples cultures around them" (Ms. Betsy, May 22, 2013).
2.  "Diversity means inclusion to me.  Accepting others, like people with disabilities. When I think of culture, I think of the way you were raised.  The food and holiday traditions that are shared in your family" (Ms. Clover, May 21, 2013).  
3. "Culture to me is the way that society acts.  Diversity is the difference in people" (Mr. Paul, May 24, 2013).

After reviewing what I have learned from this course there were a few aspects of culture that were included in my co-worker's definition were.  Those aspects included holidays, food of their family and language.  I believe there were more aspects that were not included like values, education, religion and gender roles.

After discussing these definitions with my co-workers, I believe that people think more about surface cultures instead of deep cultures.  Since this course I now look more closely about the deep cultures of my own family.   If I had to ask others about their definitions again I would ask more open-ended questions, so people would think deeper about their cultures.  Before this course, I saw more of the surface cultures like many individuals but I have learned that their is so much more about someone's culture that needs to be shared.

My Family Culture

If I had to evacuate  to another country the three items I would take would be...

1. Family Photos
2. Teddy Bears 
3. My phone

I would explain these items by showing the pictures of my family members and tell the people something interesting or why I love each member. The teddy bears are very sentimental to me because the bears are made out of my mother's wedding dress and grandfather's favorite jean jacket.  The teddy bears are part of me and I hold dear to my heart because both of these people molded me into the person I am today.   My mother's bear was made 6 months before I got married and my niece carried it down the aisle in memory of her. My grandfather's teddy bear was made the first Christmas after he passed away and the whole family received one and we reminisced about all the good memories we had with him. My phone would be the last item I would take for survival reasons.  The phone could help me communicate.

If I could only have 1 item that I brought, I would choose my phone for survival purposes.  My phone could assist me in many ways for providing communication.  I would be devastated if I had to give up my photos and teddy bears but I keep those memories with me all the time. 

One insight I gained from this activity is how much I hold my family close to me.  I have always been a family person but this activity showed me how important family is to me and I would do anything for them.  When working on this assignment I asked my husband what he would bring and he wanted all survival items and I wanted sentimental items that are important to me.  This showed me how I really do put my family first. 

When I think of Research

1.  What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
Research is important to every aspect of our lives.  "Research should challenge habitual ways of doing things, and provide reasons to modify, refocus or change" (Naughton, Rolfe & Siraj-Blatchfold, 2010).  

2.  In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
Research takes time and there are many key factors including ethics.  Ethics is an important piece of the puzzle for research.  

3.  What lessons about planning, designing and conducting research in the early childhood field did you learn?
Research reminded me of teachers and how planning a research study takes time, just like planning activities for children can take time to meet their needs.  Research is not easy and there are many steps that need to be taken to make sure the research study is valid and reliable.  

4.  What were some of the challenges you encountered and in what ways did you meet the
One challenge I did encounter was learning the different designs including qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.  I had difficulty understanding the difference of each and what data collections is best for each design.  To overcome this challenge I had to use math skills and remember the differences through math.  In my head, quantitative means numbers and qualitative is observation.  

5.  What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professionals have been modified as a result of this course?
As an early childhood professional I believe that research is important to my career.  As an educator I will now read more studies to learn best developmental practices for my classroom.  I will gain more knowledge and understanding of developmental appropriate activities for my children through research and put these ideas to use.  Also, as an educator I must now keep in mind "without research, we would know less about children's points of view, their wants and needs and their possibilities" (Naughton, Rolfe & Siraj-Blatchfold, 2010). 

Reference

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research:      International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Research Around the World

I chose to take a closer look into Early Childhood Australia-A Voice for Young Children. Through this website there are many studies from the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood.  There are two research studies about children with disabilities that caught my eye because that is what my focus is on for my research stimulation.  These articles focus on factors affecting the transition to school for young children with disabilities and communication through social play for children with autism. 

The site is an advocate for young children and inclusion which is a passion for me.  The site promotes best practices for children birth through age eight and has a  vision for high quality inclusive practices in early childhood education and care. The site assists and support professionals to fully include children with a disability and to achieve high quality outcomes for all children. It is nice to see that there are organizations around the world that are promoting inclusion and want to see all children reach their full potential.  I feel this site can be a great resource for me in the future.

Reference
Early Childhood Australia (2013). Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children

When I read this assignment about sharing a positive example how research has benefited children all I could think about was Teaching Strategies GOLD.  I use to work for Teaching Strategies, LLC while living in Maryland and was part of the implementation team when GOLD was developed.   Through extensive research in the early childhood field, the authors of Teaching Strategies GOLD found that there needed to be an on-going observational based assessment for birth through Kindergarten.  I believe that this assessment has helped and continues to help many teachers in keeping track of children's development and learning all through the early childhood years.  Children benefit from GOLD because they are learning and developing the skills they need to become successful lifelong learners. 

I am now on the other side of GOLD and using it in the classroom & observe how successful it truly is.  The best part is when I see families excited about GOLD and want to learn more about the assessment. 

Here is the link to the Research of Teaching Strategies GOLD
 http://www.teachingstrategies.com/content/pageDocs/teaching-strategies-gold-assessment-research-foundation.pdf


Reference
Teaching Strategies, LLC (2013). Retrieved from http://www.teachingstrategies.com/

Personal Research Journey

Thinking about the 3 subtopics that I developed last week about inclusion in early childhood field, I have chose my stimulation to be advantages for children with development disabilities to be in an inclusive early childhood program. 

 I chose these stimulation because I have experience working in an inclusion early childhood setting and saw the positive impacts it brings to children and families.  Being in an inclusion setting we were a small community where we protected one another and saw each others abilities rather than disabilities.  I also came from a family of special education teachers that share a passion for working with individuals with disabilities. 

I look forward to gathering more information about my chosen stimulation.  The Research Chart is building my knowledge and assisting me in learning vocabulary that is needed during this course and a lifetime as an educator. 

To my colleagues:
      I wish you the best of luck in researching your stimulation.  If you have any insights or advice about the chosen stimulation please feel free to share!  I also look forward to all advice and insight about research.



 

• Many countries are struggling to find criteria for highly qualified educators.  I feel that many provide great recommendations but no policies are in place.
• Poverty is an issue all over especially for children.  There are many children all over the world under age 6 that is living in low income homes or poverty
• There are issues including Children Mental Health and Children in Crisis that we have to take into consideration when working with children.  

My professional goal is to continue to watch international podcast within education to keep up with issues and trends all around the world.  I feel that keeping up with issues and trends around the world will help me to develop more resources and knowledge in the early childhood field.

UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization) advocates for Early Childhood and Education programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and children's development and learning. UNESCO works with Member States and other stakeholders to encourage implementation of the Moscow Framework so that all young children develop their full potential.   

• Quality = As of right now there is not criteria for quantifying Early Childhood Care and Education but they provide recommendations to consider including pedagogy materials, personnel training, service setting and parental education and involvement. 
• Access and Equity = governments providing resources among different populations but emphasizing individuals that live in disadvantage regions.  

I enjoyed reading over this website but have learned that all countries are struggling to find the appropriate criteria for highly qualified educators.  Through this week we have read many recommendations for highly qualified teachers but there are no policies.  After looking over this website I browsed a few State Department of Education websites to see what they consider "highly qualified" and many stated holding a BA and having the credentials/license for teaching, but through our discussions we have learned it is much more than that.  You can own the paper that states you are a licensed teacher but that doesn't mean you are qualified.  We have to have the love for working with children and wanting them to be life longer learners. 

Reference:

United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization. (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Quality Preschool for All

After the State of the Union address this week I thought it would be appropriate to look into the details about Obama's plan for Pre-K.  I received the e-newsletter from Early Ed. News Clips on a daily basis and Friday, there was a full article about Obama's plan for Pre-K.  There are three main components to the plan

1. A state-federal partnership to guarantee pre-K to all 4-year-olds in families at or below the poverty line and to have teachers with the same level of education and training as K-12 instructions. (The Washington Post)
2. Expand on Early Head Start and expand on programs that already exist.  
3. Expand Nurse Family Partnerships which provides home visits to mothers who are pregnant through age 2 of the child to promote good health and parenting skills.

I feel that this is a good plan and in the right direction for early childhood but we have a long way to go.  Now, its time to put this plan into action by first creating the partnerships with school districts and getting the education and training that teachers need to become qualified instructors. 

References:

New America Foundation: Early Ed News Clips. Retrieved from: http://earlyed.newamerica.net

 

The Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/14/read-obamas-pre-k-plan/#comments

Global Children's Initiative

Global Children's Initiative is part of The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.  Global Children’s Initiative has built activities in three domains: early childhood development; mental health; and children in crisis and conflict situations. Each area is lead by a group of individuals that will facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration and design and implement new projects.

1. Early Childhood Development- under this domain Global Children's Initiative plans to educate leaders in international organizations the best way to show science of child development to key policymakers.  They also have several pilot programs going on in Zambia and Chile to increase preschool quality.
2. Child Mental Health- with this domain Harvard faculty want to identify the scope of the problem across countries and develop an evidence-based approach in policy that will be responsive to all cultures.
3. Children in Crisis- this group is working with other departments at Harvard to incorporate a science-based development perspective into managing children's well-being in regards to natural and man-made crisis.   The science-based development will focus on immediate circumstances as well as long term.  

It is the Initiatives hope to education and conduct trainings to incorporate all three domains.

As educators, we look at the "whole" child and need to include children's mental health and crisis that they may have been through when developing relationships.  I feel that this initiative is taking the "whole" child into consideration as well and advocating for unaddressed issues that have been surfacing for a long time.


Reference
Global Children's Initiative. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2012) Retrieved from:    http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Web Resources- Childcare Aware of America

I chose Childcare Aware of America website (http://www.naccrra.org) and one interesting article I read from this website was advocating for quality early childhood programs and providing studies about why quality is important for young children.  This article is relevant to my professional development because I want to assist programs in my area to become high quality and receive 5 stars. Having this article is helpful to show other early childhood educators and families the importance of quality. 

One section of the article discussed how many parents think that childcare workers are trained.  "More than two-thirds of parents believe child care programs are licensed, caregivers undergo a background check, are trained in first-aid and CPR and are trained to recognize and report signs of child abuse. Actually, standards vary by state and many states have minimal or no such requirements" (The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, 2012).  This made me think of this issue in new ways and how we have a long way to go to make quality programs and we need to start with simple things to make our children safe like trained first-aid and CPR staff.  This article also made me research my own state and I learned that a law was just passed Jan. 1, 2013 that all childcare providers must conduct a background check.  For the years I have worked in the field I always thought this was a state law.  Learning the new law brought a new insight to me and I am glad that my state has stepped up to the plate to undergo background checks but I know that we have a long way to make high quality programs.

Researching the website more there are several campaigns going on including Background Check Campaign and Don't Cut Childcare Campaign that Childcare Aware of America support.  There is also a section just for Public Policy.  The whole section has information about how there are many politicians supporting early childcare. 

Another issue that I found insight about was helping families and children cope with traumatic events.  I have gained insight that this is another issue happening in our educational environments that we need to be aware of.  The website gave helpful resources for families and educators on how to talk with children about traumatic events. 

References
The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies,  2012. QUALITY CHILD CARE MATTERS. Retrieved from: http://www.naccrra.org/sites/default/files/default_site_pages/2012/ccgb_quality_matters_jan2012.pdf

Poverty in China

I have had not luck establishing international contacts and the podcast there were available I felt did not pertain to poverty, so I decided to research http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/ which is a helpful resource to see poverty around the world.  The website helped put poverty in perspective for me and how all countries experience this issue.
I chose to research China

• Poverty has decreased in China since the 1990s.  By 2000 rural poverty in China reduced from 30.7 percent to 3.7 percent.  This is a major decrease but there are still 15 to 31 million in poverty where the total population is 1.27 billion.
• 4.2 million Chinese children live in extreme poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantage conditions.

• China has a social security system for families to assist with poverty only in urban areas.  There is really no assistance for families who live in rural areas of China.  China has a social relief program for urban area families but the amount of assistance given is still too small to meet the families basic needs including food, clothing, shelter and education for children. 

Again, reading about poverty in other areas around the world has made me realize this is a huge issue where ever you go.  After researching, articles state that poverty goes from one generation to the next.  How can families become self-sufficient if poverty is passed along from generation to generation?  I worry that we will never be able to pull out of poverty in our country.  With the way the economy is today, we have more people struggling to make ends meet and end up in poverty.  

Reference

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. Retrieved from www.childhoodpoverty.org 

Web Resources

One website that I find helpful that provides daily clips from publications around the United States is Early Education Initiative, http://earlyed.newamerica.net.  The Early Education Initiative seeks to promote a high-quality and continuous system of early care and education for all children, birth to age 8.  The organization provides helpful insights of issues or trends going on in different states. The website also produces a daily newsletter called Early Ed News Clips. 

One interesting article that I read on the website http://earlyed.newamerica.net that is an issue "The Half-Day Kindergarten-Common Core Mismatch."   In this article it discuss that children who attend a half-day kindergarten program is still expected to meet common core standards but do not have enough time to fit the curriculum in each day.  "Children enrolled in half-day kindergarten receive less instructional time, likely experience a narrowed curriculum, have less time for experimentation and exploration, and enjoy fewer opportunities for play" (Bornfrend, 2012).  As many states go to follow Common Core standards children in Half-Day programs are not getting enough instructional time to prepare them for the standards. 

Reference

L., Bornfreund. The Half-Day Kindergarten-Common Core Mismatch. New America Foundation (2012). Retrieved from: http://earlyed.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2012/the_half_day_kindergarten_common_core_mismatch_74939

Establishing Contacts and Expanding Resources

        This week I began reaching out to international early childhood professionals in Ireland, Singapore and Romania but had no luck establishing contact.  I received an Undeliverable message from Singapore but never heard back  from anyone in Ireland or Romania.  I waited until Wednesday with no response so I tried two more individuals including Russia and China but after no contact by Friday I decided to take the alternate route.  I am excited to learn about the World Forum and listen to the radio podcast they conduct.
        I chose and signed up for the E-Newsletter for the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.  After looking into this website I felt this was a great choice because I want to know what is going on in Congress about Early Childhood Education along with my State.  This site is also great for me to increase my advocacy skills for childcare centers in my community and learn skills to increase the quality of centers.  It is one of my professional goals to assist individuals in  setting up quality learning centers for young children.  I look forward to expanding my knowledge in early childhood education through these resources.