Professional and personal development

      The first consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is that I realize that there are so many children in countries all over the world who are not receiving any early childhood education.

Next, I learned that there are many different organizations that are working extremely hard to bring early childhood programs to these different countries. These programs realize how important early childhood education is and want to make a better place for children.

Lastly, I feel by becoming exposed to international early childhood education it will open up awareness for others to be able to help.

My one goal for the field is to have more people become involved in international awareness and become able to help reach more children to ensure they have the best start in life.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

While looking through the UNESCO website I can across information regarding education around the world. I looked at a few countries and found some interesting information on Africa. The UNESCO has made Africa its priority, they feel that education is key to the region’s development. UNESCO has many field offices serving Africa and they work to keep education high on the agenda of governments and development partners.

They had information on access and equity, they talked about how countries try to promote alternative services for poor children with limited or no access to mainstream early childhood services which can be cost-effective and pedagogically innovative, but often it can raise concerns about sustainability and quality (UNESCO, 2012). They also provided information on how governments must ensure a fair supply of resources among different populations and especially those who live in the most disadvantaged regions. This approach is aim to expand access without creating serious regional inequities. (UNESCO, 2012).

Investment and financing is another topic that was discussed on the website. Countries have the greatest difficulty with their efforts to expand and improve the quality of early childhood care and education is the mobilization of resources. This has become for the most part discouraging in developing countries, where early childhood is overshadowed by other pressing priorities, such as universal primary education. (UNESCO, 2012).

UNESCO. (2012) Early Childhood Care and Education. Africa. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood

Sharing Web Resources

The website that I have been following is National Black Child Development Institute http://nbcdi.org/. I have been through the web site and I have found many really good articles. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any good web links through this website. There were a few through an article that I found and it took me to web links that focused on the educational, physical, spiritual, mental, social and emotional wellbeing of a child. I never received a newsletter from this website even though I signed up for one. I did not find any information that was pertaining to the topics we are discussing this week.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

I explored the Harvard University‘s “Global Children’s Initiative” website, and learned what the centers mission is about and that they have three strategic goals that they have recently started. The three strategic areas that the center outlined on their site are:

·         Educate high level decision makers the science of learning, behavior and health in children.

·         Go into selected countries and help them to understand about what is healthy development and how it happens

·         On behalf of all children, build a better understanding of child development research and policy and to make it a global movement. (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010)

What I like about this organization is that they are focusing on a global effort, and are trying to meet the needs of all children from all over the world. Another thing that is interesting is some of the early childhood development project that they have going in places like Zambian and Brazil. The Zambian project was started in 2009, help measure the effects of an anti-malaria program on children’s development in that country. In Brazil the project is using science of child health and development to help create stronger policies and have more investments to benefit young children and their families. (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010)

Reference:

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/