The International Early Childhood Community Experience

The International Early Childhood Community Experience

     Over the last seven weeks we have had the opportunity to explore various links to early childhood websites around the world and to learn more about the concerns of different nations.  Three consequences of this experience for me are that I now understand that early childhood education has been uniformly accepted around the world as the one area that can improve the standard of living in communities.  I have also learned that there is a national organization that meets and addresses issues in the early childhood field. This organization has set goals that the world hopes to accomplish by 2013.  There was a conference in Moscow this past fall to address what needs to be done to meet all the goals set before that date.  Finally, I have learned that in the early childhood profession we have the opportunity to work with professionals in our field in other nations to help advocate for young children and their developmental needs.  We should not limit ourselves to other professionals in our community, counties, or states, but we should strive to create professional bonds around the world to ensure that we ourselves are continually striving to define and implement “high quality” early childhood programs.

     In my opinion one goal that the international community should have is to reach out to other professionals and share our concerns, accomplishments and expectations so that we continue to improve the early childhood experience for every child around the world.

High Quality Early Childhood Programs Defined Around the World

High Quality Defined Globally

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

New insights or ideas I gained from this website are

UNESCO advocates for ECC and Education programs that attend to the health, nutrition, security, and learning which provide for children’s holistic development.  This is an ideal that I have read about on the Harlem’s Children’s Zone website.  In order to impact the community, children have to be given services that they may not have had contact with at home.  In high quality early childhood development centers here in the United States, we may not offer assistance with social service problems. 

Quality ECE for the UNESCO means that there is an emphasis on the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling.  High quality childcare, should promote motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness.  Although there is no agreed upon criteria for what a quality ECCE looks like, the UNESCO believes that useful factors include pedagogy materials, personnel training, service setting, and parental education and involvement. There should be a curriculum and there should be plenty of learning material that is culturally and developmentally adequate.  The focus of the center should be child-centered.  It is also essential that workers have adequate training and work conditions are essential so they can integrate the content and practice and addresses the transition to formal school. 

The Harlem Children's Zone Project

The Harlem Children's Zone Project

     At the beginning of this class I chose to follow the website of Harlem Children’s Zone Project.  A few years back I had watched a segment on the national news about this program in Harlem that parents were literally fighting to get their children into.  During the segment parents and children were brought to tears as the school officials pulled numbers of waiting families in the school’s enrollment lottery.  I was surprised to learn that some of the children were still newborns.  The waiting list for the school is so long that parents enroll their children at birth. What a magnificent program this must be I thought.  As I scrolled through the websites for us to choose from there, to my amazement, was the name of this program.  I have followed the website throughout this course because they are making a tremendous impact on their community.

     The topic of discussion this week has been equity and excellence in early care and education.  The Harlem Children’s Zone is centered on creating equity for all children in the community by improving and assisting the family, community and the education system.  Their mission includes to the statement “it is difficult, often impossible, to raise healthy children in a disintegrated community”.  Therefore local institutions bring families and young people together around interests and activities that they have in common such as religion, social and recreational organizations, effective schools, safe and well used public spaces”.  The Harlem Children’s Zone Project founders realize that with so much poverty and dysfunction within their communities and families, even a family that has the best child-rearing skills, is likely to fail.  However, they also acknowledge that when members of a community organize around a common interest, even the most devastating conditions can be reversed.  In order to reverse the conditions the founders realize there are two main initiatives that will make the largest impact.  First, children from communities facing disadvantaged situations are more likely to grow to be healthy, satisfying adults that help build a better community, if they are around adults that understand effective parenting, and are engaged in education, social and religious activities with their children.  Secondly, the earlier a child is exposed to sound health care, intellectual and social stimulation and consistent guidance from loving, attentive adults, the more likely that child will be to grow into a responsible and fulfilled member of the community.

The Harlem Children’s Zone Project has created a program, in my opinion, that is structured to fight for equity for its young children in education and society.  The program begins in with early childhood care and continues until the child’s twelfth year.  By providing the children with an appropriate developmental environment and providing the families with social and economic services, the opportunity for these children to become successful and productive members of society are greatly improving.

The Harlem Children’s Zone Project site does not offer any links that go outside of the website.  There is a wealth of information provided; however it is all directly related to the project itself.  You can find statistical information of Harlem, the business plan for the project, and article and interviews that relate to the program itself.  As I stated many times over the last few weeks, I am interested in learning about the project so the wealth of information provided is beneficial to me.  I did find it interesting that there are no links to other organizations or websites.

The Harlem Children’s Zone Project.  http://www.hcz.org/home

International Issues in ECE

Global Gathering in Moscow Put Spotlight on Early Childhood Issues

On September 27-29, 2010 the first ever “World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education: Building the Wealth of Nations”, was held in Moscow.  The conference brought together neuroscientists, high level government leaders, policy makers, and professionals from other science and education fields to attempt to put early childhood education and education in the spotlight as an imperative human development policy.

In 2000, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), developed the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).  The goals that were agreed upon were; to end extreme poverty and hunger, ensure that every child worldwide completes at least a primary education, and to reduce child mortality by two-thirds.  The goals were to be reached by 2015. As the deadline is quickly approaching the government leaders acknowledge that early childhood care and education is key to meeting several of the Millennium Development Goals.

Dr. Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, was a keynote speaker at the conference.  Dr. Shonkoff shared with the attendees that current research on brain science human genome and behavioral and social sciences is “demonstrating how healthy development in the earliest years of life builds the foundations of successful adaptation and effective learning that lead to better outcomes in academic achievement, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, and economic and human development”.(Center, 2010)

Opportunities for nations to discuss policy and practice were also allotted at this year’s conference.  Topics of discussion were country cases, policy challenges, innovative strategies and best practices, and integration and coordination across sectors.  UNICEF reported in 2006 that 30 governments worldwide had established national early childhood development policies nationwide.  However, more than half of the world’s governments remain without “formal policy or coordination mechanisms in place related to early childhood development”(Center, 2010). 

The article closed with a statement from Dr. Mmantsetsa Marope, the director of the Division of Basic Education at UNESCO.  She stated that “Early Childhood Care and Education is an unshakable foundation for the development of the human capital required for higher value-added productivity, sustainable growth, competiveness…and ultimately more equitable and politically stable societies”(Center, 2010).  What a great statement to close an article or a conference on.  Indeed giving children the best foundation with which to develop means that they receive a high quality of care in the early years of development.  Success begins with the foundation.

Three new insights that I gained from reading the article this week are that around the world the desire to create an education system that provides children with the best opportunities for success is linked directly to the early childhood care and education.  As I read the article, I found myself wondering in third world nations where the conditions are so bad that is amazing that the government is concerned with early childhood development.  I definitely agree that in order for the circumstances to change in economically challenged areas, there has to be improvements to the education and development of the younger generation.  The second topic that interested me was the discussion by Dr. Shonkoff about the research from other fields.  This is what we learned about last week in class.  It seems that other professions are supporting the efforts of the early childhood field with valuable research on development and statistics over time.  With all the research and support that has been give to Early Childhood Education; I do not understand why we are fighting for funding.  The research shows that the hope of the world is in the early years of child development.  The third item that I wanted to share with others is that there is an organization for Early Childhood Education through the United Nations and that they have set goals in the field of early childhood care and development globally.  I had not heard of this organization, and to be honest I have not even considered that all nations are interested in early childhood education.  I guess I just assumed that with the economic troubles and wars around the world that people were not interested in education.  I enjoyed reading the goals or Millennium Development goals, and hope that everyone takes a moment to learn more about this initiative.

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

Moscow Conference Article

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/topics/global_child_development/moscow-conference/