Week 5 Blog

One of my ideas to solve the shortage in qualified early childhood education programs available for communities who suffer from a lack of access due both to geography and affordability was to look to the mothers and teachers who live in the community to develop a network of cooperative home daycare schools where children can receive quality care within a walking radius of their homes.  In lieu of this model, plenty of properly trained caregivers in community based centers are needed to meet the needs of families in terms of preschool education.

            In reading about the research being done in international communities I came across work being done in Ghana to train community volunteers and informal child minders who are responsible for the care of children in the community.  Many communities do not have centers.  The research done attempted to analyze the knowledge and capabilities of the centers that were open and to create a training program which could be used to open centers in areas that needed it.  I was struck that the situation is similar to the situation in many places in the United States – lack of access.  However, the IM and CV in Ghana, according to the research, tended to be under educated about child education and welfare, though eager and willing to learn.

            In comparing/contrasting the issues in Ghana’s ECE system with ours I wonder why, in 2014, ECE is still an issue.  Why is it that with all our technology and philosophy and thousands of years on the earth, this society has still not solved the education problem?  What I realize is that as a species we are still very young – we are still developing basics like education.

Research Competency - Week 3 Blog

A positive example of the benefits of research in my personal life was when I utilized knowledge I gained through a M.ED program on Curriculum Development on how to design and conduct a research study.  I designed a study which measured the effect of television viewing on my then 9 yer old son's homework efficacy.  I tested whether the amount of time spent watching tv before doing homework, and when the tv was watched (right after school or after a 30 minute break for example) had any effect on the length of time it took him to complete his homework.  I controlled for the amount of homework and other variables which could have made the study invalid.  My conclusion was that he benefited most from a 30 minute break after school with no tv, rather than being allowed to watch tv before doing homework, or being made to do homework right when he walked in the door.  That was a very small and elementary study but it did demonstrate how quantitative data can be used to assess children and make plans based on that assessment.

Final Blog - Issues and Trends

            In contemplating the effects of learning more about the challenges the international ECE community faces, I have come to a deeper understanding of what it truly means to lack resources, and to have to struggle and succeed in spite of the lack.  During exploration of websites, videos, etc, I‘ve been able to see and hear stories of people who faced true hardship – but didn’t seem to possess the defeated mindset I see so often in my own community.  Challenges, in some countries, are a fact of life and something to be overcome.  This has led to a greater appreciation for the resources I have as a parent, a student and as a professional.

            I’ve come to understand the old adage that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”  So even though I may have limited funds in a classroom, though I may have limited funds for my family –w hat I don’t have is a limited will or ability to create and plan and work towards goals.  As a consequence of seeing how lacking in resources third world countries are, I’ve realized how abundant my own blessings are – and how much more responsible I am to my students/children/community to utilize what we have and to continue to fight for more in terms of equity, quality, access, etc.

            What I have also come to understand in terms of diversity and changing demographics is that those international students could one day be my own.  So as a teacher I have a responsibility to learn about where they come from and even to reach out and do my small part to help alleviate their circumstances before they even come to America seeking a better future.  The supplies most of these communities seem to need are simple things – basic school supplies, basic medical supplies, access to or the ability to filter water, etc.  We are truly a global community and, eventually, what effects one will affect the other.
             One goal I am contemplating setting for myself is to come up with some type of way I can directly contribute to improving resources in a community in a country in Africa.  This will require a bit of research on charities and educational organizations that serve different countries, because I have a natural skepticism of non for profits, but it is something I am coming to feel compelled to do.  If I can provide basic supplies for even one classroom, I will feel like I am at least trying to make a difference in a life other than my own.

UNESCO

One of my goals is to open a home based early childhood education center where the curriculum is student driven.   I believe that home based education is one of the resolutions to the lack of access and quality for all children to ECE.  The UNESCO website states that “Countries often 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 raise concerns about sustainability and quality.”  ( UNESCO )  I think hoe based centers address the need for access and quality.  because programs are smaller, children can be given more personalized attention.  Teachers can work with parents at a more in depth level than is possible than if they had 30 students in a traditional center.  It would also be easier to govern quality of the program because due to scope and size, flaws would be easier to spot and address.

The website discusses the difficulty of financing ECE services.  They mention that tapping the private sector is an alternative solution.   I don’t agree that this is the path we should go in America.  I think ECE should be placed under the auspices of the Board of Education in each state and funded with the same tax dollars and income streams that currently fund government subsidy programs for daycare.

They also mention the issue of coordination across sectors to ensure a level of consistency and quality in ECE.  Many counters have addressed this challenge by consolidating ECE under a single department, which I agree s the way to approach this issue.  It seems that the more people and departments are involved, the more room there is for error and confusion. 

"Access and Equity | Education | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization." Access and Equity | Education | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/access-and-equity/>.

Web Resources, continued

In reviewing the website for the National Black Child Development institute, I came across even more information than last week, shared below.
A link under the resources page leads to a report entitled “National Summit on Educational Excellence and Opportunity for African American Males” written jointly by the U.S. Dept. of Education and the Council of the Great City Schools.  The report takes on the issue of the failure of urban schools in addressing the needs of the African American male demographic.  Discussed in the report specifically are “steps that schools and others should take to increase African American male access to rigorous core instruction, elevate the quality of education, strengthen personal and social supports needed to bolster their achievement, and overturn the low
expectations that were born of one group’s misbegotten sense of superiority over another.” (Council of the Great City Schools, pg 1)
On the Events page information is detailed regarding the 44th annual NBCDI conference in Detroit, MI during October of 2014 with the theme of  "Bright Past, Better Future.”  Looking at the agenda for last years conference, attendees can expect to see workshops along the lines of Closing the Wealth Gap: Building Individual and Community Assets and Social Emotional Development Through A Cultural Lens: Pre-School to Third Grade.
I am looking forward to receiving a newsletter that may have more information about the upcoming conference.
While researching the issues of equity in education I came across data that illustrates the significant gap in spending allocated to white vs. Black schools.  The data showed “that schools with 90 percent or more students of color spend a full $733less per student per year than schools with 90 percent or more white students.”  (Spatig-Amerikaner, pg. 5)  If the gap in funding was closed the funds could be utilized to “pay the salary for 12additional first-year teachers or nine veteran teachers.  Alternatively, this funding could pay for any number of other useful personnel or resources such as school counselors, teacher coaches, or laptop computers.” (Spatig-Amerikaner, pg. 7 )
Another phenomena resource I came across while perusing this website was www.firstbook.org.  This is a link to a non for profit agency that “Once you are registered, you will be able to receive access to the: • First Book Marketplace, offering new books at 50 to 90 percent off retail prices • First Book National Book Bank, offering free books (pay only for shipping, typically at 35 to 50 cents per book) • Book grants through First Book’s local Advisory Boards.” (NBCDI, pg 4)  This resource is huge for both teachers and parents who have tight budgets but still ant to provide that critical book collection in order to help children develop literacy early.


"National Summit on Educational Excellence and Opportunity for African American Males." Council of the Great City Schools, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. <http://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/88/Blueprint%2082312.pdf>.

Spatig-Amerikaner, Ary. "Unequal Education: Federal Loophole Enables Lower Spending on Students of Color." Center For American Progress. N.p., 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2012/08/22/29002/unequal-education/

"NBCDI & First Book: LOVE TO READ." National Black Child Development Institute, Fall 2013. Web. http://www.nbcdi.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/CHT%20Fall%202013d.pdf

Brief Glimpse of ECE Around the World

This week I visited the Center on the Developing Child, Harvard university, to glean some insights as to what is going on in other parts of the world in the field of Early Childhood Education.

Because of a lack of information on ECE and child development in Zambia, the ministry set out to create an assessment to administer to children to determine whether the state of readiness of children in that country for school upon entering for the first time.  The exam did a good job of utilizing appropriate assessment instruments.  Children were experiencing difficulties in showing readiness for school based on test items that required use of a pencil, which may children had not been exposed to due to lack of ECE.  However, when asked to complete tasks such as “stringing beads onto a shoelace, putting beans into a cup, unbuttoning and buttoning a shirt and playing a variation on nsolo (a traditional game).” ( Fink 2012 ) they were able to demonstrate mastery of fine motor control using these familiar skills.

In Chile a program is underway to improve ECE by addressing teacher development as well as health factors that contribute to the development of children.  This seems to be an example of a holistic approach towards child education/development that takes into account physical health in a child’s ability to learn, much the same as here in America we are concerned with how food insecurity impacts children in the classroom.

In Brazil the government is developing a national system of ECE, apparently due to a realization that in order to be globally competitive they need to invest in their children.  They are in the process of gathering experts from all over to develop the skills needed to create and implement policy in the educational field.

Each of these countries has common threads running through their efforts to develop ECE in their society.  First, equity in terms of making sure ECE is available to all children.  Zambia is approaching this by first correcting the absence of data available on the state of ECE in their country while Chile and Brazil are addressing equity jointly with excellence by initiating programs to development quality education as well as ensuring children’s needs are met in terms of physical health as well.

Fink, Guther, Beatrice Matafwali, Corrina Moucheraud, and Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski.The Zambian Early Childhood Development Project 2010 Assessment Final Report. Rep. Center on the Developing Child Harvard University, Dec. 2012. Web. <http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/zambian_project/>

Weekly Blog Update

During an observation of a high school biology classroom in which the teacher was a young White woman, and the students were all Black (about half male), I was told by this teacher not to be afraid of the students.  Now, I found this comment both amusing and disturbing.  I am a Black woman, but because of a very light phenotype which includes green eyes, I am often mistaken for White.  This woman assumed that I was coming from her culture – the culture where you are taught to be afraid of young Black men and to take their high energy, debate oriented and macho personalities as aggressive and disrespectful.  In the Black culture, we tend to engage in heated debates, we tend to be more physically expressive and we tend to challenge authority to prove itself.  If you understand this, then a White teacher can develop effective interpersonal relationships with her students.  The article I read today on the National Black Child Development’s website discussed the vital importance of approaching Black students from a culturally aware perspective.  Interventions that work with White students are likely to fail Black students.  Black males respond better to lessons that are more physically and verbally engaging – these kids aren’t the ones to sit silent and listen to a lecture.  In the article, White teacher are told they need to start having dialogues that introduce them to Black culture or else they won’t be effective.

Well, the report could be controversial, because there is a defense mechanism that pops up where Whites tend to relegate everything back to a racial issue so they don’t have to address it.  It is an ancestral guilt that sneaks up because of slavery.  And while this issue is abut race, it is about race in the sense of culture.  There is no need for Whites to feel as if they are being attacked for their deficiencies in pedagogy – if it is not your culture, no one blames you for not knowing, but you need to learn.  Simple.  The blame comes in when you refuse to learn, when you refuse to address the stereotypes in your head and debunk them.

There is no specific information on the website about how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field or the issue of teaching in a cultural context.

Save the Children - Health Care in Ethiopia

This week I watched a video from the Save The Children YouTube channel.  Save the Children is an organization whose goal is to make sure children around the world are healthy, happy and have their needs met.  They have several programs ranging from providing preschool services, health clinics and farming supplies to poor families.  They also work to alleviate HIV and AIDS and respond to natural disasters with aid.

The video, found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgNh-ZlzMiI&list=PL00004DF975592015,  focused on the health care available to poor villagers in Ethiopia.

In the video is  Aster, a local health worker.  Everyday, in order to provide meager basic care in a village clinic she walks 12 kilometers from her home.  At the clinic, the only one for miles around, she works to dispense medicine, vaccinations and provide what we would term as well baby checkups.  She also spends half of her day traveling to visits new mothers in their homes to check on them and baby after giving birth.  She instructs them in breastfeeding, among other things.  And then she walks 12 kilometers home.  She is just one woman who has to work to treat preventable illnesses for a community of people who are poverty stricken.

It puts into perspective how we take our own health care system (as riddled wit flaws as it is) for granted.  In general, every child and mother who needs health care can get access, and with Obamacare that will be affordably extended to even more families who fall in the grey area of not being considered “poor”, but also still having to scrape by every month.  I cannot imagine the grief if my baby were to become ill and die from some simple, preventable sickness that a common antibiotic could have dealt with.

It is a shame, because there are too many rich countries in the world, and basic drugs are too cheap, that any child should have to go to such lengths for medical care.

National Black Child Development Institute

The focus of my study this week is the National Black Child Development Institute (http://www.nbcdi.org/resource).  Their focus is on advocacy exclusively for Black American students through community organizations as well as public and private school systems.  They deal with ages birth through eight and have a wide range of activities that focus on the health, education and family engagement of Black students.

A current issue discussed on the website(http://www.nbcdi.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/A%20Framework%20That%20Works.pdf) is the disparity between the effectiveness and education of teachers who serve urban areas and those who serve suburban areas.  Some very interesting statistics were provided detailing the educational achievement and engagement o teachers who serve low income minority children.  Compared to suburban teachers, certification exams scores are lower and interpersonal effectiveness also suffers when placed in urban classrooms.

One wonders at why this is.  The first practical reason is that teachers with higher test scores are more likely to be hired by school districts that pay more (i.e., the suburbs) and are also more likely to have support in the classroom as far as paraprofessionals, parental involvement, smaller class size and materials.  So it makes sense as well that suburban teachers would be more “engaged.”  It is, in my opinion, easy to engage with your students when you don’t have to face many of the grim realities of understaffed, undersupplied, poorly managed inner city schools.  Urban teachers are also in my common sense view, more likely to burn out due to having larger class sizes and having to deal with the personals issues of their students that tend to arise in low income neighborhoods.  So maybe the article shouldn’t be looking at the fact that inner city teachers are less engaged and have lower test scores, maybe the article should be looking at why teachers are less engaged and whether they are given the pedagogical support they may need.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

This week in an attempt to pick the brains of ECE professionals around the world, I sent an email to the Nairobi and Mena regional offices of Unicef and to Rev. Charles Nonoo and the Philippines office of the NAEYC Global Alliance.  Hopefully I will receive a response which indicates a willingness to open a line of dialogue.  If I do not receive response by Wednesday, I will begin the Alternative assignment.

After perusing the selection of websites for study I immediately focused on the National Black Child Development institute.  It is nice to be able to study my own people, since that is my first priority and the main population I work with.