Course Reflections

          As you conclude your studies of research, take time to reflect on the experience

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
• According to the NAEYC position statement, research gives early childhood practitioners and policymakers essential knowledge to use in making decisions on behalf of young children and families (NAEYC, n.d). That said, I think that this is one of the most important insights I have gained about research from this course.  I understood that research played a role in shaping best practices and policies, but I guess I never fully understood just how important of  a role research played until this course.  I think with the increase knowledge in how the child’s brain forms in the first five years of life research has moved to the forefront, and as schools continue to move towards working to close achievement gaps, create inclusive  and child centered classroom, I suspect that research will become even more popular.

• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
• When I started this class I was asked to share about my thoughts about research and any previous experience I had with research.  I commented that I had very little to no experience in the field and that my thoughts regarding research were actually positive. I was excited to learn about the field and actually learned through the process that I am, in many way,s a budding researcher.  I was, however, alarmed by the level of ethics some researchers were willing to cross in the name of public good.  The case of Genie was the most horrific example of an unethical research project I had heard, so I thought.  I was even more alarmed after viewing a timeline of various unethical research projects that go back as far as 50 years ago. Thus, I have learned that the nature of doing research is only as ethical as the people conducting them.

• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?
• First, and foremost, I learned how tedious and laborious planning, designing and conducting a research project can be!  I learned too that one has be very dedicated to the process and that the best way to achieve this is to pick a research topic that one is passionate about!  I also learned that there is a science behind research design, and planning, which beings with identifying your research topic, then your question and hypothesis, the model and lastly, the data collection method you will implore for the research project.  A researchers work doesn’t end there, but must then apply various triangulation methods to ensure its validity. When conducting research on children, the standards are high. One must gain parental constant and when at all possible gain the consent of the children they would like to conduct their research.   Participates need to be informed in simple terms of their rights and any possible effects of the research on them as individual’s.

• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?
• When I started this course I ascertained that there would be a learning curve particularly as it related to the terms, methods and research models and of course I was correct.  I ran into the most difficulties during the study of the qualitative research method.  The reading was very abstract and difficult to understand exactly what this design method was after.  I decided to reach out to my professor for clarification and I am glad I did! She was able to explain the qualitative method in very simple terms and even gave several examples to reinforce the concept. In the end, I was able to grasp the idea of qualitative research as being the research model that looks to answer the why or how question of my research question, whereas quantitative works to answer the question of whether or not/if then.

• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?
• My perceptions of the EC professional as been greatly enhanced since starting this course. Particularly in the areas of ethical research and our job to protect the children in our care from those research studies that present more than minimal harm to children.  As our professions continues move further outside of the class of “glorified babysitters” to professionals who effectively build the brains of children for a lifetime of learning, we can anticipate that we will be asked to participate in more and more research initiatives. That being said, it is important that we stay on top of our rights and that of the children and families in our care before we agree to any research initiative .

• To that end, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all my colleagues who journeyed with me these eight weeks, as we worked to gain competencies in research methods. I can confidently say that I am component in this area and that’s largely contributed to you all and the great feedback and discussion post presented during this course.  Professor Parrish  is also a big reason for my confidence as it relates to research!   Professor Parrish is by far the best professor I have had during my graduate studies! Her command of this subject really helped me fall in love with research and she has even peck my interest in pursuing my PhD in order actually gather the answer to my research question presented in this course research simulation! Thanks Professor Parrish for inspiring me to go further in my studies to impact the field for generations to come!

Research Around the World!

What are some of the current international research topics

I chose the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa website. The ECDVD program for sub-Saharan Africa is a Master’s degree program that seeks to develop African ECD leadership  capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family  and community well being and the broader social and economic development( Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005).   The goals of ECDVU program includes building ECD capacity, promoting ECD leadership and stimulating supportive ECD networks within and across participating African countries (Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005).  They achieve this through a unique training and results-oriented program that uses face-to-face and distributed learning methods including: residential seminars, web-based instruction, CD-Rom and print material along with a community of learners’ strategy within and among cohort countries (Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005). Some of the research topics I ran across included more than 20 but the three that struck my interest where the following research topics:

1. The status of coordination and supervision of early childhood education in Ghana by Margaret Amponah
2. Integrating indigenous knowledge in ECD training and services by Mgbechikware Ezirim of Nigeria
3. Involving fathers in early childhood care and development by

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood site?

What I found most interesting is that this model unites local child reading knowledge and traditions with national and western literatures and it takes an integrated approach to ECD (Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005).  In fact Mrs. Ezirim’s research topic of Integrating Ingenious Knowledge in ECD Training and Services did a great job of explaining why this is important.   She stated the following:

Indigenous African Ibo education, is primarily an oral one that provided for comprehensive learning in three domains: cognitive, emotional and psycho-social. For affective learning, traditional stories where used to teach societal values, such as honesty, diligence, hard work, sense of responsibility, selflessness, justice, fair play, endurance, chastity, punctuality, regulation and the like (Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005).

However, since urbanization and technological development are gradually eroding these stories as the elders who are custodians of these stories no longer fine willing listeners in children who are more interested in foreign films and television, which now threatens indigenous stories (Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005).

What other noteworthy information did you fine on this website?

I found the integration of indigenous stories into ECD most intriguing.   I can’t think of a more effective tool to involve parents in the education of their children and at the same time affirming and preserving the culture of the people groups. I could see how this could be a great benefit to multi-language classrooms here in the US. Again, this would be a great way to foster parent partnerships and support ELL culture.

Reference:

Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

http://www.ecdvu.org

Research That Benefits Children and Familes- an Uplifting Story

As everyone knows by now, my topic of research is closing the academic achievement gap by specifically discovering those methods or and practices that are most effective in preventing and or closing the gap between poor school age children and their wealthier counterparts. There are various theories about how and why such large gaps in performance exist among student groups. The traditional thinking is that the gap exist primarily because of poor teacher quality, underfunded schools and overcrowding to name of few. However, before serving in my current role as a community and parent outreach coordinator, I served as a behavioral health specialist with Children’s Crisis Treatment Center in Philadelphia PA. And what I learned in this role is that the source of this problem does that lay exclusively with the issues mentioned above, but is in large part are due to what has been termed, early childhood trauma.
Now when we think of trauma we usually think of one isolated event that causes significant psychological and or physical stress or harm. However, I would propose that trauma doesn’t have to be a single event, but something that is prolonged like, poverty. Research has consistently shown that ongoing exposure to economic stress and hardship harms child development: parents invest less in their kids and experience higher levels of stress (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014.). Furthermore, low family income can impede children’s cognitive development and their ability to learn and it also contributes to behavioral, social and emotional problems (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014). The ability for a child to regulate his or her behavior and or emotions is one of the building blocks needed for learning and school success.

That being said, if I could do a research project that would make a major positive contribution to the well-being of children or their families, it would be around the topic of how to mitigate the impacts of long term poverty on children during their sensitive period of growth. I would specially want to know what supports would be most effective in helping parent(s) engage their children around those activities, such as reading, simulation activities and  the use of developmental toys and materials, that we know prepare children, regardless of their backgrounds, for success in school and in life.

This research would contribute to those best practices that we know help to close and or prevent achievement gaps between the haves and have nots. Families would be healthier, which would lead to healthier communities and schools. The ultimate impact would be on society in the increase of productivity because the children of the parents involved in my research project would have gone on to  move out of poverty and become successful contributing members of society.

                                                                Reference

The Annie  E. Casey Foundation. (n.d.) The Consequences of Poverty for Children Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org

My Personal Research Journey

The general topic I have chosen to do my research simulation on is the academic achievement gap.  The subtopic of this larger research area I have decided to focus in on specifically is; what preventive methods are the most promising in closing the achievement gap and or preventing it all together among preschoolers?  I have chosen this topic for very personal reasons.  I shared in detail in one of my application assignments the following:

Uvieghara (2014) asserted personally, “I am drawn to this issue for many reasons. First, as a primary student I struggled immensely in school.  I started school behind and struggled to catch up with my peers for most of my primary and secondary education.  I was held back twice because of poor reading and math comprehension.  It was in many cases a miracle that I was able to graduate and go on to college.  It was then that I began a personal journey of sorts to discover why I had such a difficult time in school initially.  I also wanted to know how pervasive was my experience with that of other children that came from a similar backgrounds as mine” (p. 1).

It was in 2010, while as a Public Ally through Americore that I had the opportunity to start to begin to understand why I struggled early in my academic career.   In my role as a Public Ally I interned with an urban education reform organization called A+Schools.  I learned for the first time about the academic achievement gap and what I discovered was revealing to say the least.  I initially thought that the achievement gap was due to built in inequalities within the public school system; such as poorly funded public schools, teacher quality, overcrowding etc.  However, upon further research I discovered that while these issues contributed to the gap there was more to the story, because what I found was that the gap was observed upon entry into kindergarten.  After doing some more in-depth research I learned that the reason for such gaps upon entry into kindergarten had a lot to do with the environments children were coming from and the quality of early care and education they received.  To make a long story short, these finding prompted me to take up a profession in early childhood development with the goal of closing the academic achievement gap in my lifetime.

As far my personal experiences goes as it relates to this research simulation, I would say it has been exciting yet daunting.  I am excited because I have been given the opportunity to research a topic that is so near and dear to me, one that I have longed to do a more in-depth study on. Nonetheless, since I have never done research in my entire academic career I am a little overwhelmed with the process so far. There’s a lot to learn as far as conducting appropriate research and what I have found too, is that many of the scholarly articles are difficult to understand and really require a lot of time to sift through before I have gained a good grasp of the information. This was my experience with the research chart assignment anyway; but I am hopeful that as I move forward it will get easier!  Something tells me, however, that this is wishful thinking! lol  That said,  for those of you who have some experience with research if you wouldn’t mind sharing some tips that would help make this research journey more enjoyable please feel free to do so!

Reference

Uvieghara, K. (2014) Building Research Competences. Unpublished Manuscript. Walden University

Issues and Trends Final Post

Post there consequences of learning about the international early childhood field from your professional and personal development

So for the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to “travel” to China and Colombia and learn from two EC professionals, Xiaowan and Paola about the joys and challenges related to their work both as kindergarten teacher.  First, I want to say thank you to them for giving me the opportunity to learn about to EC field from a different context   You two were great teachers for me!  That said, one consequences o my  learnings from them as well as my other colleges is that there seems to be shared issues among the various communites.  For example, Xiaowan spoke of how professional development teachers and alignment with secondary schooling is an on going issues in her country as well as here in the US.  Another consequence is that the field here in the US can learn a lot from other EC Fields.  For example, I learned from one of my peers that in Finland that their system sees early care and education as a right and provide universal access to all children.  I think the Us should move in this direction and so I see myself support the current efforts to establish universal pre-schools for children here.  Finally, another consequence is the lack of coherence with regard to state policies, hiring and professional development policies.  I had not ideal how disjoined the field is and look forward to advocating for changes in this area, much like the policy changes recommended in the Kagan article.  All of this as inspire me to stay connected and abreast on issues in the field around the globe so I joined the WoFoNet work of  World Forum Foundation. Here’s the link to learn more about this net work of EC professionals from around the world: http://www.worldforumfoundation.org

 

Post one goal for the field related to international awareness off issues and the spirit of collegial relations.

When thinking about a goal for the field as it relates to international awareness and the spirit of collegial relations,  I would say more needs to be done around that sharing of ideas, methods and best practices among and between the international communities that make up the field.    From my discussion with my international contacts I learned that many of the issues we face are very similar in nature, including access, integration of dual language learners etc.  I am encouraged; however,  by one organization called the World Forum Foundation whose mission is to promote an on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery  of quality  services for young children in diverse settings(www.worldforumfoundation.org).The organization’s mission is accomplish through convening gathering of early childhood professionals around the world and by promoting the continuing exchange of ideas among participates(www.worldforumfoundation.org)I cannot think of a better way to promote awareness and the spirit of collegial relations then this.

 

 

 

 

Blog Assignment: Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

 

For this week’s blog assignment I was asked to correspond with my international contact on issues related to quality and personal professional goals.  My Columbian contact has been inaccessible since she returned to Columbia a week ago, so I reached out to Xiaowan, who in an assistant kindergarten teacher at an international school in China.  Xiaowan was very forthcoming in her responses to my questions.  Here is what she had to say:

• What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?The consistency of the program across early-childhood from the Nursery to ECLC2 is one of the hottest topics we are discussing all the time. As well, there is a discussion that some teachers do not have a clear understanding of our curriculum.  In addition, we need to collaborate more to improve the quality of the program, and the skills of the teachers as well.

 

• What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?                                     Hopefully, this coming September we will have Te Whariki workshop to have a better understanding of our curriculum.  In addition, Matt Glover is coming to train teachers to improve their skills in developing children’s literacy.  In addition, we are trying out different ways to make learning visible to parents, such as using e-Portfolios.  Making learning visible is one of the criteria of a quality early-childhood, and being a quality professional as well.

• What are some of your professional goals?
•  I want to continue to improve  my skills in advocating for children and parents as well. I want the children to be responsible for their own learning, and make learning visible to parents.
• What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?    I am hoping that in the future, I will make changes, even a little one,  to children, parents, and teachers by creating a safe, caring, and supportive environment.

What I learned from my correspondence with Xiaowan is that she possesses at least one of the qualities mentioned  in this week’s post on the criteria for a quality early learning professional–reflection.  Many of my colleagues listed the ability to be reflective of areas of needed growth and plan towards that growth.  I saw this in her mentioning her desire to make leaning more visible to parents and how a trainer was being dispatched to help her and her other colleagues to accomplish this goal.

 

Sharing Web Resources: Harlem Children’s Zone

 

Given my passion around issues related to closing the achievement gap I was eager to search my chosen organization’s website to see what I would discover.  I was asked to follow some of  the outside links that I have yet to explore.  There were many links but the one that captured my attention was the link to an article in the New York Times entitled,  On HCZ’s Baby College.  Here the author shared on a key component to the success of the Harlem children’s zone, its Baby College, where parents engage in a nine week course on child development.  This article features  Dr.  T. Berry Brazelton, a renowned child pediatrician and author of the best seller, Touchpoints.  Dr. Brazelton leaves his home in Boston and flies somewhere (often times New York)  to speak at day long training sessions on children’s developmental needs and mile stones (Dominus, 2008).  The article goes on to  explain Dr. Brazelton’s positive interactions with the mothers in the  HCZ Baby College program and why his philosophies on child development have been so successful, because they take into consideration that parents need just as much support as their newborns.  Here is a link on Dr. Brazelton’s  for those who are interested in learning more about him and his work: 

I was asked to thoroughly research  one area of the site and record what I found.  I chose to search their news sections and what I found was a range of articles dating back to 2008 listing the many previous individuals who have visited the  school, ranging from Prince Harry of England to Soledad O’brien of CNN.  It also listed several articles of some of the latest projects and successes of the school.

I was also asked to follow a link related to one of the issues I have been studying via their newsletter. I haven’t gotten their newsletter as of yet;however,  I did find a story related to my study of equity and access to quality early childhood programs. The article, also found in the NY Times entitled:  Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy Charter School, Built with 60M from the City, talks about the opening of HCZ’s newest campus right in heart of a city public housing unit called St Nicholas.  I couldn’t help but think how great of a model this was in providing access to disadvantaged/poor communities where large numbers of immigrants live as well.  When asked why Mr. Candada, founder of HCZ build the school in its current location he stated,  “we want to make sure children of the community and neighborhood have access to quality education…..we want to get the most disadvantaged kids and give them a shot”(Barron, 2013).   The five-story building-in the middle of the city’s St Nicholas housing projects-will accommodate 1300 K-12 students and provide free medical, dental and mental health care services to students as well as healthy breakfast and lunch with cooking classes (Barron, 2013)

Regarding the website containing any information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education; I would say that the early care and educational model HCZ uses is the most effective when looking at quality/excellence for poor and or immigrant communities.  One of the reasons that theHCZ model has been so successful in getting poor children ready for school and excelling on statewide test is because the model understands that the needs of poor/immigrant children are unique and require  a network of support systems not only for the child, but the family unit as well.  When we look  at such issues of awareness, access and responsivness, I believe this model does an excellent job of eliminating these barriers for poor and immigrant children. The HCZ models show a tremendous commitment to removing such barriers by building their school in the middle of a housing project!  You can’t get more accessible and responsive then that. Futhermore,its location lends to the communities awareness, which means  the children who might not have had to opportunity to be served will now.

References

Barron, L (2008, June 6th) Harlem Children’s Zone’s Promise Academy Charter School Built with 60M from City Opens. The New York Times

 

Dominus, S ( 2008, Feb. 18th) The Harlem Baby talk and the Art of Dipolomacy. The New York Times

 

http://

Equity and Excellent Issues in Early Childhood

This week in Issues and Trends in Early Childhood we were engaged in a conversations about the various issues has they relate to equity and excellence in the field. We were then asked to reach out to our international contact for information as it relates to the major issues of equity and excellence in their home countries.

I reached out to Xiaowan Chen who is an assistant kindergarten teacher at Shekou International School in China.  I asked Xiaowan, what issues related to excellence and equity is at the forefront of professional discussions in China and her local district?  I also asked her what policy recommendations are being offered to address these issues.

Her response to the first questions was as follows:

-According to statistics from the China Development Research Foundation, around 8.5 million children aged from three to five live in villages in Western China, and only 30 percent of them have access to kindergartens. Therefore, these children lag behind their urban counterparts in many aspects, such as language skills and developing social skills. Experts suggest the country pay more attention to early childhood education in rural western regions.

-There are many factors that hinder the development of early childhood education in China, let alone excellence of care and education. The quantity and quality of early childhood programs in China, especially in rural regions cannot meet the requirements because of a great number of the young population.

-Location and family income are the two major factors that determine children’s early education level in China. The more remote places from urban areas the children live in, the less chances they can have to go to pre-k. This also results from the family income. Families cannot afford the tuition and the transportation fees. Out of safety issue, families would rather keep their children at home than send them to a further place to receive early childhood education.

-Another factor lies in the quantity and quality of teachers. Not so many people would choose to be an early childhood teacher because of the future payback and the awareness of the importance of early childhood education for young children. Even people choose to teach in early childhood field, the standards of becoming an early childhood teacher are not as strict as becoming an elementary or high school teacher.

Xiaowan didn’t really share much in the way of any policy initiatives that her government is working to implement to address the issues she mentioned.  She did; however, comment that she believed that the government and the citizens realized the importance of early childhood education for children and are trying their best to resolve the problems regarding excellence and equity of care and education for children and families.

What I have gained from these conversations as they relate to equity and excellence this week, is that the issues are varied, complex and often times interconnected.  For example, the issue of access to quality early childhood programs are linked to teacher preparation and salary.  We know from studies that those EC programs that hire degreed professional tend to do better as far as impacts on child learning is concerned. However, hiring such professional often time’s means increasing slaveries for workers, which in turn makes access limited to those families that can afford such care, which is often times high quality.  I have also learned that the issues found here in the US are very similar to the issues found in other countries, like that of my international correspondent, Xiaowm.  For example, we too have some of the same issues of achievement gaps between the have and have nots, low quality programs and problem attracting and retaining qualified teachers to the profession. finally, this conversation as peeked my interest in learning what those policy initiatives in country like China might be that are working to address issues related to equity and excellence.   I will let you know what I fine in my next post!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing Wed Resources

What specific sections or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development?

I was recently hired as a Community and Parent Engagement Coordinator for DC Public Schools Office of Early Childhood Development.  One of my roles will be to organize parent workshops on child development and best practices for school readiness for their preschool aged children.  As I read through the material found on the Harlem Children’s Zone website I came across one of their newsletters, Harlem Children’s Zone a Look Inside, and a featured article that will be especially useful for me in my new role and thus my professional development.   The article entitled Baby Collage gives the following description:

The Baby College is a program of the Harlem Children’s Zone. Its goal is to provide everyone in the Harlem Children’s Zone who is expecting a child or raising children between the ages of 0 and 3 with the information and support necessary to bring up happy and healthy children who enter school ready to learn. Classes are held on Saturday mornings at a local public school, and all services are free. Participants receive breakfast, lunch, incentives, and child care during the nine week course, which covers a broad range of subjects including brain development, discipline, immunization, safety, asthma, lead poisoning, parental stress, and parent-child bonding. The program, which began in 2000, now has three full cycles per year, each with more than 50 graduates.

This program sounds very impressive and something I would like to use as a model for the parent workshops I organize.  I especially like the topics covered in the nine-week course and can see how I would easily be able to include my background of early trauma and toxic stress and its impact on brain development as part of the course offerings for my parents.

Which idea/statements/resources either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you fine controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?

I ran across a position paper entitled: Focusing on Results in Promise Neighborhood. Essentially the article makes the case for the expansion of the Harlem Children‘s Zone model through a federal initiative called promise neighborhoods. While reading the position paper I did run across several statements that raised red flags or may be controversial.   The two statements are in regard to why the HCZ model has been so successful and read:

-Measurements Matters: Measurable goals are identified that are clearly sated, meaningful and ambitious

-Data Matters: Data systems are in place, with the capacity to capture, store and access data for community-planning, decision making and accountability.

On the surface these statements seem harmless, and in fact noteworthy; however with the current Standards Movement and high stakes testing taking place within the field in education, such statements should make EC professional pause.  We learned in this week’s discussion topic on new voices in the field of early childhood, that along with the additional resources these voices bring to the field, there are also unintended consequences these voices bring as well.  An over emphasis on results and lead to  those developmentally appropriate practices such as play and child centered curriculum becoming the victims to data an measurable goals.

What information does this website or e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economist, neuroscientist or politicians support the early childhood field?

It was very apparent by reading through their 2008-2000 biannual report entitled, Harlem Children’s Zone:  Investing in Success, that their model has been heavily supported by economist, scientist and politicians.  For example, I read the following:

The respected Dr. Roland Fryers studied the achievement of the Promise students comparing their statewide test scores to those students who did not win the school’s admission lottery.  He went further and compared their statewide test scores to those students who did not win the school’s admission lottery.  He declared that some grades had closed the black-white achievement gap and his finding had in his words, changed my life as a scientist.

The HCZ model has been supported and influence by neuroscientist in that the center’s Baby College, which offers early childhood development classes to expecting mothers, was largely created in response to the research coined by neuroscientist on how critical the first five years are for the healthy development of the brain and its functions.

I also observed the support and influence of policymakers/politicians. I read how HCZ had become so successful that now the Obama Administration plans to replicate the model through 20 Promise Neighborhoods over the next 10 years.

What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field di you gain from exploring the website or e-news letter?

During my reading of the HCZ website I also gleaned that there was a big emphasis placed on meeting the needs of the community in order to meet the needs of the students enrolled in their schools.  The HCZ model takes on a whole approach model to child development, by offering a range of social services programs, such as medical and dental, mental health, along with advice to parents on how to find housing to filing taxes. The founders believe in large part that their success is directly linked to these additional services. I wonder if this will become a trend in our nation’s public schools, particularly those schools that have large populations living below the poverty line. Only time will tell!