Consequences of Deepining my Knowledge on International Resources

                                                              Expanding my knowledge on the

                                                                          ECE Field Through 

                                                                      International Resources

1. Partnership and building relations is key to helping raise awareness and funding for the field of ECE. A commonality for all the international resources I have discovered in this course is the recent heightened sense of the importance and beneficial factor of high-quality ECE programs for young minds and their families.

2. Accessibility: Accessibility is another common trend all resources shared. Now that we have the knowledge on the importance of attaining high-quality early childhood education programs it is time to make these programs and centers available for all in various communities and locations around the world. This aligns with partnerships and conversing with policymakers to ensure that we have funding to make these places accessible to all.

3. Research and Getting communication out to the public demographic. With research and collecting data comes the distribution of our findings. How are we going to inform others and people who may not have the technology to receive the resources they need to provide them with tools and sources to help them and their child grow in their developmental journey.

What Now?

With the resources that I and my colleagues have found we can all work and contribute to the social change in the field of ECE. Below are resources where anyone interested in the field of ECE can research, join, donate, and be engaged in the international rise of early childhood education and development.

  https://www.childfund.org/

  https://www.naeyc.org/

https://www.unicef.org/

https://worldomep.org/

The Rise of Accessibility in High-Quality ECE Programs in Philadelphia

                                                             High-Quality ECE Programs in 

                                                                    Philadelphia, PA

        While researching how my home state of Philadelphia is addressing more accessibility to high-quality ECE programs I was able to find two great organizations that use data, partnerships, and research to access where more accessibility is needed and how they can make this happen. They do this by partnering up with Keystone STARS assessments of various ECE programs and other early childhood recreation sites such as the Free Library and Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse.

    It is important we have organizations like these that partner with our community resources to ensure high-quality programs and pathways for our young minds and their families. Having knowledge of where more resources and support are needed is the key to ensure that we raise accessibility to all members of our communities.

William Penn Foundation: Expanding Access to High-Quality Early Childhood Education

   Recent Research Reports

First Up: https://www.firstup.org/impacting-systems/

First Up Partnerships in Philadelphia PA

https://cdesignc.org/

https://www.freelibrary.org/

https://smithplayground.org/

Global Reources

                                                                 NAEYC Goes Global

                       https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/global-lessons-early-childhood-teacher-education

                This article on the NAEYC blog page shows the experience and story of a woman's journey to Roatan, Honduras where she was a curriculum coach and teacher. She shares the challenge of communication with the language barrier of Spanish and language and how she was able to overcome that with the use of observing body language. The three main points she learned from this experience was the importance of observing, asking questions, and modeling behavior. 

• "Communicate—I don’t speak Spanish, so communicating with the teachers is a challenge because they don’t speak English. Affirming all the teachers and children by using rituals, eye contact, and positive body language is essential. We also communicate in a practical way with photographs."
• -HEATHER LOGAN

    After viewing her story I decided to look up early childhood education centers and programs in Rotan, Honduras because she mentioned when she was there in 2015 there were not many centers or services available. "There are no regulations covering early care and education on Roatan, which has about 90,000 residents, and only two early childhood education centers on the island" (Logan 2015).

The two I found were: 

Paradise Babies Early Learning Center https://www.paradisebabiesroatan.com/

    They pride themselves and have a mission to be a high-quality, child-focused learning environment.

AllRed Daycare and Learning Center: http://ifroatan.org/allred-daycare-center/

    This is a nonprofit bilingual learning facility 

"Our mission is to promote the economic and cultural growth of the Roatan community by providing quality bilingual education and childcare for working, low-income families"

NAEYC Request for Funding in Early Childhood Education

                                                                             Covid 19

                                                                        2020 Pandemic

             There has been a rapid and massive amount of loss in lives, jobs, socialization, and finances.

            This is also the case for the field of early childhood education. Although this field is overlooked and underappreciated it is an essential field and career that will help benefit our future society and communities. Giving a good foundation to young minds to help them learn, grow, and succeed is what is needed if we want to make advancements in technology, medicine, medical procedures, and economics. 

    Like many other industries, the field of early childhood education has gone through many layoffs, centers closing, low enrollment, and low compensation. Educators, staff members, researchers, therapists, and others involved in ECE are doing whatever it takes to make sure that this field stays thriving and that we are helping as many families and children as possible regardless of the recent decline of money coming into this field. 

    NAEYC conducts a monthly survey to see the statistics of people and centers who are impacted by this year's pandemic. If you want to participate in this survey and share your experience of how COVID-19 is impacting your ECE career you can share it here: https://child360.org/educator-info-naeyc-wants-your-feedback/

They report their findings to Congress to show our need and urgency for funding in this field. To connect with the policymakers we have to find a common language to communicate with them so they can understand the real-life, real-time, situations and experiences members in our community are going through especially now in these unprecedented times.

 December 2020 Survey

           "This uncertainty is driving educators and programs out of the child care sector, and harming

children, families, and businesses. Real relief requires more than a band-aid. We continue to urge

Congress to provide immediate, robust and targeted investments to stabilize and support child care

and early learning so the essential workforce in this $99 billion industry can continue to support

children, families, and the American economy through this crisis, recovery, and beyond" (NAEYC 2020)

International Resources (Canada)

                                                                                 

                                              Canada

                The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative partnered with the Palix Foundation and Harvard University Center of the Developing Child to discuss how the brain is built and structured from a young age. This foundation came to foot because of the growing number of people the Albertans saw in their community who suffered from mental illness and addiction. They partnered with these two organizations to spread information on how the brain work and the importance of giving young minds a healthy and strong foundation to develop over the span of their development. 

The site below provides in-depth information about how this foundation formed. This is a great way to inform others on how important and essential it is that we give our young children a strong, nurturing, healthy environment to grow up in and a good start to their academic and social journey in life. 

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/collective-change/key-concepts/distributed-leadership/alberta-family-wellness-initiative/

This video shows how having a strong foundation from childbirth can create a good platform and structure to build on the development of the brain.