International Awareness

Giving the opportunity to learn about early childhood on the international level as has been a eye opening experience; however, there were some consequences that followed:

·         Unfortunately I was unable to make a personal international connect and because of that I was unable to engage in a full conversation about issues that I listened to on the podcast.

·         More information created more questions; however, because of time constraints, new questions remain unanswered.

·         I was unable to challenge the views of those who spoke on the podcast.

One goal I have is to continue to reach out to international contacts through use of the NAEYC website.

Insight

In looking at the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation website, I had the following insights:

·         The early childhood profession began with two types of services in mind.  One was to serve poor children and the other was to provide education for children from middle class families.  These two services also created, unintentionally, two types of professions---an early childhood teacher and a pedagogue.  The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (2004) define the early childhood teacher as a professional who work with children birth to three and a pedagogue work is based on theory and practice. 

·         In 2002 a decision was made in Vietnam to increase access of early childhood programs to disadvantage families (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 2005).  This change increased the number of teachers with social insurance by 51% and even higher for those with health insurance (UNESCO, 2005). 

·         Public resources has a tremendous effect on inequity and excellence in early childhood.  UNESCO (2004) reported that public resources that is not distributed effectively contributes to inequity while lack of public resources contribute to the inequity of early childhood education in Indonesia (UNESCO, 2004).

References

UNESCO. (2005). Supporting the poorest:  Vietnam’s early childhood policy. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001425/142585e.pdf

UNESCO.  (2004).  The early childhood workforce in developed countries:  Basic structure an education.  Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001425/142,585e.pdf

UNESCO. (2004).  Access, public investment, and equity in ECCE:  The nexus in nine high-population countries. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137408e.pdf

Additional NAEYC Resources

The NAEYC newsletter I received include a link to the online journal Voices of Practitioners.  This online journal provides early childhood teachers with the opportunity to publish their research.  The article decided to read was titled “Reflection in Action:  An Infant’s Teacher’s Journey of Discovery”.  This article discussed the importance of reflection as an infant teacher.  I found the article to be very informative and help put into words what most infant teachers may feel. 

The current newsletter did not include information on the issues discussed this week in class; however, the website continues to provide an opportunity to show support to The Strong Start for America’s Children proposal by providing an open letter to congress that can be signed by anyone.  This link can be found at http://strongstart.naeyc.org/.