Sharing Web Resources

As you know, I have been exploring the web site of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE).  I originally selected this organization because I am currently working towards my MS in Early Childhood Studies with a concentration on Teaching Adults in the Early Childhood Field.  NAECTE is more geared toward those already working as an educator of adults, so I have really had to search their site and follow links in order to find information that is relevant to my current professional development as an early childhood educator.

While reading through NAECTE's E-Letter archives, I came across an article on "The Raising of America:  Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation (http://www.naecte.org/docs/NAECTE%20Fall%202013%20E-letter.pdf)."  The article describes a wonderful six-part documentary series and public engagement campaign that seeks to reframe the way we look at early child health and development. The series works to show how a strong start for children leads to better learning, earning, and physical and mental health which will lead all of us to a healthier, safer, better educated and more prosperous and equitable nation.

In wanting to further investigate this series, I went to their web site www.raisingofamerica.org.  I encourage all early childhood professionals to visit the site!  There are several previews of the series and full episode previews that are very informative and thought provoking.  I have included The Raising of America Series - TRAILER here:

Here is the series description from www,raisingofamerica.org:

Series Description

It’s often said a society can be measured by how well it attends to its children—their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialization, and their sense of being loved and valued by their families and communities.

So how is it that children in the U.S. have worse outcomes on most measures of health, education and well-being than other rich nations? How can we do better?

The Raising of America takes us inside the brain and brings to life recent scientific research that reveals how early experiences, beginning in the womb, can alter brain architecture and developmental trajectories. Through the stories of families from different walks of life, we discover how the lack of paid parental leave and high-quality affordable childcare, stagnant wages and overcrowded housing, depression and social exclusion, and perhaps most of all the time crunch, too often undermine the efforts of parents and caregivers struggling to provide the nurturing environments all children need to thrive.

The Raising of America widens its lens to reveal what Sir Michael Marmot calls, "the cause of the causes," the larger structures that contribute, in Harvard's Jack Shonkoff's words, "to a pile-up of advantage for some children, a cascade of risk for others." In response, some communities are organizing to strengthen social supports, policies and other protective factors which improve the odds not only for their youngest children, no matter how poor, but which can also compensate for and in some cases reverse the epigenetic effects in older children and teens who've suffered adverse experiences.

By exploring how things got this way—the history of U.S. child and family policy over the past century, the victories as well as the defeats—The Raising of America seeks to better understand what stands in the way of progress, and what we can do better. The film lifts up those struggling to make good on a vision where all our children matter, all are nurtured and all have opportunities to thrive.

Poverty and Children

I have reached out to several more international contacts and am still waiting for a reply.  Instead, I researched Ghana on UNICEF's web site (www.unicef.org).  Ghana is a subregion of West Africa.  With a population of about 27 million, Ghana is one of Africa's most developed countries.  Over 95% of children in Ghana attend school.  However, more than 20-25% of Ghana's population lives below the lower poverty line.

Ghanian Children. Photograph by Scott Sernau

In Ghana, 25%-27% of children under the age of five are underweight and stunted due to malnutrition. While under five mortality rates have decreased due to an increase in immunization, Ghana still has a long way to go.  Young children from poor families suffer from poor health, lack of proper nutrition, and poor education.  These same children are less likely to be able to break the poverty cycle. "The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) of 2002 identified children and children orphaned by AIDS as among the most vulnerable and excluded population groups in Ghana (http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Ghana_reportdesign_July2010.pdf)."

Basic education is provided in Ghana, but for rural communities it is often difficult to get the children to a school location.  More female children attend school than male children.  Many children are street children with no family to take care of them.  These children work for child laborers or exchange sexual favors for food and basic necessities.  Ghana has been working to reduce poverty and increase the health and well-being of the children of Ghana.  Such efforts include the 1994 Exclusive Breastfeeding Initiative,  Child Labour and Human Trafficking Act of 2005, and the Gender Parity Policy of 2003-2015 (http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Ghana_reportdesign_July2010.pdf).

UPDATE:  I just received an email from an early childhood educator working in Ghana.  She teaches in a school that has primary grades K-8. The K class is huge and the grade 8 is very small. She says the difference in class sizes is due to a couple different factors.

The teachers don’t have supplies. They are given curriculum books to teach, but sometimes chalk is even hard to find or it has to be borrowed between classes. Children share pencils and erasers a lot of the times. Teaching materials, such as any manipulative or props, are not available at all. Some of the teachers  make props out of recycled materials anything they could find. She helped another teacher make a clock out of cardboard, construction paper, and a fastener in order to teach time.

Once students reach upper grades, usually starting at grade 4, they miss a lot of school because they have to go work because they’re families need money. They fall behind in school.  Some are able to catch up and others drop out and work full time. They usually go to surrounding villages to sell spices, meats, or other goods that their families sell. A lot of children are left with grandparents because parents leave to go find work in the surrounding countries of Togo and Benin and a lot of grandparents can’t travel that far, to other villages, so its left to the children to do.

A lot of girls get pregnant at young ages causing them to drop out and take care of their children. They don’t have access to effective birth control and some of their religions do not allow them to use it (the main religions are Christian or traditional Ghanian religion). A lot of the girls talked about being pressured in to it by peers and the boys they dated (Peila, J. Personal Communication, March 22, 2015).

Sharing Web Resources

The National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (http://www.naecte.org/) is an organization that focuses on early childhood teacher education.  As listed on their web site, their purpose is as follows:

• To promote the professonal growth of our membership
• To discuss educational issues specific to our membership
• To advocate for improvements in early childhood teacher education
• Provide a forum for consideration of issues and concerns of interest to educators of early childhood teacher educators
• Provide a communication network for early childhood teacher educators
• Facilitate the interchange of information and ideas about research and practice
• Use, as vehicles, the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, conferences, resolutions, position papers, and other publications
• Cooperate with other national and international organizations concerned with the study and education of young children

They publish the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education.  Their journals are available to members of NAECTE and through college libraries that subscribe.  I found several articles on the issue of culture and diversity.  A few of these articles were titled "Service Learning:  A Promising Strategy for Connecting Future Teachers to the Lives of Diverse Children and Their Families," "Fostering Culturally and Developmentally Responsive Teaching Through Improvisational Practice," and "Children Crossing Borders:  Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool."  The articles are very informative and are directed at early childhood educators and those that teach early childhood educators.

References
Elizabeth Graue, Kristin Whyte & Kate Kresin Delaney (2014) Fostering Culturally and Developmentally Responsive Teaching Through Improvisational Practice, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 35:4, 297-317, DOI: 10.1080/10901027.2014.968296

Harriet Able , Hatice Ghulamani , Ritsa Mallous & Jocelyn Glazier (2014) Service Learning: A Promising Strategy for Connecting Future Teachers to the Lives of Diverse Children and Their Families, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 35:1, 6-21, DOI: 10.1080/10901027.2013.874383

Mayra Almodóvar & Julia T. Atiles (2015) Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 36:1, 84-86, DOI: 10.1080/10901027.2015.1001644

Connecting with Early Childhood Professionals and Expanding Resources

I took to searching the Internet when NAEYC's global alliance page refused to open and I was lucky enough to find e-mail addresses for two early childhood associationa.  I have reached out to early childhood professionals in Australia through the Australian Early Childhood Education Network and to early childhood professionals at the State Institute of Early Childhood Education and Research in Munich, Germany.  It would be great to share and communicate with early childhood professionals from other countries.  I am anxiously awaiting their replies.

In addition to reaching out to early childhood professionals, I have decided to study the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators organiuzation and web site.  Their home page states, "NAECTE members are people from all across the United States and from countries around the globe. We are joined together by our common interest in Early Childhood Teacher Education (http://www.naecte.org)."  In their puepose statements they state that they advocate for improvements in early childhood teacher education and they provide a communication network for early childhood teacher educators (http://www.naecte.org).