Week 8 Final Blog

Watching the podcasts and viewing web sites on international early childhood associations and issues has been an eye-awaking experience for me. I was not able to communicate with anyone in another country, so I chose the podcasts and websites.

As a small business owner, of course, I was interested in economic and financial issues with current legislation and the international sphere as well. Several BAM NAEYC podcasts I listened to talked about how current legislation was actually hurting early childhood education and high quality education for all. The speakers also pointed out how the economic view of future gains starting with our young children has shined more light on the industry. Of course, another aspect was that monies (grants, etc) were not available or the funding was not enough to help families pay for child care. This is a problem state funded and private early childhood programs are facing.

With the question of money came the podcasts on how poverty influences early childhood as well. Most families are unable to pay for child care because they do not have it. So, I have many children who have state funding to attend. This funding allows children to attend whereas they could not, unfortunately, for those on the funding there are more who are not. So, the questions of how can I help my community and international aspect of early childhood care arose. Many other countries where poverty is the norm, children are not able to benefit from care.

One International website I researched was Education International. This website stated, “Many countries continue to recruit under qualified teachers, thereby compromising the quality of education.” The website continues to speak about the education and professional development should be a top priority but in reality, it is not. The website also shared some research in other countries about quality of care. Some of the research is “Teacher Supply, Recruitment and Retention in Six Anglophone Sub-Saharan African Countries,” “Learning how to teach: The upgrading of unqualified primary teachers in sub-Saharan Africa. Lessons from Tanzania, Malawi and Nigeria,” and “Teachers’ education and professional development systems in Asia-Pacific region.” Another international study “Quality Educators: An International Study of Teacher Competences and Standards” is a Quality Educators for All Project.

I have enjoyed reading everyone’s post concerning international contacts and/or podcasts and websites. I think everyone had information that I was unaware of which helped me learn more from the class.

Education International. (n.d.). Teacher Education. Retrieved from http://www.ei-ie.org/en/websections/content_detail/5528