My Family Culture

If a major catastrophe devastated the infrastructure of our country and I could only take three things I would bring a necklace, our family photo album and my journal. I would bring the necklace because my granny gave it to me on my 16^th birthday. It was a gift from my grandpa to her. She is my favorite person in the world and very important to me. I would bring our family photo album because it has pictures from both my husband and I’s childhood, pictures from our wedding, pregnancy and baby. The photo album represents our history and our future! Finally, I would bring my journal. This journal was written to me while my mom was pregnant with me. She talked about her feelings, thoughts, fears and excitement about being pregnancy and having a baby. She gave it to me at the beginning of my pregnancy and I wrote to my son while I was pregnancy. When he is old enough he will be able to read about his grandma being pregnant and his mom.

            If I was told that I could only keep one of these items I would be very emotional and torn between them all. They each represent a piece of who I am and having to decide which has the most meaning would be difficult.  I think what would help me make the decision would be thinking about my son’s future. I would want to choose the item that would give him a good representation of our family culture and history.

            In June, our city was devastated by a fire. Our city was on fire for days. Hundreds of houses burned and thousands of people were evacuated. Many of my friends’ had minutes to evacuate their home and gather important papers and keepsakes. Thankfully, we were not evacuated but we were on notice. During that time, I had to decide what to bring with me in case we were evacuated. These items were the ones I packed first. When I read this assignment I knew my choices right away. Those things can never be replaced and strongly represent what is important to me, my FAMILY!

             

When I think of Reserch...

Some of the insights I have gained about research from this course are the different types of research, quantitative vs. qualitative and the characteristics involved with each.  I have learned about different ethical concerns that may arise and how to address them.  Not only did I learn about research but I learned how to decipher research articles. At the beginning of this course, I was very intimidated by research and the articles I have had to read throughout my program. However, now I have a better understanding about what I am reading. I can read it once or twice vs. ten times! J  

Conducting research doesn’t seem as intimidating to me after this course. I have learned the pieces involved in conducting ethical research and methods I would like to eventually incorporate into my own career.  While I may never conduct an actual research study, I will take pieces from research including data collection and use it to help me understand patterns and trends. I have new ideas and strategies to incorporate this into my job.

The whole process of conducting research was relatively foreign to me. As I said, I have read research articles but honestly I tried to avoid them because I didn’t understand the process and had a difficult time understanding what they were saying.  I have learned the process starts with a topic, focuses on a question and forming a hypothesis. It is important to decide what kind of research design best suits the topic and to consider the ethical concerns that are involved in the study.  One of the biggest pieces is to ensure the results are valid.  I have learned that the whole process works together to formulate a study that will contribute to the field.

One of the biggest challenges for me came early in this class. I struggled with deciding on a topic and then narrowing down my subtopics and finally formulating a question that was specific. I have a tendency to think broadly about topics and want to incorporate to much.

Research Around the World

This week I looked at Australia’s early childhood research.  Some of the research being done focuses on service delivery for families living with children with disabilities, the challenges of teaching the arts and how teachers’ feel about this.  The website also offers a research in practice section. One of the topics caught my eye because it is similar to my research simulation. The topic is learning and teaching through play. The book is available for purchase and provides a lot of great information about play. There were also several articles that focused on play. Obviously, this is a hot topic in Australia at this time.

One thing I noticed as I explored the website is that many of the research going on internationally are also being researched in the United States. Internationally a lot of the topics including bullying, children with developmental disabilities and at risk and play based learning.  I think it would be interesting to see if the results of the research are the same as in the United States.

This website offered a lot of great information about research as well as policies. There was also a lot of access to other resources including magazines and journals. I thought the website was user friendly which is really important when doing research (in my opinion).  I enjoyed exploring this organization and website.

Reference:

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families

I have enjoyed thinking about this blog topic throughout the week. I have recently switched professions from a classroom teacher (kindergarten autism) to a developmental interventionist working with toddlers’ ages 0-3 on the spectrum.  I go into homes or other social settings (daycares or preschools) and work with families. I show them strategies to work on building communication, play skills, social skills and behavior.  One of the pieces within this field is a peer program.  A child with autism participates in a peer program with a developmental interventionist 1:1.  The program is in a preschool setting, twice a week for two hours. During this time appropriate play and social skills are the focus.  Knowing that background, if I could conduct research on any area in early childhood it would be the benefits of using typical peers to model appropriate behavior, provide appropriate social interaction and play skills to children with autism. I would create my own peer program that goes beyond the classroom and into the community as well. I believe the benefits of this would impact both children with autism and typical peers.  It would provide the children with autism appropriate models leading to future independence and inclusion while teaching typical peers patience and tolerance for children different than them. It would benefit families as well.  Parents’ would have support as well.  I strongly believe children with special needs should be integrated into general education and community settings. By providing a program that teaches these essential skills while allowing access to typical peers equals success for everyone.   

Personal Research Journey

My topic is academic expectations for early childhood learners.  I was a special education teacher for the last 5 years.  As a special education teacher, I was constantly being asked to observe behavior and strategies to help improve academic growth in the kindergarten setting.  As I began observing these students’ I realized the expectations may be developmentally inappropriate for their age, therefore, causing behavior due to frustration and less academic growth because the concepts were too difficult.  Over the last five years I have watched a shift in education. Teachers are now pressured to show an increase in academic growth and data. Therefore, less time is spent teaching children based on their need and development and more time spent teaching to “the test”.   I wanted to research the benefits/implications in considering development in academic expectations.  My three subtopics are what is academically appropriate for early childhood learners, the impact of developmentally appropriate/inappropriate expectations have on behavior and the benefits incorporating play can have on academic growth. 

As I posted in my discussion in week 1, I have been intimidated by research because it is not an area of strength for me.  I struggle with reading and understanding research articles and studies.  So far this class has provided good tips on what actually needs to be read and what can be skimmed over.  It has been a long time since I have taken a class on research.  The review of terms and what to look for when researching credible sources has been helpful. I am also thankful that learning the research process has been gradual and slow up to this point.

From my peers if you have any experiences, resources or thoughts on my topic I would appreciate any feedback.  Many of the students’ I have taught were behind grade level so any information on what is appropriate for general education students’ would be beneficial. 

Final Blog Assignment

I have genuinely enjoyed learning about organizations on the international level.  When I hear the word “consequences” I immediately think of negative.  For me, most of the consequences are positive.  I have enjoyed learning about the structure of international organizations and where they are allotting their resources.  On some level, it is comforting to know that other nations are struggling with the same trends as the United States.  Since we are struggling with the same trends it is important to bridge our resources together.  I enjoyed learning about different perspectives from the organizations and what they view as priorities within the field.  The only negative consequence I found with trying to learn about early childhood at the international level was contacting individuals working in the field or for organizations. I believe this would have helped me gain a more personal understanding and different perspective of the trends within the field; however, I was unable to make contact with anyone.

One goal related to international awareness within the field of early childhood education is for the United States to not separate from other countries.  If we are struggling with the same concerns and issues, I believe we should combine our resources to make the biggest difference in early childhood.  Communicating and collaborating about what is working and what is not working will help maximize change.

Getting to know international contacts, pt. 3

Although I have been disappointed because none of my attempts to communicate with early childhood professionals around the world have been answered I have enjoyed learning about different organizations that are working to improve early childhood education. 

I explored the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization website this week.  This organization is working to support early childhood education by forming a foundation through policy development. One way this organization works to accomplish this is through two planning strategies.  The first is phasing.  In this strategy the organization is working to respond to the needs of young children in relation to early childhood.  The second strategy is the one that I was impressed by.  It is called partnership.  In this strategy the organization wants to work together to partner with other sectors.  For example, social and health sectors working together.  By partnering together care and education can be addressed within early childhood and for older children.

I also read about quality, access and equity within this organization.  While reading about this I kept seeing the 1990 Jomiten Declaration on Education for All (EFA) and the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action. I wanted to learn more about these policies since it was obviously important to the organization.  The EFA believes that all learning begins at birth and early childhood education and care is an important and basic part of education. The 2000 Dakar Framework for Action is based on improving early childhood education as part of its six main goals.

The UNESCO is working hard to improve early childhood education.  The website offers several resources including publications, evaluation reports, statistics, etc.  There is a lot of great information on this website.