BENEFTS OF INTERNATIONAL CONTACT

There are many benefits when one collaborate with colleagues at any level. As part of the learning activities in the course, I developed a collaborative relationship with a colleague from South Africa, the experience has been both revealing and beneficial, giving me a cherished opportunity of learning about the international early childhood field with particular reference to South Africa. My personal and professional growth has been extraordinarily great as a result of the interaction.

The consequences of engaging in such professional learning for me include acquisition of skills and strategies needed for effective and professional communication across culture; development of strategies and skills that help in working successfully with international colleagues; and enhancement of greater creativity- I have through the interaction been able to modify my professional goals in a tandem with my passion. I also discovered that such interaction can boost one's sense of competence and confidence as it enhances ones academic skills, increases one's knowledge base of issues in the field, and helps in enlarging one's perspective.

In a rapidly changing and highly globalised world, issues and trends in early education childhood field among nations of the world are more similar than different which makes international collaboration between practitioners in the field necessary and of tremendous benefits to practitioners and the field. The world is fast becoming a global village and the problems surrounding a field in one country are often issues in other countries as well ( Smith 2001). From learning and awareness got through such collaboration, an important window for globally looking at common issues and trends might be opened and might form a vital part or starting point of problem-solving globally.


References:
Smith, D. (2001). Collaborative research: Policy and management of knowledge creation in UK universities. Higher Education Quarterly, 55(2), 131-157

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR INTERNATIONAL CONTACT-PART 3

The importance of early childhood care and education is known to all, however, what makes this meaningful is for all families and indeed all children to have equal access to the best programs. As early childhood education is about laying a sound intellectual, psychological, emotional, social, and physical foundation for development and lifelong learning, making quality program accessible and affordable to all children would make it of great benefits to the society as a whole, a child that is left untrained today is a potential danger not only to himself/herself but to the society as a whole. It is at the early childhood period that children develop their basic values, attitudes, skills, behaviours and habits, which may be long lasting.


I have a passion for the education of the children of the poor. I grew up in an environment where poverty level is high, where children education is considered a luxury and where most children see their chance of been educated an impossibility and where lots of potential has been lost. My professional goal therefore is to have an NGO that focus on reaching out to these children and make education available to them. My plan is to go back to Nigeria after my retirement and start the NGO and have an early childhood care and education centre.

My International contact, Rebbecca Moyo is also into a similar project in South Africa and I have been talking to her and getting some ideas from her that can be useful. I will also explore possible area of assistance and collaboration with her organisation. This week I asked her some questions based on the assignment for the week, her responses to those questions are produced below:

Question 1 : What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed in South Africa?

Response: One of the major issues being discussed is how practitioners in the field will be able to meet the unique situation of children in South Africa- a large percentage of age 0-5 children in South Africa are experiencing poverty and other challenges occasioned by HIV pandemic. So one of the issues on the table is how to provide support and training for professionals in the field of early childhood education in order for them to be able to meet not just the educational needs of these children but also their health, psychological, social, and emotional needs.

Question 2 : What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

Response: Quite a lot. There are on going professional development programs aimed at attracting and retaining quality professionals into the field. On the government part, the department of education trained more than 15,000 practitioners and support staff in 2008, while the department of labour trained more than one thousand support staff such as cooks and gardeners in the same period. There are also professional development opportunities and training provided by non-government organisations, one of such is Training and Resources in Early Education (TREE), the organisation runs course-based, family based, and community based programs.

Question 3 : What are some of your professional goals:

Response: Having worked in my active career life with children, my goal (and am pursuing it passionately and vigorously) is to build and run a school that cater for children that became orphans due to the loss of their parents to AIDS scourge.

Question 4: What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

Response : My hope is to see a South Africa where all children have access to quality care and education, I sincerely believe we cannot have a country of our dream and that of our founding fathers until that is first achieved. My major challenges so far has been in the area of support, especially financial support.


Credit
Rebbecca Moyo (Personal Communication, December 16, 2011).

SHARING WEB RESOURCES 3

All the web sites I have explored have been unequivocal in the praise and support for early childhood care and education. This is not surprising as evidences abound that experiences a child had in the early years has profound consequences on the child later on in life. Studies have shown how patterns of experience a child had in the early years have had long-term impacts on the social and cognitive development of the child. However, it must be stressed that the much talked about gains of early childhood care and education such as returns in human capital development, better social development, fewer drop-outs etc can only make sense and be felt by the society if programs been provided are of high quality and can be accessible by all children- their social, religious and cultural backgrounds and physical differences notwithstanding.

The last website that I visited was that of Eurochild at www.eurochild.org. Eurochild is a network of organizations and individuals working in Europe to improve the quality of life of children and young people. Eurochild's activities are underpinned by the principles enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and is being funded by the European Commission within the Progress Program. From the site I was able to assess conclusions made at the 3090th Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council meeting held in Brussels between 19th and 20th May, 2011. Stressing the importance of early childhood education, the council, among other conclusions recognizes the need for a provision of a generalized equitable access to high quality early childhood education and care as a strong contributing factor to the success of Europe 2010 strategy.

One important new insight about issues and trends in early childhood education that I got from exploring this site is that of the need to increase the proportion of men in early childhood education and care programs. I have never given this a thought before now, albeit, it is the tradition and implied practice in some schools that only women can provide education and care for young children. I now remember how parents kicked against a male teacher that was employed in my former school to teach at the preschool level- he was eventually moved to grade 1. Having role models of both sexes is good for children and helps their development, it can help break gender stereotyped feelings and perceptions. A care center or school composed of both sexes will widening children's experience and will make a positive statement about reduced gender segregation in the labor market.

Sources:

www.eurochild.org

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/Newsroom

MY INTERNATIONAL CONTACT 2

I want to start this week's posting by expressing my appreciation to Rebbecca, my international contact, for being such a wonderful and nice person. Within two weeks of my contacting and getting to know her, she has not only offered me highly informative and rich insights into early childhood programs and practices in South Africa, she has also become a caring and loving friend. Just this morning, she sent me an SMS wishing me “happy new month of December.”
In my discussions with Rebbecca on phone yesterday I asked her about the state of early childhood education in South Africa and what is the future of the child in South Africa in relationship with quality of programs and equal educational opportunities for all children. After our discussions she sent additional information through e mail and gave me the website and physical address of South Africa's Centre for Early Childhood Development.
According to Rebbecca, greater efforts has been concentrated on education after transition to democratic government in South Africa, government has introduced lot of initiatives and programs aimed at improving access, equity and quality. Government has increased funding, and took steps to bridge the achievement gap and stopped the system where funding is based on race.
For early childhood, the Early Childhood Development is the term used as general classification for the process and program through which children from ages 0 to 9 grow, flourish, and develop socially, physically, morally, and cognitively. The purpose is to protect the child's right to education and development in all domains. The Centre for Early Childhood Development based in Western Cape but with regional offices all over South Africa, coordinate and regulate early childhood education programs in South Africa.
As a measure of quality, all early childhood practitioner were given till 31 July, 2011 to register with the South African Council of Educators (SACE), there are conditions and standards to be met before they are registered and once they are registered, they are bound by the council's code of professional ethics. After 31 July, 2011 all unregistered day care, creche, and any other such programs are considered illegal and they face government sanction.
Despite all these efforts, the quality of schooling for children and accessibility in South Africa leaves much to be desired when properly assessed. For example, more than 50% of children still do not have access to any form of ECD. The good thing is that the government and the centre for early childhood development are aware of this and are making efforts at meeting the needs of South Africa's youngest children through a range of programs to children, families, educators, and communities. One of these programs is Little Village Early Learning Program through which (at the pilot stage) 100 early childhood educators and 1,884 children were provided with valuable learning materials. With such efforts there is hope for the child in South Africa and the cycle of poverty which is the greatest challenge that children face in South Africa will be broken.
Source:
Rebbecca Moyo (personal communication, November 30, 2011).