Early Childhood Systems - Week 8

          There was not as much discussion in this course as I have had in others, but the discussions that took place helped in my learning about early childhood systems. I was glad to have a colleague in Head Start and learned more about the challenges they are facing through funding cuts. Katy being from Minnesota definitely brought new insights to the class through her own professional work and through Minnesota's efforts in helping families and children.

Three consequences of collaborative learning

1. Listening to different perspectives - All colleagues have a different perspective on issues. Even those of us from Louisiana worked in different sectors of early childhood so our challenges and issues were different.

2. You are not alone - It doesn't seem to matter what sector of early childhood you are working in, some of the challenges are the same. This does not make the situation better but it did help me to see the bigger picture of early childhood education.

3. Suggestions and/or ideas - Throughout all my courses as well as this one, hearing ideas or suggestions from others in a related job, brought a fresh approach to my work. One colleague from another course worked for QRS in another state. She and I shared many ideas. Learning through Katy's experiences was quite informative and gave me insight to how Minnesota has chosen to make early childhood a priority.

Goal

I will use the knowledge and insights gained in this class to advocate for an increased demand in quality services for children and families.

Thanks to all of you who were there for me every week. I hope the New Year brings you all the things in life that are important and special to you. May we all keep our chins up and forge ahead in our work for children and families.

Hypothetical Family Situation

          I am a married white woman in my early thirties. I have two children ages four and two, and I am pregnant for my third child. I recently found out that my unborn baby has a brain abnormality and will be born with cerebral palsy. My husband and I are immediately devastated about how we will be able to care for a child with a disability. Our other two children were typical developing children and we feel unequipped to care for this child. My husband begins to worry about finances. He works at a job making about eleven dollars an hour and I work as an administrative assistant making about nine dollars an hour. We are considered to be lower middle class. We fall into that financial category of making too much money to receive resources, but yet struggle to keep up with expenses and needs of our family. We wonder how we will pay for medical bills, and other expenses related to a child with disabilities. I am also concerned about the emotional well-being of my two other children and how this will affect their development. I feel overwhelmed and lost. My husband and I do not have much emotional or hands on support from either of our families. His parents are very ill and cannot physically help with the children. My parents are elderly and also cannot help with the children. Our siblings all work outside the home and feel that they have too much to do just taking care of their own children. They do not ever offer to swap babysitting services so we can each have some time away. In light of the new developments, I do not think our families will be much help.

          After doing research, we find out that our baby will need health services in the form of possible surgeries, and medicine. After our baby is born there will be a need for various services such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. High quality early care and education will be essential in our baby’s development. Child care becomes an added concern due to the fact that we were recently denied subsidies to child care. Louisiana’s child care assistance program has lowered its gross income limits to $3030 per month (DCFS, 2013).  My husband and I bring in $200 above that limit. We are struggling with the challenge of paying for two children in child care. My four year old did not qualify for public preschool because of income limits and because he has no developmental delays. Because he scored too high on the assessment, he was denied enrollment in the public preschool program.

          Family leadership and support will be very important to my baby as well as the whole family. We will benefit from home visitations that help us care for a baby with a disability. Also, these families support services will be able to access our needs and be able to find resources for us. We will need education on policies and rights of families with children with disabilities. We will also need to network with other families. Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana will be helpful in making those connections with families and for providing necessary education.

References:

Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cerebralpalsyla.com/

Department of Children and Family Services (2013). Retrieved from  http://www.dcfs.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&nid=119&pnid=7&pid=136&catid=0     

Week 5 - Improving Early Childhood Systems

Early Childhood care and education is receiving more and more attention on the national level. Many organizations like the National Center for Children in Poverty, Children's Defense Fund, and others are working continuously on making better lives for children and families. They do this by promoting the benefits of good health, education, and overall well-being for children. Through their research, data is reported to states to help develop policies and laws affecting the early care and education of children.

One strategy that I think that is being used is to promote school readiness in children. Various research has proven that children who are school ready, have fewer academic, emotional, and behavioral problems. They achieve more later in life and become an asset to their communities. Organizations and advocates are promoting school readiness by the development of early learning standards. These standards say exactly what a child should know and be able to do within an age range. Although I am not in favor of "cookie cutter" child care programs, I am in favor of having a strong basis on which to begin the work in early childhood education. I am not in favor of dictating how the standards should be met or a mandated curriculum. By allowing teachers to develop their own lessons and activities, he/she will be able to meet the individual cultural, and academic needs of her/his students. I do not think that all children from all demographic areas learn the same way. When I visualize using standards, I think of traveling on a journey. If you have no plan or map, you will drive around aimlessly not getting anywhere. The same is true for teachers in an early childhood classroom. The standards present a plan from which they can develop a path for the journey.

In Louisiana, early learning standards have been developed and child care programs are starting to be trained on them. By 2015 all early learning programs including public PreK, Head Start, and private child care will be mandated to use these standards. I do think this is a good idea. All programs will be working from the same plan so that the end of the journey is school readiness. Not all children will follow the same path in getting there but the end result should be school readiness.

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

When I heard the stories from parents in Head Start, I could not help but think how rewarding it must be as a Head Start staff to hear what a difference you made in families' lives. How professionally and personally rewarding to know that you were responsible for some one's success in life.

Involvement in Head Start has allowed many parents to accomplish things that they did not think they were capable of doing. Head Start empowered them to put themselves on committees and Parent Councils. By taking these steps, many parents gained self-esteem and realized that they were worth more than they thought possible. Once their self-esteem was raised, many went to school and obtained degrees. I am always touched by the many stories I hear from teachers in my local Head Start centers. They are very similar to the stories on the website. They began as parents with no education, no money, and no hope. Now they have education, and a rewarding profession where they make a difference in families and children. By allowing so much parent involvement, Head Start is also creating that much needed bond between parent and child. Parents are the first and most influential teachers a child has and Head Start understands that children will develop to a higher level with the parents' involvement.

The value of hearings these stories is priceless. Unfortunately, I do not think enough of the public, policy makers and/or government officials hear these stories. I have been in the early childhood field for 26 years. I knew nothing about Head Start until 6 years ago when I started working for the state. I was almost ashamed that this very advanced, effective program existed and I knew nothing about it. What stands out most for me is that these stories are not just some parents they chose to put on a website. I can go into any Head Start center in my surrounding region and hear the same stories. That is when you know a program has truly reached its goals in parent involvement. However, I know that they want to do more and they have to work to ensure this goal is continued.

Parent involvement is absolutely necessary in all strands of service in the early childhood field. In the child care strand, parents think involvement means showing up for holiday parties or bringing any supplies needed. They do not think of themselves as partners in their child's development. Especially in private child care, parents feel like they are paying you to teach their child and they should not have to do anything. We must continue to advocate for a change in this mindset.

Quality Programs for all Children

I really do not think that public opinion of early childhood care and education in the next five years will change if there is no change in parent education. Over the past decades, we have seen an increase in children attending early childhood programs. For most of these working parents, they see these programs as babysitters with an added perk of learning outcomes. I am not trying to be skeptical but I am basing my opinion on what I have seen in the past 5 years. There are numerous research articles about the benefits of quality early childhood programs, but early childhood professionals read them. There is information about brain development and the science behind it from the Center on the Developing Child. Usually early childhood professionals receive the online newsletters.

My point is that I have worked for the QRS program in Louisiana since the inception. We have worked with private child care centers educating them on the benefits of quality early childhood. They have worked to improve their interactions with children, increased the professional development of staff, and learned the benefits of relationships in the brain development of infants. They have worked to implement requirements for a high star rating in QRS. For the most part, we have turned the child care providers into believers. They see the positive results. However it is so disheartening to hear about a 4 star center having to close down because they do not have enough children enrolled. Worse than that for me is to see a 1 star center or no star rating center have a waiting list and other higher star centers that can barely pay their bills.

The bottom line is that parents have not understood the research, nor have they bought in to the concept of quality. In their eyes, they still just need a place for their child to go during the day. I had a preschool for children ages 3 -5 for 15 years. In 2001, my parish piloted the LA4 Prek program in public schools. By 2004, I had closed my doors. I actually had parents tell me that their children will never get at these school programs what they received from me but it was free and it did not really matter because it was just "daycare". These were parents who had their second and third child with me.

We as early childhood professionals can continue to advocate as I always do, but until we get parents to understand the benefits to quality care and education, we may not have much influence on policy makers. After all, these children belong to these families. If politicians are not hearing them advocate, they probably think that families do not find this situation important. Unfortunately I think that is true. I would like to advocate for more parent education so that they can understand the long-term outcomes for children who were cared for in quality systems.

Week 1 Public Policy and Advocacy

Why did you choose this specialization?

I have been working for state government for the past six years in the Child Care Quality Rating System. I ran my own child care center for many years and never knew all what was involved in policy making in government. After working in this government capacity, I want to know more about public policy and advocacy involving children and families. My work has sparked my interest and I now I am interested in gaining more knowledge so that I can move forward in the early childhood field. Children are helpless in speaking for themselves nor does our society value their opinions. I want to be a voice for children in my community.

Why are advocates essential in the early childhood field?

As I stated above, children do not have a voice so they need others to be a voice for them. Many other groups advocate on behalf of themselves. Children do not have the power to do that. Our society does not value children and their knowledge of issues affecting their lives. Others like early childhood professionals have to step in and take a stand for children. They have the knowledge and the passion for the future of children and are called to advocate on their behalf. Our society as a whole does not understand the importance of early childhood and the impact that quality early childhood programs have on the future of a community. There is more work being done to promote children rights, but more needs to be done and continued.

What do you hope to learn about public policy and advocacy?

I know at this point I am unsure about everything involved in public policy and advocacy, but I have very general goals that I am sure I will refine as I gain more information.

1. To learn how funding streams affect our early childhood programs.
2. To learn how advocacy affects early childhood policies.
3. To understand policy making in the early childhood field.

Final Blog

Last week we talked about the adjourning phase of a group or team. However now that it is real this week, it is much harder to describe. So many times, responding to a discussion or a blog was such a positive escape from the real world of people who are prejudice, hurtful, and so closed-minded. I often wished that I could have some of you with me all day as I went about doing my work. You could encourage me when others bring me down. But then I realized that you can be with me all day. I have gained more from all of you than you will ever know. It may have been a simple sentence in a blog response or something more insightful in a discussion. In difficult times, I can go back in my memory and think of all the encouragement and knowledge all of you have given me. This can help me through those hard times. How different my perspectives are on many aspects of life now that I have gone through these courses. I have grown as a student, a professional, and as a person. I am truly a better person for having known and learned from all of you. I wish all of you the very best as we move forward. I hope that I talk to some of you in the Public Policy and Advocacy concentration. If we don't meet again, always know that you were very special to me and that we were a part of something so much bigger than ourselves. The sum of the parts are greater than the individual parts. I am so grateful to have been a part of this team.

Take Care,
Mary Jo

Adjourning

I have belonged to many groups where our work had ended and we had to say goodbye. I think the hardest to say goodbye to was not on a professional level but on a more informal level. My daughter took dancing lessons at a local dancing school since she was 4 years old. In April she graduated from her dancing school at the age of 18. This dancing school was very involved as they took part in parades, competitions, and an elaborate recital at the end of each school year. For many of you, you may be thinking of the TV show Dance Moms. Well I can assure you it was nothing like that. The school was a very family friendly place where all girls were treasured. We the parents all grew together over the past 14 years. We shared stories as we waited in the waiting room, we traveled together to parades, and we cheered and cried together at competitions. Although we did not associate with each other on a social level, we had such a bond through our daughters and through our passion for making our girls happy. I remember an instance when one of the girls lost her feather headpiece for a dance. All the moms took one feather from their daughters' headpieces and was able to make a new headpiece for the girl. When our girls graduated we all hugged and cried. We watched our daughters grow from babies through their awkward stages and now into beautiful young women. We knew that each girl would be moving in a different direction and as a result we would be moving with them. We all looked at each other and agreed, "What a great ride" I miss those moments with those ladies but I am also glad that I had the experience.

For this master's program at Walden University, I will be saying goodbye to groups of women twice. I followed the same group of colleagues for the first five courses and then took a short break for eight weeks. I was very sad to leave those women because I was accustomed to the way they wrote their discussions and how they responded. However it did not take long once I started again in September to make new friends. I have learned so much from all my colleagues and although we may not be able to speak to each other personally, I know we have had the same challenges and struggles. We have gotten to know so much about each person. I know I have shared stories with my colleagues that no one else knows. In our courses, mutual respect and trust was present. We trusted that we would not be judged by our challenges in life but we would be given encouragement and hope. I will miss our special kind of collaboration.

Week 5 Conflict Resolution

I am not personally having a conflict with anyone but I am a bystander to some conflicting issues with my job. Child care centers, public preschools, and Head Start centers in my town are called by the state to form a collaboration and become a unified early childhood network. When I attend these meetings, I can hear judgments being made toward certain programs, while there are others that are evaluating the validity of some one's comments. I mentioned this unprofessionalism to the Child Care Resource & Referral Agency who is sponsoring this collaboration. I talked about empathetic listening and effective communication and they said they wanted me at the next meeting to help with this. They said they were very stressed by these professionals' behaviors but did not know what to do.

Although this class is an introduction to communication and collaboration, I feel confident that I can help because there is absolutely no effective communication taking place. People are blaming and emotions are running high. I may not have the knowledge or skills to resolve their issues but I can try to get these programs communicating better than they are now.

At the meeting next week with the leaders of these programs, I may use the strategies based on the Non Violent Communication Model.

1. Honestly Expressing - I think what causes the conflict among these groups is what is NOT said as opposed to what is said. There is a saying about having "the elephant in the room". That idea or feeling that is weighing in on some one's mind but they won't talk about it. When communicating it comes out as sarcastic comments or personal attacks. I am going to try to get everyone to say what bothers them about each group. According to NVC, this would not be a blame game but simply a time to express how you are feeling.

2. Empathetic Listening - I will attempt to talk to these groups of professionals about listening without judging and that they need to rid their minds of past biases. They need to start listening from a new perspective. This collaboration is a new experience and we need to come together so that the children in our district will benefit. Also if families see that these groups are divided, we will never unify as a community. As a result, our district's early childhood education will fall behind others in the state.

I am usually very withdrawn especially in groups. That was clarified on my communication anxiety assessment last week. However, at the last meeting when I saw how grown, educated professionals conducted themselves, I knew that I could do better. At least I can try. I may not have enough knowledge yet but at least I can try to get them to do the basics of respectful communication.

Has anyone else been in this situation? I welcome any suggestions or comments. The meeting is next Friday.

Communication Assessments

What surprised me the most about the evaluations on my communication skills was that others do not think that I have communication anxiety. They gave me moderate scores while my score was elevated. I thought that the people who knew me well knew how much I disliked speaking in front of large groups or even small groups for that matter. I do not think they know how upset I get when I have to do this.

Insights about communication

          1. Listening. I have always known that I like listening to others simply because I am not very confident in speaking myself. However I did not realize that I am an effective listener. I realized that I do empathize with others and try to understand their feelings and thoughts. I do not become defensive when others do not agree with me.

          2. "Situational". I learned this week through the communication anxiety assessment that I enjoy talking with one or two people at a time. I especially enjoy talking to others about early childhood. I do not have anxiety in meeting new people. The results of the assessment described my anxiety as "situational" because I only have increased anxiety in public speaking situations. I do not have a problem having conversations with others. It is only those situations that involve public presentations where I am the center of attention. Although I am confident in the content of what I am saying, I am not confident in how I present myself.

Professional & Personal Life

          Fortunately for me, my job involves speaking one on one with child care providers. Each of their situations are unique so in order to give accurate consulting strategies, I utilize my listening skills to determine what each provider needs. I do have to speak in front of small groups which makes me nervous. Usually once I get started, I become comfortable because the people that I speak to are all interested in early childhood. I have had to make a few presentations to large groups and my anxiety was elevated to the point that I could not eat before the presentation. However they always turned out okay because the presentations were to groups of Head Start teachers who were supportive. They could tell I was nervous and helped me calm down. I think overall, early childhood professionals are compassionate and do not want anyone to feel insecure.
          I do need to work on my confidence in communicating in my personal life. I do not have anxiety in communicating with others but I am not confident that they want to hear what I have to say. My husband on the other hand, can start up a conversation with anyone about anything. I think because we have been married for so many years, I let him lead the communication and I just add comments along the way.

Diversity in Communication

I do not think that I communicate differently based on race, religion or sexual orientation. However I do communicate differently with people from other occupations. Many times people outside of the early childhood field are not interested in talking about early childhood education because they do not see any value in it. I usually find another common topic to talk about.

I also communicate differently with people with varying abilities. In my work, there are some child care providers that demand more explanation than others. Some have the ability to grasp the information I am giving them while others require that I give many details and examples. A good rule that I like to follow is, "know your audience".

In regards to political affiliation, I do not talk about politics because I work for a state department and they discourage us from talking about politics. However, there are some programs and issues around early childhood that I will support and defend even though they are politically grounded.

Strategies for effective communication
1. Perceptions - We need to rid ourselves of any biases, judgments, or prejudices so that we can communicate with a clear mind.

2. Listening - We need to not only hear the words but listen to the meaning of the words. We need to listen to the message by separating the message from the speaker. When we actively listen to someone speak, the message is clearer and the communication is effective

3. Empathy -  In order to receive a message clearly, we must feel and understand the feelings of the speaker. If we are going to understand the feelings of others, we must put our own feelings aside.

Week 2 - TV Show

I chose to watch a show on the Disney channel because it has been years since I have watched any show on that channel. I turned on the TV at 10:00am and there was a new Disney show called Liv and Maddie just beginning.

No Sound
The show began with two girls in a bedroom. One girl was older than the other one. I thought they must be sisters. The older girl was very dramatic and animated. She was dressed fashionably with her hair curled, lots of make-up, and jewelry. The younger girl was more tailored with her hair in a pony tail, glasses, sweat pants, and a sports jersey. The older girl was showing the younger girl a video of herself performing a song and dance routine. The younger girl patiently watched but did not seem pleased or excited about the video. The older girl used many hand gestures and frequent body language while talking. I could tell she liked talking about herself. In another scene there were two boys sharing a bedroom. I assumed these were the girls two brothers. There was a mom and dad in the house who also appeared at the school. I figured the mom must be a teacher and the dad a coach. He had a whistle around his neck.

Sound
After I turned the sound on, I realized the girls were twins!! I made a bad assumption about these characters. They are not just twins in the show but the actresses are really twins. Their outward appearances changed their looks drastically. I assumed the girl dressed up (Liv) was older than the girl in the sports jersey (Maddie). I was correct in the assumption that Liv was very dramatic. She had spent some time in Hollywood while the sister, Maddie liked playing sports. The dad was a coach at the school while the mom was a teacher.

I definitely would have made better assumptions on a show that I knew well. Watching a show with no sound that I am familiar with, I would have known that the girls were twins. I had to discover that after I turned the sound on. Using non verbal cues did not tell me the whole story. Not only that but the non verbal cues also tricked me into thinking the girls were different ages. This huge error in assumption taught me a lot about making assumptions about people based on their clothes, make-up, etc. We cannot know a person by simply looking at their outward appearance but only through verbal connection can we get to know a person and develop a relationship.

There was a scene that I think summarizes this. Liv dressed up like Maddie in a sports jersey, glasses, and pony tail and asked this boy to go to a dance. He told her no because he said you are not my type. He later explained to Maddie what happened and he said he told her no because he knew all along it was Liv dressed up like Maddie. This boy obviously knew the two girls far beyond looks.

Effective Communicators

When I think of an effective communicator, the first trait that comes to mind is someone who listens. Most people think of communication as talking, but I prefer to communicate with someone who actively listens to me or others. A friend of mine named Jodie has always been an effective communicator. I met her when our daughters took dancing lessons together fourteen years ago. We spent many hours over the years waiting for our daughters to finish their lessons. She always listened to whatever I was saying and was not distracted by anything else going on around us. I knew she was listening because she would make comments or ask questions about my conversation. Over the years that I have known her, she makes every attempt to make the person she is talking to feel valued. I always walk away from her feeling a little more uplifted than I was before I spoke to her. I wish I could say more about her traits besides the fact that she listens because there is so much more that she does. Her skills are hard for me to define. Her friendliness is not fake but very genuine. I would love to be able to communicate the way she does, and make people feel valued after a simple conversation. She may have learned some of her communication skills from her job. She is a Human Resource Director of a company. I hope I leave this course understanding her skills, and I hope I have learned some of them also.

Professional Hopes and Goals

In working with children and families from diverse cultures, I hope:

1. I can create a physical environment where all feel accepted and comfortable.
2. I develop a relationship with children that is respectful, compassionate, and trusting.
3. I can empower parents to play an active role in their children's development and education.
4. I can be a role model for other educators making them aware of the importance of anti-bias          education
5. I can be a voice that "stands up" for diversity not only in my classroom, but in the school or broader community.

A goal for the early childhood field related to diversity, equity, and social justice.

The early childhood field will become the voice of diversity, equity and social justice by developing a generation of children that are wiped clean of stereotypes and prejudices, that show respect and acceptance of human dignity, and take action in the fight against social injustice.

This goal is very ambitious, but if we as educators begin with small steps and fix ourselves first and then begin the work in our classrooms, we may be the beginning of something bigger.

Thank You!!!

I would like to thank everyone for their support and responses to my blogs and discussions. Many of us spoke about emotional issues that affected us from childhood. There are some things I discussed with the class that I have never told any one else. I think we all learned how harmful and hurtful stereotypes and prejudices can be. Also it was evident that the hurt was still present in our hearts.

Thank you for your respect and acceptance of all my social identities. I will remember all of you in my future work and all your ideas and experiences. I hope the best for all of you.

Mary Jo

Welcoming Families from Around the World

Guatemala

How do I prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family from Guatemala?

1. Because I do not know much about this country, I would research information about the country's surface culture; language, religion, clothing, food, holidays, etc.

2. Learn a few words or phrases in Spanish in order to communicate with the parents and/or the child.

3. Ask parents or have interpreter ask parents about their child and about the goals they have for their child. I will learn more about this particular family's deep culture.

4. Set up activity centers that reflect familiar items from the child's homeland. Because Guatemala has abundant agriculture, my centers should have books, toys, and foods that reflect this. The science center could have books or items involving earthquakes. The learning in these centers needs to be culturally relevant to the child.

5. Have parents come into the classroom and tell stories or give presentations involving their culture.

I hope each of the above steps will make the child as well as the parents feel respected and valued in my classroom. By allowing the parents to tell me what their goals are for their child, I hope to empower them and let them know that they are an important part of their child's development. The learning in the classroom has to be culturally relevant to the child so I would use items in the centers that are familiar to the child. Hopefully all feel accepted and respected and that the lines of communication are opened up so that if there is an issue, the parents feel comfortable in talking to me.

The Personal Side of Bias - Week 6

I work for a Child Care Quality Rating System. I was visiting a center about five years ago when we were just getting the program off the ground. The center was a church owned center. The Director wanted me to meet the Pastor of the church. He came in and not long after, the Director was called out to speak to a parent. The Pastor bent down close to my face and asked me how many black centers have received star ratings. This is the reverse of what one would expect. This was a black man assuming because I was white, that I would not allow this center to succeed in the quality rating system.

The Pastor was obviously acting out of internalized oppressions. In the past, he must have been treated unfairly by white people and stereotyped me as someone that would treat him unfairly. I felt anger and hurt all at the same time. How dare this man assume that I would perform my job incompetently and not allow this center to succeed based on the race of the children. I was angry because he accused me of an act that I would never think of doing.

When this incident occurred, equity was diminished because the Pastor was not concerned about raising quality or what the center needed in order to meet star requirements. In fact, the exchange was not about quality or the program at all. It was about racism. I should have been talking about the components of the program but instead found myself defending my actions as a white person.

I honestly told him that I did not know how many black centers have received stars because I do not categorize my centers by race. Centers are categorized by star levels based on the requirements met.

In order for me to help this center and treat this center with equity, the Pastor would need to unravel his oppressive thoughts and learn to trust that I was a consultant there to truly help them achieve quality the same way I helped every other center I worked with. I am happy to say that this center became a four star center in about two years due to hard work and determination. The same traits that other centers used to meet their star levels.

Now the Pastor is very grateful and a trust has been established. Every time I visit the center, he comes out of his office to speak to me. Neither one of us has ever talked about that first meeting but I can feel his apology and hopefully I helped him to unravel some deep seeded oppression associated with white people.

Microaggressions

I work for a Child Care Quality Rating program. One of my colleagues and I were speaking about some of the child care centers we work with. I told her about a particular center that was awarded 3 Stars in the quality rating program. Her response was, "really!, they should be proud considering who they are". I then asked her, "who are they?" She said, "well you know, they are a black center in a bad area of town." I immediately responded, "No they should be proud, period".  The location of the center or the race of the people who own the center has nothing to do with the quality of the care they provide to their children and families.

She did not say this to the child care provider but she said it to me and I felt offended for them. I have seen the work they have done to improve their quality of care and that is what I am proud of them for. My colleague was implying that it was amazing that a black center in a bad area of town could be a 3 star rated center. I felt the hurt and disappointment as a result of this microaggression and it was not even projected at me. I'm just glad the child care owner did not have to hear it.

During the week, I was at a child care center and the Director was telling me about this program she was involved in with the local school system. They send out Specialists to help with "at risk" children. However the Director stated that as she obtained more information about the program she decided not to take part in it. She said that they considered all children on Child Care Assistance subsidies as "at risk". She tried to argue that there are some very intelligent children from very good homes with involved parents who are just receiving subsidies for income purposes only. This program was implying that all lower income children were "at risk".

 I was glad that the child care provider decided not to take part in the program for "at risk" children. This type of stereotyping would have harmed these children's self-image and self-esteem. As  a parent I would have felt so ashamed that my child was being considered "at risk" because I was receiving some funding for their child care. I am also glad that I stood up to my colleague about stereotyping quality rated centers.

I am sure these types of situations happen all the time but this week they seemed to jump out at me. I have learned that awareness is key. This week I was very sensitive to all the "isms" in society that cause so much hurt and harm.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I had a meeting with all my co-workers this past Thursday at the state office so this was a great opportunity to get them to help with this assignment. We work out in regions of our state so not only are we diverse because of race, we are also very diverse in our family cultures and cultures of the areas in which we live.

Two ladies I spoke with were my co-workers and the other was a neighbor. The responses from my co-workers for the definition of culture reflected that of surface culture. They referred to culture as the language, ethnicity, food, and lifestyle. My co-workers and I often talk about lifestyle differences in our state. North Louisiana appears to be another state when compared to the culture of South Louisiana. One of my friends is from New Orleans so the culture of a city is very different than that of my southern small town. My neighbor had deeper cultural answers than my friends. She is Vietnamese and she defined culture more in terms of values and beliefs. She spoke more about treatment of the elderly. Her definition was more abstract and less about the obvious. No one used religion as a defining characteristic I think because here in Louisiana most people are Catholic and  do not think of religion as culture.

My co-workers who all work with me in the field of early childhood immediately defined diversity in terms of special needs or varying abilities of children in the classroom. When I asked them to think more about diversity and asked them about our department that we work in. I asked if they thought we were a diverse group of workers. One of the responses was surprising. One of the ladies said no that we were not diverse because we all really respected and liked each other. I then began to feel like I was educating her on diversity. I think her response says a lot about diversity. Automatically people think if you are different from someone, then you must not like them. My neighbor understood more about diversity and to my surprise she said that they do not speak Vietnamese in their home. She speaks the language to her parents but does not force her children to do the same. She says she wants them to become a part of the Western world. She says the United States has been very good to she and her husband and she wants her children to respect the lifestyle they have been given.

Talking to these people made me realize how much I have learned about culture and diversity as a whole as well as my own culture. I had not noticed over the past year how much Walden had changed my perspective of culture and diversity until I spoke with these people this past week. I definitely have a different outlook on both issues.

My family culture

I cannot even image having to evacuate to another country. However if that situation would arise I would take with me my personal recipe box with cajun recipes from other family members and friends. I would also take a small box of pictures of my whole family on vacations or celebrating holidays. Lastly and most importantly I would take a rosary.

Food is always an important part of any culture and although I may not be able to get the same ingredients in another country, I could still try to duplicate our meals we shared at home. My children and the events we shared with them are a huge part of who we are as a family. When the children were growing up, we went on two to three trips a year to the beaches of Florida. For the past 16 years, we have spent Thanksgiving in the mountains of Arkansas. These are treasured memories that have played a huge role in who we have all become. A rosary would always be a reminder and symbol of our faith. A true foundational symbol of our family.

I would be devastated if I was not allowed to keep all three items. After giving this situation some thought, I realized that I could give up the recipe box because I could still cook many dishes from memory. The rosary is simply a symbol and all of my family can pray the rosary whether we have the tangible item or not. I would probably keep the small box of pictures. I feel like reliving these moments would sustain us through the difficult times reminding us that we have each other.

This assignment made me think harder than some others. I even got my adult children involved in this assignment. My second son thought of the recipes. (he would be one to think of food). I thought about the pictures immediately and my youngest (daughter) thought of the rosary. It warmed my heart to think that they could think of things that defined us as a family as well as our family culture. I learned how important our family culture is to my children and I felt proud that they could easily define the important items in that culture. As early childhood educators, we need to respect and appreciate how important some of these cultures are to the children we teach. 

Reflection on Research course

Insights

Coming into this course, I knew that I did not have much knowledge of research. However after diving into the content of this course, I soon realized I knew very little and faced many challenges along the way. I soon learned how much thought has to go into creating just the right research question and that every detail must be planned out before beginning a research project. I now have a better understanding of how to read articles on studies and how to skim through the details that are above my knowledge base and focus on the conclusions and discussions. Learning how to read these articles is going to be very helpful in the future because reading research on early childhood education is a necessity in our field. I now realize how much time is spent in creating a study.

Lessons Learned

There are many details and issues to address while planning and designing research. First you much choose which research design best suits your topic and the outcomes expected if any. Ethics must be considered as well as validity and reliability. Also a decision must be made on how data will be collected and will there be equity in the process. As soon as I thought I had a good grasp on an issue in research, then the next week there was some other issue that needed to be considered. It seemed to be never ending.

Challenges

I had many challenges in understanding the assignments some weeks. I found understanding the difference between quantitative and qualitative research to be challenging. In my opinion both seemed to overlap in many studies. My personality allows me to see questions answered as black or white. I have a hard time understanding gray areas. Dr. Shephard gave out links in our discussions to read further on a topic and that helped me in ways that the text didn't. I had to email Dr. Shephard a few times about assignments which is something I had never done in any of my other classes. I was definitely out of my comfort zone in this class.

Fortunately with the help of my colleagues, Dr. Shephard, and the additional readings, I seemed to have made it through this course. I now look at researchers in early childhood in admiration. They are doing the difficult work that we as early childhood educators need in order to make our classrooms better and our children more successful.

Thank You!!

A huge THANK YOU to my colleagues in Group 3. Reading your posts helped me to understand the topics better and getting responses from you allowed me to know if I was on the right path. Thank You to Dr. Shephard for having patience with our questions and concerns and for guiding us through this course. Good luck to everyone! 

Research around the World

I chose to look over the Early Childhood Australia website. Most of the research topics on this website were the same that we have here in the United States. There is research and resources on topics such as:
1.brain development
2.quality standards
3.inclusion
4.parent engagement
5.compensation of early childhood professionals

This list is just a few of the many issues being discussed and researched. There is a huge parent engagement toolkit that has been put out as a resource to begin letting parents know how important their role is in the beginning of their child's life. There was a survey online in order to give feedback on the toolkit.

What surprised me the most was how advanced Australia is in terms of their early childhood initiatives. They are celebrating 75 years of The Australian Association of Pre-School Child Development’. They are so much more advanced in their research and work with early childhood care and education than here in the United States. About a year ago, National early learning standards were developed and implemented in the child care centers. The terminology of early childhood education came about in the past decade in the United States and is just beginning to be acknowledged by our National government in the past few years.

Australia's newest initiative is the Respect, Connect, Enact reconciliation plan. This plan calls "

For Early Childhood Australia, Reconciliation between

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the

broader Australian community is about transformation—

transformation that moves us from ignorance and racism

to respect, from inequity and prejudice to justice, and

from inaction and fear to hope. It is in this transformation,

both personal and organisational, that the promise of a

strong future for every Australian child is realised. Within Australia, there are cultural issues that need to be addressed in order to advance the well-being of all children. I was extremely impressed with this website and the work of the Australian government and organizations in improving the lives of young children.

Positive research

Whenever I think of positive research, I cannot help but think of St. Jude's Hospital for children. I have donated to this hospital and even did a fundraiser for years at my child care center. Everyone at the hospital is so appreciative of any amount of money we were able to raise at my small center.

Unfortunately I have known quite a few children who have gone to this hospital for various kinds of cancer. I went to www.stjude.org to look up more details. They do many studies and scientific studies comparing genes of healthy children and those children with cancer. Currently they are working on the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. The scientists are discovering gene mutations linked to childhood cancers.

Over the years, the results of this research has helped treat children and save lives. Children are treated regardless of the income of the family. In this particular situation there are not many options for parents when they find out they have a child with cancer. Most parents I know have been happy to be part of clinical trials if it may help their child as well as others. The only other option in the case with cancer is death. As stated on the website, "Using clinical trials and medical research, tremendous advances have been made in the treatment of childhood cancer." (St. Jude, 2013)

St. Jude has a bench-to-bedside approach to treatment so that children can benefit from the latest research. "St. Jude’s major treatment programs are so successful because the physicians and basic scientists in our laboratories work closely together and rapidly introduce promising therapies to the clinical setting."(St. Jude, 2013)

I cannot think of any more positive research than St. Jude Hospital and the tremendous work they do in saving children's lives.

Personal Research Journey

For my research topic I chose psychological abuse. This term can come under many other titles such as emotional abuse or verbal abuse. Any term chosen has the same end result in the harm done on children. Parents and families have the most influence on children when they are young. They look at themselves and develop pride and self-esteem based on how their family views them. When children are humiliated, criticized, and spoken harshly to on a regular basis, they will begin to feel as though there is something wrong with them. Over the years these constant feelings of inadequacy lead to a low self-esteem and emotional issues.

I was the last of four girls in my family and was born much later than the rest of my siblings. My parents often criticized me for being different, humiliated me for things that I was not good at, and allowed my siblings to do the same. I am in no way asking for pity. I am a grown woman and have taken charge of my own life. I think the reason there is not much information on this topic is because it can be hidden, as in my case, behind a nice house, middle income, and material possessions. I would like to dig deeper and expose the harm this kind of abuse can do to a child.

This research class as a whole is hard for me to wrap my head around. In previous courses, I could talk about early childhood and be able to grasp new concepts based on my background knowledge. However, I am afraid that I can be of no help to anyone in this class. This is my first research class and I have no previous experience in research.

Does anyone have any suggestions in beginning research or any hints on how to make it less overwhelming? I am ready to listen to advice.

WK 8 Final Blog

I have had wonderful interactions with my international contact from South Africa. As a result of these conversations, I have come to some conclusions.

1. The early childhood field is struggling to get the respect it deserves internationally.
2. As here in the United States, there are many inequities in the early childhood field in other countries also.
3. The challenges of poverty, illness, and primitive living environments are much greater internationally than in the United States.

The issues and trends we consider problems in the United States are much greater internationally. My contact described the future as hopeless for some children of South Africa.

Having contact with someone in South Africa made my passion for unfortunate children more personal. When she spoke about the children in South Africa, their situations seemed more real than reading about them in an article or book. The last thing that my contact spoke about was her passion in spreading the word about early childhood internationally. I decided to make my goal relevant to her wishes.

Goal
I will join an advocacy group that spreads the word about international issues and trends in the early childhood field.

WK 7 International Contacts - Professionalism

My South African contact has been an inspiration to me and has been so enthusiastic about responding to my request. This week I asked her to tell me about professional development in South Africa as well as professional goals for herself.  Instead of trying to repeat her words, I have posted her response below.

I am busy with my Masters in Early childhood education and one of my goals is to get the Doctorate in Early. Childhood Education. I am convinced that indicators of possible learning difficulties can be identified in young children and through perceptual exercises and other interventions can be prevented!!!! My dream is to train teachers in this highly specialised skill. With a doctorate in Education, I would have the credibility to lecture internationally in my spare time (holidays).
I am in my deam job and would not relinquish my work with dyslexics easily!! I work with dedicated, knowledgeable colleagues iin a caring, empathetic environment and I am constantly inspired. AND I am learning much from the wonderful children. MaryJo, there is no feeling in the world like seeing a young child succeed. Believe me!!
Finally, your initiative in e-mailing me has re-ignited my heartfelt desire to promote the Early Childhood cause internationally.

In terms of professional development she says they have some part time courses in early childhood at  South African universities that people travel from Sudan to take. For the most part, professional development is poor.

Sharing Web Resources Week 6

On the Children's Defense Fund website this week I followed a link to an article on the Washington Post website about child poverty. The article talked about how little attention child poverty received on the presidential campaign trail. President Obama says there needs to be a "national conversation" about poverty. The author of the article, Jonathan Capehart, said it is time to move from talk to action.

One of the areas of the website is "Be careful what you cut". I decided to explore this campaign further and found sample letters for advocates to send to their representatives as well as pictures showing the results of cutting early childhood programs and what the later consequences will be. The website encourages you to download these pictures to your social media sites or in this case I downloaded to my blog.
                                                                          


One of the most disturbing links for me personally was a link that showed the amount of gun deaths of children by state. I found that Louisiana has the second highest rate of gun deaths with Alaska being the highest. I had no idea until I read this that gun deaths were that bad in my state. Children's Defense Fund is very passionate about gun control and is calling for help for all who advocate for children.

Marian Wright Elder, president of the Children's Defense Fund wrote about a civil rights leader, Medgar Evers in her column. She wrote about the impact that his kindness had on her when she was a young law student. She said he would be thrilled to see an African American president and that Mississippi leads the nation in black elected officials. She also adds that he would be very disappointed to see that black children are still getting separate, unequal, and a failing education in Mississippi and that this state has the highest child poverty.

International inequities

Much of the research done on early childhood education discusses the many developmental and economic benefits. However after reading the online journal Current Issues in Comparative Education, I now understand that the research done in the United States is not relevant to the situations in other countries. For example, the article written on Zambia explains that although the benefits of early childhood education are understood, the country must consider their priorities. Zambia has a failing primary school system that is lacking in money. Teachers interviewed spoke about not having paper, pencils, textbooks, while there was also a lack of classrooms. Developing an early childhood education program would only take more money away from the already failing primary school system. We must not compare the environment in the United States to other countries. Each country must first establish that an early childhood program is feasible. Then each country must create programs that fit into the culture of that country. For example, parents in some countries believe children should be in home care centers not center based until the children enter the school system. High quality programs can be established while at the same time respecting the culture of the parents.

International contact
Margaret, my contact in South Africa referred me this week to the website www.ci.org.za to read the Child Guage 2012 written by the Child Institute of the University of South Africa. This article discusses inequity in income with the poorest people receiving only 0.6% of the national income while the richest people receive 57% of the national income.  The worry is that inequity within a generation will carry over to the next generation. The article stated that poverty does not define inequity itself. There is much inequity in the services that people receive. Largely this is based on demographics. There are 50% of the children in South Africa living in rural areas. These areas are the most deprived of health services, educational services, and early childhood interventions. The location of a child's household determines the gap of inequity. The government does offer a Child Support Grant to help with poverty but the people living in rural areas use the money just to get to the places with services. From my contacts information and this website, I realized that location is a huge contributor toward inequity in South Africa.

Resources on the Web

I have been reading and following the Children's Defense Fund website for some time now. This organization calls on early childhood professionals to take a stand and advocate for various issues involving children. The most recent was signing a letter to Congress about gun control. This resource is relevant to me because I work in government. In this Master's program my concentration is public policy and advocacy. The work I am doing and may have the opportunity to do falls right into the same scope of work that the CDF does.

One issue that made me think was the publication from CDF about black children falling behind white children in terms of poverty, health care, mental health, and early education. I read the statistics and I am not debating the numbers but what I don't understand is that the intervention programs are for all children, black or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, etc. There is insurance for children whose parents do not have insurance. There are programs in schools for children with mental health issues regardless of their race. There are government child care subsidies for parents needing child care or there are head start programs that offer transportation services. I do understand that CDF explains that the percentage of black children are born to poverty, but the services and programs offered according to income or risk factors regardless of race or nationality. This was just something that caught my eye.

The Children's Defense Fund calls for advocacy through your local, state, and national politicians. There are numerous links on the website where someone can write a letter, or call their representative. The website gives information on child poverty, early childhood education, and health care and what the focus of the politicians should be. The website gives information on what is being done and how much more our governments could be doing.

By doing this assignment, I realized how political this website is. It includes information about poverty and inequality and the consequences of issues involving children. It then calls on people to advocate and take action. There are many links that will get someone involved if they choose to. I feel like this website is not just saying they want action, they will actually help you take action yourself. This website makes you feel as though your advocacy for children will make a difference.

International Contacts - Poverty

This week I received a very good response from Margaret in South Africa. Of course she spoke about the widespread issue of poverty not only in South Africa but on the entire continent of Africa. She paints a very bleak picture of living conditions for families in South Africa. I have copied and pasted some of her comments below.

The poverty in South Africa is blamed on the political regime of apartheid, which ended in 1994. For the majority of South Afircans, the abolition of apartheid has not materially affected their poverty status. This is not in any way a defence of apartheid, whcih should never have happened!

The present governement has introduced child grants and many families depend on this money as income. The social support structure in South Africa is hopelessly inadequate.

The effect of poverty on children is devastating. Their future is extremely bleak and the paychological impact of prolonged poverty is as devastating as the physical - the cycle of poverty is perpetuatued!

Margaret is very interested in our discussion on poverty and has even asked me to send her some notes on our discussions. I am almost ashamed to tell her what poverty is like in my community. According to her explanation, the children in South Africa would love to live in what we consider poverty in my community.

My contact in Ethiopia did respond to me but she gave me titles of two books about children in Ethiopia. I tried to look them up on Amazon hoping to read some excerpts. The books were on the website but there was no access to read pages from the books. I did read the descriptions and they were about studies done on children in Ethiopia and how learning about their culture helped them to improve. I guess this drives the point that you cannot fix something without understanding the challenges surrounding an issue. For instance, I'm sure we would not know where to begin to improve poverty in these third world countries. We would first have to understand the government as well as the lack of resources.

 

Early Childhood Organization - cont.

I spoke about Children's Defense Fund last week. During the week, I searched their website in more detail. I found videos that talk about the many programs they sponsor. I particularlly like hearing about their Freedom Schools and about Haley Farm. I discovered that the land once belonged to Alex Haley and is located only minutes from my son's apartment at the University of Tennessee. CDF purchased the farm in 1994 and is used for many of their programs. CDF is financially supported by grants and donations.

This organization speaks out for the rights of children and for equity of life for all children. CDF tackles the current issues in our society and speaks out for action from others. I received this week's newsletter where the president of CDF, Marian Wright Edelman speaks about honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In summary she states the we can honor Dr. King by:

•   ending poverty and closing the gap between rich and poor
•   naming and changing the racial disparities
•   demanding justice for poor and vunerable children
•   stopping racial and income segregation in our schools
•   building a beloved community in America
•   transforming our education system
•   ensuring every child's safey and right to live

Many of us are off of work this Monday. Let us as early childhood educators reflect on how we can do our part in honoring Dr. King.    

www.childrensdefense.org
   

Early Childhood Organization

I have received updates from the Children's Defense Fund for years now and I do not remember how I ever signed up for this. However, I was not signed up for the newsletter from the President of the organization, Marian Wright Edelman. She is a phonomenal speaker and writer. In the past I have gone to You tube and watched some of her speeches and love listening to her speak. For this class, I signed up for the newsletter, Child Watch column that she writes. I received my first newsletter this morning in which she speaks about gun control and the recent tragedy in Newtown. Her writing is very touching and there was one paragraph in particular that I chose to share.

President Obama, in his moving remarks at the Sandy Hook interfaith prayer vigil at Newtown High School December 16, 2012, got it right when he said: “Caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.” And we will not pass the test of the God of the prophets or New Testament or all great faiths if we do not protect all of our sacred children against repeated and preventable gun deaths and injuries. Every child has a right to live and to dream and to strive for a future that is not destroyed in a second because we cowered before a special interest lobby and refused to protect them.

This is just one example of how this organization works passionately for the rights of all children and for causes taking place in society. I know there are many organizations that work in defense of children but this one has resonated with me and has touched my life for many years.

International contacts

When given this assignment, I was having trouble making contacts as was many of my colleagues. I decided to do what I love doing on my computer, searching. I googled "international early childhood organizations. I looked at a few that mentioned no one's name or email. Then I found the International Society on Early Intervention. On the website there was a member directory with in my opinion must be thousands of names of early childhood professionals. They were categorized by countries and their area of expertise. Included with their name was their current profession and their email. I emailed about ten of them and received one response immediately.  I went to the class forum to give my colleagues this information hoping that this may help them. I heard nothing else for the rest of the week.  I had given up hope when first thing this morning I received an overwhelming response from someone in South Africa. I also contacted the Director of the child care resource and referral agency that I collaborate with on the job. She told me she had a friend that has been to Reggio Emilia Italy five times in the past few years to work with early childhood children and that although she does not live in Italy, she could be a resource for information.

Ayele from Ethiopia was the first to respond to my email. She gave me names of two books about children of Ethiopia that I may want to review.

Mary-Jane is the lady that has visited and worked in Reggio Emilia Italy that I can use as a resource for that country.

Margaret was the response I received this morning in which she was overwhelming enthusiastic about helping me. She used the words, "honored and delighted". She even invited me to go to South Africa and would help me arrange the trip. She gave me her phone number in S. Africa for me to call in the evenings.

I was not optimistic about this assignment in the beginning but my last response I received has made me so excited about learning about the children in these countries.