Internatinal Connections

With anything there are consequences, when learning about international early childhood education there are a few consequences, there are a few consequences. One consequence of learning about other culture's early childhood education is wanting to mimic what they are doing in our own schools. sometimes this is not possible because what works for one culture does not necessarily work for others but knowing this does not mean we are doing anything wrong we are doing what is necessary to meet the needs of our children. aNother consequence is the want to help and fix the cultures in need and then the depression you feel when you realize you can't. wHen looking at other nations you cannot compare or contrast our field to theirs.THe last consequence of learning about international early childhood fields is  completely understanding the reasoning behind some cultures methodology behind certain practices. sOmetimes as Americans we can be judgemental of other cultures; when looking to learn from other cultures we need to keep an open mind.
One goal I have for our field is being able to grow together internationally as professionals and to learn openly from one another.

UNESCO

UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development (UNESCO, n.d.). One insight I gained was UNESCO found that most countries often promote alternative services for poor children with limited or no access to mainstream early childhood services (UNESCO, n.d.). i feel this gives an extreme disadvantage to poor children and that they are segregated from other children. Another insight I gained was that UNESCO feels that high quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness (UNESCO, n.d.). i felt they really hit the nail on the nose with their definition of quality early childhood education. My last insight from UNESCO was that once countries recognise the positive value of state investment in early childhood, the next challenge is to mobilise funds. Typically, government funding for early childhood is extremely small (UNESCO, n.d.). This is an ongoing battle for many countries is trying to help politicians understand the importance of early childhood education and the need for funding.

Reference:

Retrieved from www.unesco.org. August 15, 2015.

Natural DIsaster

This week while exploring the Save the Children website I discover a report and testimonies on the U.S.'s preparedness on natural disasters and the effect they had on their families. One woman spoke on how her child care program was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. All of her work wiped out and her motivation to start over gone until her children asked for their classrooms back. Another woman spoke on her disappointment in the U.S. and their quickness to respond to Nepal's disaster in 8 hours but it took seven days for the U.S. to respond to Hurricane Katrina. This report showed that the U.S. is still not as prepared as they should be ten years after Hurricane Katrina. The report also showed how much children are effected in these tragedies and how it effects your everyday life. Children are afraid to play outside and do not really have motivation in school. the report discusses how the U.S. has been unable to meet the unique needs of all children when tragedies like this strike. When thinking about equity for all children it is important to provide resources for children effected by these events to be able to cope and continue to learn and develop. It is interesting to think that the U.S. is able to provide aid to many countries but still struggles to do the same in their own backyard.

Saving Brains

The Global Children's Initiative (GCI) was established in 2009 to advance the Center of the Developing Child's mission internationally through a collaborative, science-based approach to improving the survival, health, learning, and behavior of children facing significant adversity (The Center for the Developing Child, n.d.). One of GCI's programs is called Grand Challenges Canada,  Saving Brains seeks to improve outcomes for children living in poverty through interventions that nurture and protect early brain development in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life (The Center for the Developing Child, n.d.). The Saving Brains Platform works to enhance the collective impact of the Saving Brains program by articulating a common theory for action based on scientific knowledge and practical experience, developing shared metrics and evaluation frameworks for interventions, fostering an ongoing learning community to accelerate innovation through sharing lessons and results, and encouraging policy translation through cross-sectional leadership development (The Center for the Developing Child, n.d.). This platform is creating a suite of interventions for nurturing and protecting early brain development (The Center for the Developing Child, n.d.). The Global Children's Initiative currently has projects that are being implemented in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America (The Center for the Developing Child, n.d.).

Reference:
The Center of the Developing Child, (n.d.). Retrieved August 1, 2015.