Getting to Know Your International Contacts

I am lucky enough to finally establish contact with two international early childhood professional via some of my friends on Facebook. My first international early childhood contact is name Jenny Eljas who lives in Falun, Sweden. Falun is a small town located in a municipality outside of Stockholm, Sweden.  Jenny is teaches children in what we would consider to be the first and second grades. So far, I have learned from Jenny that there are some similarities and differences in early childhood education in Sweden and the United States. One similarity is that a strong emphasis has been placed on early childhood education in both countries. However, in Sweden, young children are not expected to or forced to learn to read and write at such a young age (pre-school/kindergarten).  However, children in Sweden begin learning English as early as the age of 5 or 6 in addition to their native language within the school system and at home. Like the United States, poverty is also a main concern of educators and early educators.  Because of the country’s government structures, the occurrence of poverty is far less prevalent in the United States. The main causes of poverty in Sweden include low wages, high unemployment rates, and high rates of immigration. According to Jenny, the Swedish government does provide additional financial and resource support to children and families that suffer from poverty. The government also does provide additional financial and resource support to children that are disabled or possess special needs.  The cities and municipalities also do their best to support its residents that have been stricken by poverty and that may be in need.

My second contact’s name is Andrea Palula who lives in Oaxaca Mexico. Andrea speaks limited English and I speak limited Spanish so our conversations have been interesting to say the least. Google Translate has been a blessing to both of us. Oaxoca is a moderate size city located in Southern Mexico. Andrea is a teacher in what we would consider first grade students. Like the United States, enrollment is very high in her area for young children. However, there are some differences between the two teaching environments. In Mexico, and at Andrea’s school, religion and culture play an important part of the educational experience. Literacy is also not a focus of early childhood education. Poverty is a significant issue for Andrea and those in her community. Andrea believes that poverty does impact the growth and development of her children and the educational experience. Mexico has been urged by many world leaders to place a stronger emphasis on education to correct its poverty issue; however, little action has been taken by the government. In order to address issues of poverty, Andrea and those in her community must rely on each other for financial and non-financial support of her students. Sometimes they are successful and other times they are not as successful in their efforts. Poverty is one of the biggest challenges that Andrea faces in the educational process.

Sharing Web Sources

The organization that I have selected for further analysis is the Learning Disabilities Association of America or LDA located at http://www.ldanatl.org/.  This national organization works with volunteers and professionals in order to advocate for children and adults that suffer from learning disabilities. The mission of this organization is “to create opportunities for success for all individuals affected by learning disabilities and to reduce the incidence of learning disabilities in future generations” (LDA, 2011, para. 6).  After reviewing the organization’s website, one issue that caught my attention was impact that ADHA can have on young children inside and outside of the classroom. One of the reasons that this issue caught my attention was that it was very prominent within the website and is believed to be a major contributor to learning disabilities in adults and children. In addition to this issue, I was educated upon learning disability assessment and evaluation processes, an overview of learning disabilities basics, and the main objectives of the LDA (2011) research committee. Simply, the LDA (2011) research committee strives to determine the causes of learning disabilities and as appropriate treatment and interventions of the disorders. It is also their objective to collaborate and work with others in the community in order to reduce the impact of learning disabilities (LDA, 2011).

On a different note…I have made progress finding international contacts in the field of early childhood. I may also have some additional contacts if needed by my classmates. I was finally successful by contacting my international friends via Facebook. They all knew someone that I could talk to for this portion of the assignment. So far I have an individual confirmed for participation in Sweden and potentially have other individuals from Greece, Mexico, and England.

References

LDA. (2011). About. Retrieved from http://www.ldanatl.org/.

Getting Ready—Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

So far it has been challenging making contact with early childhood professionals outside of the United States. As a starting point, I did access the Global Alliance Page through the NAEYC at http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance#australia. However, I am yet to make successful contact. My next strategy is to communicate with some of my international friends via Facebook and other social networking websites to see if these individuals can assist me in the process of establishing a professional relationship with early childhood professionals in their countries. If this strategy proves to be unsuccessful, I will need to sadly select the alternative to this assignment.

Several steps were taken in order to locate the early childhood organization for part two of the blog assignment. The first step was to use the Google search engine to locate a link page for all of the early childhood organizations located within North America. This link pages was located at http://www.naeyc.org/links. I then read through the list of the links and selected the organizations that were of interest to me and my educational and professional goals. Once these organizations were selected and narrowed down the content of their websites were analyzed to ensure credibility.  Finally, the organization Learning Disabilities Association of America was selected. Their website can be located at http://www.ldanatl.org/.  This organization was selected because learning disabilities and autism are an interest of mine and are extremely applicable to my professional and educational career.

Helpful tips in locating an organization:

1. Determine your interests or professional pursuits.
2. Locate a resource such as http://www.naeyc.org/links that provides a list of credible organizations.
3. Research each website of each organization of interest to ensure it is credible and reputable.

When I think of Research…..

When I first started this course, I believed that I was very educated on the process and all of the elements of the research process. However, there are several insights that I gained from this course. One insight was the definition and use of valuable research tools like triangulation. Prior to this course, I often confused triangulation with mixed-methods researcher. However, both of the processes and tools and clearer to me know. Another insight that was gained was the important of validity and reliability is in the research process. These two factors have the potential to turn a credible research study into one that is not credible in a blink of an eye. A third insight that was gained was the role that justice and fairness play in equity and equity statements.

There were also some lessons that I learned about planning, designing, and conducting research in the field of early childhood. One lesson that was learned was the amount of risk that children should be exposed to in order to obtain research results. Although some risks need to be taken, a child and/or caregivers should never be placed in harm for the good of research. The second lesson that was learned was how important the nature of the research study is when selecting a research design. Some research projects are better suited by quantitative methods, while others are better suited by qualitative or mixed-method research designs. A final lesson that is learned is how important planning is to the research process. Without planning, research may fail to achieve its objectives, be very time consuming, and could compromise the research results.

Because of these new insights and lessons, my view of research has changed slightly. I have always been good at and interested in all types of research. However, there was always some element of confusion during the design process. As a result of this course I feel more confident in my knowledge pertaining to research design and less confused about the research process.

There were very few challenges that were encountered throughout the course. However, I did have to spend more time than normal learning new terminologies and techniques. This “challenge” was overcome by reading the assigned readings, external readings, and participating in discussion posts with my colleagues.

Overall, I believe that my perceptions of the field of early childhood have also changed as a result of this course and the knowledge gained about the research process in the field. In some ways it is believed that I know perceive the field as being more scientific than before. I also believe that more research can be conducted in the field in order to supports its credibility. Finally, I believe that many research efforts and practices conducted in the United States are right on track. This is mostly because these efforts and practices are strikingly similar to other countries in the world.

Research Around The World

Because I have a couple friends that live in Australia, I decided to choose the organization Early Childhood Australia or ECA (2011) for further analysis. When reviewing the website for the organization, I became aware of several current international research topics for the field of early childhood. One research topic that I became aware of was learning. On the ECA (2011) website there was information regarding several research studies that are being conducted on this topic.  Some of these research studies included learning through teaching and play, building confident learners, and working with early years learning frameworks (ECA, 2011). another topic that I became aware of was bullying and its impact. Studies pertaining to aggressive and non-aggressive children and dealing with bullying were research studies that are currently being conducted on this topic in Australia (ECA, 2011). Finally, another topic I became aware of was supporting relationships. There are many studies being conducted in Australia that seek to address the important and impact of supporting relationships,  engaging families, and effective communication in children and families (ECA, 2011).

One surprising fact that I became aware of is that bullying can occur at early ages and is a growing problem around the world (ECA, 2011). Prior to exploring this website I possessed the belief that bullying was only a problem for older children and isolated to North America. However, this is not the case. Another insight that was gained was that many research topics in the country of Australia are similar to those in the United States. The importance of play in the learning process, effective communication, strong relationships, and effective learning strategies appear to be universal topics for those working in the field on early childhood despite his or her geographic location (ECA, 2011).

In addition to the international research topics, some other noteworthy information was found on this website. For example, the country of Australia also places a strong emphasis on honesty and ethics, diversity, and the rights of early children in the field of early childhood (ECA, 2011). Finally, the country of Australia also struggles with issues such as obesity and health, sleeping problems, and social and behavioral disorders like professionals of early childhood working in the United States.

References

ECA. (2011). Early Childhood Australia: A Voice for Young Children. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/resource_themes/resource_themes.html.

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Much of the study and discussion this week focused on the benefit that research has to children and society as well as the level of risk that children should be exposed to in the research process. Many of us did agree that exposing children to a greater than minimal amount of risk could be a benefit to society as long as it is did harm or cause long-term damage to the child or the family. Although I do not have any personal experience on the subject matter, I did locate an article that discusses the benefits that research can provide to children, professionals in early childhood, and society in general. The article is titled “The Effects of Divorce on Children” by Hughes (2009). It can be accessed at http://parenting247.org/article.cfm?ContentID=646.

In order to reach his conclusions, Hughes (2009) conducted a meta-analysis and a literature review on over 92 studies that involved pre-school children to young adults. Ultimately, Hughes (2009) determined that there were several factors that cause differences or negative effects on children that come from divorces families. These include: parental loss, economic loss, additional life stress, poor parental adjustment, lack of parental competence, and increased exposure to conflict between parents (Hughes, 2009). All of these factors increase the likelihood of psychological and behavioral problems in children of all ages (Hughes, 2009). With this knowledge and data families, society, and those working in the field of early childhood can better create strategies to promote healthy growth and development in children that have experienced a divorce situation. These parties can also better explain psychological and behavioral problems in divorced children and take preventative measures to avoid these problems.

References

Hughes, R. (2009). The Effects of Divorce on Children. Retrieved from http://parenting247.org/article.cfm?ContentID=646.

Your Personal Research Journey: Social Stories

The general topic that I have selected to further explore through the research simulation is social stories. Social stories are commonly used to help correct and teach behaviors with children suffering from Autism. They are also commonly used with children that suffer from behavioral disorders and young children that have experienced traumatic situations. Thus far, there has been a limited amount of research that has been conducted on the general topic and its effectiveness. There are a couple different reasons as to why I selected this topic. One reason is that social stories and their effectiveness and something that impact me directly on a professional level. Part of the work that I do for children in the field of early childhood is to create general personalized stories for children that suffer from Autism or behavioral disorders. A second reason why this topic has been selected is that if impacts me on a personal level. Several of children that are close to me have been diagnosed with Autism and/or behavioral disorders. By understanding more about this general topic, it will reinforce my professional mission and provide all children that I come into contact with on a personal and professional level with additional benefits in the growth and developmental process.

So far, my journey through the research simulation process has been easy and enlightening. By participating in the exercises in the course and by constructing the research chart, I have become more educated on the research process and have been able to select a specific sub-topic for further exploration. I have also been amazed with the amount of resources that are available to me in order to discover more about the effectiveness of social stories and the research process. Although I am finding a sufficient amount of information of the effectiveness of social stories in the field of early childhood, I kindly ask any classmate to make me aware of, send me a copy of, or send me a link to a credible source or journal article pertaining to the topic that I have selected for the research simulation. Again, that topic is the effectiveness of social stories in the field of early childhood.