Dynamics of Early Childhood Policies & Systems

Course Goals

In reading the course description for Dynamics of Early Childhood Policies and Systems I found myself agreeing with the generalization that "early childhood professionals see the policy-making arena as an alien world, one in which they feel ill at ease and unequipped to participate" (The Finance Project,2013).  This statement describes my exact feelings in regards to the policy-making arena of early childhood.  

Therefore, my first goal for this course is to become a better "policy-oriented communicator" so that I will not feel "ill at ease" or "unequipped" to join in creating policies for the early childhood field which will provide families and young children with more comprehensive high quality services.

My second goal is learn how I can advocate locally more.  While I am a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and I participate in their contact your State Legislator and other projects I have yet to determine how I can make more of a positive impact locally.  I have recently joined the Southern Kentucky Association for the Education of Young Children (SKYAEYC) I am still trying to determine how to advocate more locally.  I believe it is important to advocate both at the National level as well as at the local level.  In the past 10 years I have seen the views regarding Early Childhood change dramatically with more governmental support and with more Colleges and Universities offering Early Childhood Degrees.  I hope to be a part of the continuing positive change in the Early Childhood Field. 

The third goal I have for this course is to learn more about Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS).  While I am familiar with them somewhat as our local Head Start / Early Head Start program of course was participating in this program I would like to learn about how it works and how it impacts early childhood programs.  

The last goal I have is to be able to put everything that I learn in this course into action in my professional career as an Early Childhood Professional so that I can have a positive impact on the early childhood services needed for young children and families.  

Influences of Family, Culture, and Society in Early Childhood: Final Thoughts

In researching articles for my challenge:  Multilingual Families: Home/School Language Divide I found myself learning new strategies for working with immigrant families whose first language is not English. I also learned what it means to be culturally competent, the importance of continued self-reflection, examining my own cultural identity, and the important role that language plays in families perceptions and expectations of education. 

The most surprising thing I learned was the important role that Early Childhood Education plays in the integration of immigrant families with their communities.  We have all learned and can recite the benefits of Early Childhood Education but I never imagined that our Early Childhood Programs played such an important role for immigrant families and how they become integrated within their communities. 

I hope to further investigate the challenges that rural communities face as compared to urban communities when it comes to addressing the needs of immigrant families.  Many of us have a tendency to believe that immigration is only an urban issue but more and more rural communities are beginning to face challenges with meeting the needs of an ever increasing diverse society.

The thought that by continuing research in this area that we can create strategies to help rural and urban communities to meet the needs of immigrant families and in the end assist them in integrating into their communities is a huge motivation for me.  By helping families integrate and become involved within their communities we can promote family engagement in education, student success, and reduce family stress for immigrant families.

 

Influences of Family, Culture, and Society: Interview Process

For my challenge of multilingual families and the home / school language divide I chose to interview two colleagues who have experience with working with multilingual families. Ms. Roberta is a home visitor who goes into families homes once a week.  I thought her perspective on building relationships with multilingual families and bridging the communication barriers she faces would give a nice perspective.  Ms. Britnye is a classroom teacher who is also a parent whose children are being raised bilingual.  Her husband is from Honduras and Ms. Britnye is learning Spanish as well.  I thought her perspective as a classroom teacher as well as a parent would contribute greatly to my challenge.

While both of my interviewees are bilingual I have struggled with the thought that their perspective may be different than an educator who is not bilingual.  Is this challenge different for a monolingual educator?  While Ms. Britnye is still learning Spanish and she herself does not feel she is bilingual, I have seen her hold basic conversations with families and believe her to be fluent in Spanish more than she may believe.

In the area that my interviewees work there has been an increase of Burmese families, so this may address my above concern since neither is familiar with Burmese.

So far the interview process has been relaxed and I find myself very comfortable with choosing questions and expanding on them to clarify points.  Both of the educators that I contacted above were excited that I was working on this project and have asked that I share any insights I have gained as it may help them with working with families from diverse cultures.

In my conversations with both educators I have found that they both believe that while they have built wonderful relationships with their families and believe that their program is also doing a wonderful job they still feel that their is a major home/school language divide.  Does this home / school language divide impact the quality of services that these families receive compared to the quality of services that the English speaking families receive?

There are several questions still to answer and I look forward to completing this project.

The greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity ~ George Orwell

Project: Multiple Language Learners: Home / School Language Divide

The project that I will be researching for the course Influences of Family, Culture, and Society in Early Childhood will be multiple language learners with a subtopic of home / school language divide. 

I chose this challenge because I have always been fascinated with learning new languages and in the past have worked with immigrant families.  In my work as a Home Visitor for Early Head Start I felt like the families who were not bilingual were not getting the same quality services as our English speaking families.  The biggest reason for this I believed was a language barrier.  I would like to discover how programs and educators can over come some of these challenges to support young children's language development in both home and school languages. 

Some of the questions I have include:

1. How can early childhood programs and public schools support a child's home language?
2. How can early childhood programs and public schools communicate better with families who may not speak English or are Dual Language Learners?
3. How can dual language families support their child in learning English?
4. Should assessments be done in a child's home language or in both the home language and English?
5. Should or can educators assess children's home language development?
6. How can educators build relationships with immigrant families who may not speak English?

The answers to these questions can assist educators in improving family / school relationships and assist dual language learners in their language development.

Nelson Mandela once said: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."  I believe this quote exemplifies exactly what families of dual language learners need from educators.

Inspiring Resources, Images, and Quotes

There are several resources, quotes, and images that I find inspiring as my work as an Early Childhood Advocate. 

One resource that I continually go back to is the Zero to Three website, www.zerotothree.org, because of its expansive research, publications, podcasts, and information available not only for professionals but for parents as well.

Another resource I utilize often is the National Association for the Education for Young Children website, www.naeyc.org, this site also offers valuable resources for professionals in the Early Childhood field.

I also find Ghandi's quote "To reach real peace in the world, we will have to begin with the children" inspiring.

I also find inspiration in my teaching style from the quote "Children must be taught how to think, not what to think" by Margaret Mead.  When we teach children how to think we are giving them the gift of being able to form their own opinions, beliefs, and to be self sufficient.

As for images that inspire me, I find the pictures and work of the children that I work with to be inspiring.  After recently leaving my current position one of my coworkers made me a collage photo of all the children and families I have worked with, I find this to be my most inspiring image. It reminds me of how far each of these families and children have come and the part that I played in their lives as well as the part they played in my life.  I will treasure it always.

Resource for Inspiring Learning

For this post I reviewed several videos on TEDLive, http://www.ted.com/talks .  There was one that really sparked an interest for me which led to me to consider a project that was done in one of our local Head Start Classrooms this year.

The talk that inspired me was, Ramsey Mussallam:  3 Rules To Spark Learning.  In this talk Ramsey Mussallam, a high-school chemistry teacher discusses how a life threatening condition awakened a spark in him that made him examine the way in which he was teaching.  While he is a high school teacher I think his three rules most definitely can be applied to any age group.  Mr. Ramsey stated that "student questions are the seeds of real learning" which led to his 3 Rules: 1. Curiosity Comes First - encourage questions; 2. Embrace the Mess - don't be afraid of trial and error; and 3. Practice Reflection ( http://www.ted.com/talks/ramsey_musallam_3_rules_to_spark_learning.html ). 

His talk led me to consider the Project that one of our local Head Start Classrooms did this year with their children who were asking questions about the Rainforest.  Ms. Angie's class at PACE Community Action Agency, Washington Head Start, questioned her regarding the Rainforest which prompted her to begin their project.  The children's questions led to more questions (imagine that with 4 year olds) :) , which led to more and more being added to their classroom.  They discussed and learned so much that it spilled out of their classroom and down one of our halls.  At the end of the year the children invited parents and community members to come and visit their Rainforest to see what they had learned (www.pacecaa.org).  Below is a picture of their classroom.

Ms. Angie's class practiced all three of Mr. Mussallam's Rules - they questioned, they learned through trial and error (and there were lots of "messes"), and they reflected on their learning. 

Improving Family Engagement

Recently I reviewed the Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education, Homeroom.  I found their post, A new framework:  Improving family engagement, to be very eye opening. 
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2012/12/a-new-framework-improving-family-engagement/

From this article I was able to determine that family engagement or lack of is a problem that even the Department of Education is reviewing and researching.  After reading the comments I learned that some of the Teacher Unions in some States (California for one) prevent parents from being in the classroom and assisting with students.  I don't fully understand their reasoning behind not wanting parents in the classroom.

I discussed this blog with several colleagues who agreed that it seems odd that a Teacher's Union would go against parent involvement.  We also debated whether they were confusing "involvement" with "engagement".  The difference being "involvement" refers to opportunities for participation while "engagement" refers more to the relationship between schools, families, and communities.  I believe if you have strong family engagement you will have a high percentage of family involvement.  My colleagues and I all agreed with the comment that Family Engagement should begin in early childhood programs but vehemently disagreed with one individual who responded:

"All families don’t need this level of support. For those that do, it’s fine. Educated middle income and well off parents have a lot to offer if only schools would listen and be more receptive to change."

By "level of support" she was referring to programs mentioned in the previous comment such as Parents As Teachers (PAT).  We believe that all families can benefit from programs like PAT and Early Head Start (EHS).  As a home visitor for EHS I have had families that had well educated parents, and who may have even been over income but eligible due to a child's developmental delay or disability.   I also participated in First Steps as a parent with a child who had a communication delay.  While I consider myself a good parent and well educated I know that our family and my child greatly benefited from this program.  I also believe that we (educators) should want ALL parents / families regardless of socioeconomic or educational status to be engaged in their child's education.