Professional Hopes and Goals

One of my biggest hopes as it relates to my work with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to have the ability to share high quality education and health care services to all in my community. Coming into the master’s program I had a huge passion for providing youth with food insecurity with some sort of food service and a safe learning environment at the same time. I look for to my future in the early childhood profession and know now that I will have not only the endless passion, but also the educational backing as well to enhance my community and its entire people.

My overall goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that as child care and education professionals we are responsible in providing the highest quality programs and embraces multicultural inclusion.

I would like to thank all my colleagues for your continuous support and positive feedback throughout this course. I feel during this course I have really been able to open my mind and embrace everyone as unique and informative in their own way. I know we will all do amazing things in the early childhood professions. I look forward to working with each of you in the future and seeing our successes on our journey.

 

Fran Logan

 

Families From Around the World

My incoming family’s country of origin: Cambodia

 

5 ways I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive:

1.       Understand the complete reason for moving to America and to our community.

2.       Research and gain knowledge of the Cambodian culture and traditions.

3.       I would help inform my current students about the new student and their culture so that everyone would feel welcoming and comfortable in the classroom.

4.       I would want to introduce myself and the center to the new family to begin forming a great relationship.

5.       I would post language signs around the center so that the new student and family would have assistance in what words or terms we would be referring to or learning about. Even placing words from their country on the word wall so that the current students and staff could be educate on a new culture as well.

I would hope that my preparations would benefit myself in being culturally aware, but also my new and current families and students as well. I would hope that my efforts would allow my center to be ready to accept the new family as one of ours and welcoming them with open arms, hearts, and minds.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

 

Purposeful, unintentional, implied, or blatant microagressionism can be hurtful to the victim of those thoughts and words. Personally I have experienced multiple situations of microagression, however most of them I do feel the insult was unintended and seen as a friendly “joke”.

My Experience

Growing up and even into adulthood I have experienced racial microagression. It started to feel like regardless of where I went, who I was with, no matter how hard I tried to fit in with my peers I got the same burning question asked…” What are you?” I am put aback by this rude question every time I am faced with it. “What are you?” What exactly are they asking me, do they mean who am I, all these feelings run through my mind, yet I end with the same result… just let it go Frances, they don’t mean it in a rude or mean way. Coming from a mixed culture and being a Mixed-American, I was never black enough, white enough, or even Native American enough to truly be accepted by either of the groups. Now, however, I began to realize the questions were paired with comments such as, “your hair is so pretty, your skin tone is beautiful, I wish I looked like you,” but my listening normally stopped right after they asked that dreaded question, “What are you?” I have opened my heart, mind, and ears to understanding the people are asking questions to get to know me better and see if they can relate more to me as a person, they are not asking to hurt my feelings or make me feel like I am a “What” rather than a “who”.

 I being from southern Louisiana and from a predominately white demographic area, I have experienced out right racism, while also experiencing microagression. After learning about microagression I am now able to understand more clearly that some statements or words do not have to be meant or intended to hurt or be rude. I can now relax a little and listen to the rest of the conversation before shutting down and getting offended.

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

1.    Samantha-

·       Culture- a person’s foundational belief system based in/on their religion, morals, and values.

·       Diversity- a group that have minor similarities and more differences; but can coexist seamlessly

2.  James-

·       Culture- A family’s entire being from raising their children to jobs and anything else a family would do as a unit.

·       Diversity- various cultural groups

3.  Veronica-

·       Culture- the way a group of people live

·       Diversity- multiple groups of people that have different cultures.

 

Reflection:

During this course I gained a better understanding of what each other terms: culture and diversity, meant. Mirroring the collective opinions of my family and friends, I learned culture means what a single groups stands for including religion, morals, values, traditions, and lifestyles. I automatically think about cultural invisibility comes to mind when thinking about examples of culture and diversity. People are so consumed with their personal ideas and beliefs that they are blind to their uniquenesses.

When interviewing friends and family about culture and diversity I feel they omitted their person thoughts and examples of how culture and diversity have effected them. They were focused on defining the term and not really going pass their assignment.

I was enlightened mostly by others definitions of culture and diversity. I had similar views and definitions about bother terms, but was surprised how deep they got with their ideas and thoughts about the meaning of the words. I have definitely opened my mind about the meanings and deeper understanding of culture and diversity.

 

My Family Culture

•If I was forced to select three personal items that could effective represent my family and our culture, I would first choose a cross statue. This cross has been passed down through about 3 generations and now lives with my mother waiting to be passed down to one of the next group of children. The cross represents our family’s faith and religious back ground. It is a clear symbol of what we believe, our values, and what we find important in life. The second item I would want to bring would be my hand-made Native American Chief sculpture. My great-grandmother created this sculpture and has also handed it down through generations. This items embodies our cultural background and family legacy. It shows the pride and strength of a family and an entire ethnic group that refuses to die. The last item I would

select a huge family photo album, which holds hundreds of pictures throughout many years and represents our family. For every family event from wedding, births, and baptisms to barbeques and family reunions we take loads of pictures and put them all in one book.

•I would most likely be devastated if I had now give up two of my three treasured items after we arrived in our new country. It was hard enough selecting three, and to have to be told I would have to limit it to one would be heart breaking. All three of those items have their own significance to my family and me.

•I really set down and thought about all the important things and symbols that could represent our family as a whole and noticed it was actually hard and confusing. Something that I think or hold as important or symbolic someone else in my family might not have the same feelings.  I also found myself looking for items that could show different segments of our culture, from religion, family lineage, and family heritage. I think I did a pretty good job narrowing my entire being into three items, even asking my parents if the items were good and appropriate (which they agreed).

When I Think of RESEARCH...

I remember at the start of this course having very conflicting and overwhelming views of  what I would be required to do. I was completely overwhelmed with life itself, let alone the idea of 8 weeks of research. I have gained a lot of calming information about what it takes to research ideas successful, but I still have a few mountains to climb related to research overall.  I loved the constructive feedback throughout the course, and have gained a better understanding of how to developing and completing a valid research study.

I can admit that I have always been fearful of completing any form of research. Even though I have become more comfortable wih the process of researching, I am still a bit nervous about the whole thing. After going through this course I have learned the steps, terms, and methods of research, which have easied my concerns. The best part of this course is that I am now able to pick and choice appropriate methods and processes that work each type of research study I am a part of.

Throughout this course I have been going through many life changing events, so focusing on soemthing that I already found overwhelming was even more overwhelming. I found myself getting frustrated and losing my drive. I eventually had to seek a counselor, calm down, and push through not only the class, but more importantly my life situation. After refocusing,  I was able to get a full understanding of the research process and was also able to complete the course; gettingone step closer the my goal. After finding the base of my research study, I actually found my research useful in my educational career  which included: creating a Food Drive to help out our local Food Bank, implementing the Buddy Back Pack Program (where low-income students are able to use a new food pantry on campus to take food tiems home over weekends), and implementing the first annual  tree angel program (where faculty and staff are able to adopt a family in need over Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have also become more interested in creating a child care center that assists the families in lower-income areas and possibly starting a Head Start Program in my community.

 

    Some of the challenges I faced during this course were more personal then course related. Of course  personal issues become concerns during the process of the course, but I was able to regroup and get the overall idea of the research process. I found myself struggling this section of 8 weeks, forcing me to go over information repeatedly and pretty much praying I completed the assignment correctly. I looked to feedback from my colleagues and professor to ground me and keep me going even when I wanted to throw in the towel. 

I always knew I wanted to own a Child Care and Learning Center, but after this course I see their is a bigger need in low-income areas for a center that can offer a higher level of education and care for the students. I found myself a few courses ago becoming more interested in the Head Start Program, but that too is limited to specific students and families. I want now to create a center that can embrace families in need, hold a high standard of acheivement, and provide the best education and care I can too ALL  children. 

I feel I have found my career calling after this research course.

Thanks ALL!!!!

Research Around the World

I had the opportunity to review a current topic presented by the Early Childhood Australian organization (ECA). The organization advocated for all young Australians, their families, and the ealry childhood profession.

One of the newly presented research by ECA showed that nearly 70% of people asked feel that affordable early childhood education programs was more important that Paid Parental Leave (PPL) for young families. This finding was not surprising at all to me, because I know if surveyed I would have chosen the same. Unfortunately, affordable child care and education does not mean (at all) that the child would receive the same high quality/standards as higher costing centers/ programs. It would be amazing to have the government in both locations (America and Australia) come together on demanding high quality with affordable prices, so that all children/families would have access to the best educational systems.

The poll conducted was in response to the current debates related to the PPL. After reading this article, I became interested in the PPL concerns and wondered if the US had some sort of like poll or survey, but was unable to find one. The ECA, like me, is very supportive of an effective idea in supporting parents in their ability to spend time with their families, however with spending time some parent must send their children you care centers and need to know/expect their children are getting the best education at the best price.

I liked this website because it had multiple links to research through. They not only presented their personal views and concerns, but also recognized others and respected them. The website and organization posted numerous magazine subscriptions and even allowed viewers to see sample articles from the Early Childhood News. GREAT RESOURCE!

Reference:
Early Childhood Australia. A voice for young children. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodastralia.org.au

Research That Benefits Children and Families-Uplifting Stories

Imagine that you possess the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field. Imagine further that you are not restricted by the reality of the present. Imagine that your study will make a major positive contribution to the well-being of children and/or their families. What topic would you choose? What can you imagine the positive contribution(s) would be?

I would easily choose the topic of feeding the world's youth, but I would first focus on my community and state of Texas. If I were able to research ways of be able to feed all starving children and actually be able to implement the outcomes, I would probably be hailed a prophet or some kind of savior of mankind. By researching and inventing a way to end world hunger, I would actually be able to assist in ending multiple issues throughout the world: low education levels, poverty, crime, bad health, etc. The possible positive contributions are endless, because everything filters back to a person's basic needs not being met; which negatively impacts every other part of their lives.

Here's a way that we can stop dreaming, and start doing!

Twitter (#FoodDay2013):

• On October 24, America will celebrate @FoodDay2013, the nationwide movement for healthy, affordable, sustainable food.http://www.foodday.org
• Join millions of Americans on October 24 for @FoodDay2013 to advocate for affordable, healthy, sustainable food.
• #FoodDay2013 is October 24. Millions of Americans will #EatReal & push for better food policies. What are your plans?

 

Personal Research Journey:"

The topic of my research is: What is the lasting effects of being labeled impoverished or having a poverty mindset as a young child? This topic is important to me as an educator, parent, and daughter I am constantly surrounded by children are dealing with the epidemic of poverty. Growing up both parents told me stories about their childhoods; how hard it was, how appreciative I should be, and how it affected who they became. My parents grew up in household where nine children and two parents survived on 50$ a week, however, neither parent felt they were living in poverty. I feel that by them not being labeled impoverished or having the mindset of being in poverty my parents had a huge advantage in having life successes. It is my thought that children that fully believe they are in poverty or have been labeled by peers, adults, teachers, and/or schools to be in poverty end up suffering from stagnation related to poverty. These thoughts are the basis or foundation of my research.

So far this simulation process has been not as overwhelming or boring as I thought it would be. I think I am enjoying this process more because I had the choice of what I wanted to research. I found the assignment of finding creditable resources challenging, but extremely useful. I needed to be able to see the differences in what are the expectations of a creditable resource versus a not so creditable one.

I am extremely passionate about childhood poverty and ending childhood hunger. One of the programs/organizations I am working with is the No Kid Hungry Movement, which is sponsored by the Food Network. September is the awareness month for ending childhood hunger and we support this movement/month by wearing and using the color orange. I am exstending an invitation to my colleagues to support the No Kid Hungry and Ending Childhood Hunger Movements by wearing orange and going to the Food Network website and seeing what each of us could do to end childhood hunger.

The Consequences of International Awareness

 I have learned a lot from my international contact and through international awareness websites. It is clear that quality care, poverty, and lack of equity in early childhood related systems are concerns worldwide. Support, funds, and resources are the top three influencing factors that are mirrored in many countries.  I also was reminded that programs with positive parent involvement, endless funds, and amazing staff any program, located anywhere, servicing any student can and will be successful.

I look forward to providing my full knowledge, passion, and desire to succeed to all my students and families. My career pledge is to assist in the ending of child hunger and poverty not only in my community, but my city, state, and country.

I will remain interested and committed to researching international failures and successes in the early childhood field. As an educator of future teachers and child care workers, I look forward to introducing upcoming educators to the wonderful field of teaching.

UNESCO: Access and Equity

I was not able to talk with my international contact this week, so I went to UNESCO's site and researched further: Access and Equity related to child care and education.

 

Being from a medical background and family I have always thought learning at least started at birth, but after becoming a Child Development instructor and working in the Obstetrics field I now know it begins during the prenatal period of life. However, the 1990 Jomtien Declaration for Education for All stated that learning begins at birth. Because it is now realized that early childhood is the foundation to future learning and success, in 2000 the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action agreed about the importance of early childhood and included the development of early childhood care and education as the first of its six main goals.

 

The main idea of the program and its goals is that participating countries dedicate themselves to expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, targeting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. One of the big issues related to quality care and education for children was the accessibility to them. Part of the program urges governments to branch out and support equitable access to those services by implementing better policies directed to underprivileged children and families.

 

 Normally, privileged children of the target age group benefit from state and federal funding and resources, while poorer children and those in the non-targeted age groups receive little to no government assistance. UNESCO supports the implementation of a universal policy with targeting, which they believe would minimize inequities. I also feel that cities and governments should equally distribute its resources among the entire population and especially towards those who live in the most disadvantaged regions, which I believe would help end the cycle of less than and low achievement. The ideas and approach of UNESCO is to create better access without creating another type of inequity, but we must understand we all have the right to equal care and education and if we see an inequity in either we are obligated to fight for change.

 

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Little Texans, BIG Futures

It has been unusually hard to communicate with my international contact, therefore I decide to research a local organization focused on provide quality care and education to Texans; LittleTexans.org.

This website and program are intended to support parents, caregivers, and anyone interested in promoting the healthy development of young children, especially little Texans.  The information found is geared to help people understand more about how young children grow and develop skills, how we can support their growth, and it provides great resources to use and share with others.

“Little Texans. Big Futures.”  was started as a project of the Texas Early Learning Council, as part of its promise to bring new, voluntary; infant, toddler, and three-year-old early learning guidelines to Texas.  Under the leadership of LaShonda Brown, Texas Head Start Collaboration Office Director, the Texas Early Learning Council started on a two-year journey to develop the guidelines through a collaborative process involving many different types of experts and participants in early childhood services in the state.  The final guidelines were reviewed and approved by hundreds of state and national leaders, and they are endorsed by the Texas Pediatric Society .

Little Texans:

Vision

For all young children to grow and thrive in their families and in their communities

Mission

To engage in a comprehensive and collaborative process to develop and implement Texas’ Infant, Toddler, and Three-Year-Old Early Learning Guidelines (www.littleTexans.org, 2008).

Posted on the littleTexans.org website are:

• Assistance with finding quality childcare and educational programs
• Ads and resource center
• Act Early (Screening for Developmental Delays)
• Download Guidelines link

Each of these links are hugely educational for professionals and parents/caregivers of children from the prenatal stage through around 3 years of age.


I randomly heard about this organization on the radio a few months ago and thought it sounded awesome, so I decided to look it up. Surprisingly, I was able to find a lot of great information effecting my community and state. There are always websites and research available, but not really geared to my specific group of students or demographics, so hearing about littleTexans.org was amazing.

Parents as Teachers

  There is infinite amounts of information and resources available on the Parents as Teachers website and through the organization.

Looking under the RESOURCES tab on the website, there was one avenue that I had not explored: The Federal Home Visiting Program. The program is designed to strengthen and improve programs and coordination of services for at-risk communities and to improve outcomes for those families. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) see home visiting as one of several strategies embedded in a quality early childhood system that promotes maternal, infant and early childhood health, safety and development, as well as strong parent-child relationships.
 
The website and organization offer trainings and curriculum to assist parents in being able to better teach and guide their children. Leading early childhood education and child development organizations and professionals seek out Parents as Teachers curricula and training because it easily integrates into other services they may be providing, which allows them to tailor information to the specific needs of any family and provide practical, hands-on application for parents in real-world situations.
 
I do not receive any newsletters from Parents as Teachers, but they do send out letters for support and donation advocacy as well as for interested groups to enroll in their provided training.
  
  On the website there is a fact sheet and additional information about how Parents as Teachers assisted in the implementation of Indian Head Start. I feel that this creation is a clear push towards care and educational equity. In the letter and fact sheet, it is stated multiple times that all children have the right to premium education; which to me represents the basic foundation to constructing a pathway to equity in the early childhood care and educational systems, especially for such an extreme minority group as Native American Indians.

On the homepage of the website there was a news flash of new trainings and programs available to teen parents. More and more, especially in my community, there are teen parents struggle to provide quality care and education. This latest revision of this program, offered through the Knowledge Studio, is a giant step forward in the work with teen parents. Enhancements to the curriculum include more focus on:

Ø  Supporting adolescents in their development of life skills as they approach adulthood

Ø  Building family well-being capacity in areas like education, employment, and finances

Ø  Examining the mutual influences and potential impacts of the parallel development needs of adolescents and young children

Ø  Teaching parent-child interaction using a four-part technique

Ø  Emphasizing the important role of the father, whether or not he is living with the mother

I feel this Parents as Teachers is not only an organization, but could become a movement if more parents knew about the resources it provides. Some of programs and trainings could definitely assist not only parents, but also teachers and child care professionals. We as educators and some as parents have to responsibility to seek out programs and organizations such as Parents as Teachers to improve our knowledge, which would improve other areas of our personal and professional lives.

 

Global Children's Initiative

I have only been able to connect with one international resource, therefor I decided research deeper the Harvard University’s Global Children’s Initiative, established by the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard in 2006. The main belief of the program is that the vitality and sustainability of any society depends on the extent to which it expands opportunities early in life for all children to achieve their full potential and engage in responsible and productive citizenship. They see supporting healthy child development as the foundation of economic prosperity, strong communities, and a just society.  The main goal of the program is to get multiple sections regarding development involved in issues at a global level to better assess and assist in advancements in the field of childhood development and learning. They emphasis three main objectives that clearly their overall goal:

Ø Educating high level decision makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health, beginning in the earliest years of life

Ø Supporting projects that create understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track

Ø Building leadership capacity in child development research and policy to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children.

A great program that was discussed regarding the Global Children’s Initiative is the Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. The program brought together 50 Brazilian politicians, policymakers, public managers and civil-society leaders together to examine how they can use knowledge about the science of child development to strengthen and advance policies and practices. 

The second program introduced on the website was Zambian Early Childhood Development Project. The main idea was to use an assessment tool that took into account existing child development measures and added in measures to take into the Zambian framework to evaluate children through all areas of development

I have learned in studying this website, that the same issues plague the world in regards to children.  This site strongly focuses on the idea that we all play an important role in advancements and improvements in the field of early childhood development. I completely realize and understand that as a world we are nowhere close to solving all concerns, but we are making great strides.

 

 

References:

Harvard University: Global Children’s Initiative Retrieved from: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

 

Sharing Web Resources

I have been researching the website and organization Parentsasteachers.org. Looking through many of the programs and resources presented by the organization, I feel that many of them are extremely relevant to my professional career and development including:

Resources

Parents as Teachers is the trusted resource for the most respected organizations and professionals serving children and families within the early childhood development and education continuum. We equip early childhood organizations and professionals with information and tools that are relevant—and widely applicable—to today's parents, families and children, especially those in vulnerable circumstances.

Fact sheets

Learn about our model/approach

• Parents as Teachers: an evidence-based model
• About the Parents as Teachers approach
• Why Invest in Parents as Teachers?

See how we work with special populations

• An Evidence-Based Approach to Outcomes for Indian Head Start Children
• An Evidence-Based Approach to Strengthening American Indian/Alaska Native Communities
• Parents as Teachers: Investing in Innovation (i3)
• How Does Parents as Teachers Prevent Child Abuse?

Discover how we partner with others

• Parents as Teachers works for HFA to keep America’s families healthy
• Parents as Teachers and affordable housing
• Exploring the Early Head Start Connection

Find out how we support care providers

• How does Parents as Teachers support family, friend and neighbor care?
• Parents as Teachers Supports Care Providers

Learn how we increase school readiness

• We’re Going to School: a parent involvement approach to school transitions
• How Does Parents as Teachers Support School Readiness?
• Parents as Teachers and Promise Neighborhoods

Finding funding

• Guide to Funding for Programs Offering Parents as Teachers Services

Screening tools

• Selecting a Screening Tool
• Parents as Teachers Approved Developmental Screening Tools

Resources for professionals working with fathers

Information for 2011 Fatherhood Grantees about Parents as Teachers

This curriculum was developed for Strengthening Families and Fatherhood: Children of Fathers in the Criminal Justice System under the Innovation and Improvement Project grant from the Office of Head Start, Administration for Children, Youth and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

I also discovered that this organization created partnerships with many governmental/educational systems that focus of the enhancement of child development.

Our Position

Parents as Teachers is a strong voice for children and strengthening families. We work collaboratively with a network of other strong organizations and professionals to advocate on their behalf. Our organization is successful only when those we support are able to effectively meet the needs of the children and families they serve.

Read our positions on important issues impacting children and families.

•ESEA Reauthorization

•Even Start

•Head Start

•PIRCs 

•PreK

•Family Friend Neighbor Care

•School Readiness

•Child Abuse and Neglect

•Investment in Early Childhood

 I am strongly passionate about educating the whole family, this organization focuses on the same issue. I look forward to seeing what other articles and resources they provide throughout my search.