Strengthen the Bonds of Collaborative Learning

Learning from my colleagues in Trinidad and Tobago showed me that even though we might be on different continents as early childhood professionals we are still struggling with the same issues.  It makes me realize that the issues we are dealing with in Oklahoma are really global issues.  That helps me better grasp the fact that these issues are hard and they don’t have simple solutions.  They are struggling with quality services for 3 to 5 year olds and dealing with transitions from preschool to public school.  They are also grappling with creating partnerships, which is one of the same issues happening here in the United States nationally.  The US is attempting to help states create partnerships between child care, Head Start, and Public School. 

            The similarities in professional goals between me and my colleague Dominique are fascinating to me.  His goals are to develop a professional cadre of childhood practitioners and to create new curricula that meet the needs of the practitioners.  We are both committed to the professional development of teachers.  It is also very important to both of us to cultivate relationships with other professionals.  Again understanding this has expanded my thoughts to be more global versus just thinking about my state or my country.

            Developing these connections has broadened my perspective.  I thought that I was very aware of other countries because my husband Jairo is originally from Venezuela so that has helped me to be more global in my thinking, but this experience has helped to realize that I was still thinking very shallow and narrow about early childhood.  It was if I knew those other places existed, but they were not impacting me personally.

            My goal is one that I share in common with my colleague Dominique from Trinidad and Tobago universal access to early childhood educations holds the key to equity in the education system as more young children are better prepared to benefit from high quality programs.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts--Part 3

My contact Dominique Eustace from Trinidad and Tobago provided the following responses to our questions of the week.  He provided me a response on Thursday of this week on his last day before leaving for the Christmas Holiday.

1.      What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

·         The link between good training and quality practice in ECCE.

·         The development of quality early childhood environments (building new schools that meet the needs of all children)

 

2.      What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

·         UWI

o   Bachelor of Education (B.E.D.) – Early Childhood Care and Education

o   Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Development

o   Postgraduate Diploma in Education

o   MEd (with concentration in Curriculum)

o   MPhil and PhD degrees in Education

·         SERVOL

o   Skill Training Programme in Day Care/Pre School

o   SERVOL built a Regional Training and Resource Centre to train teachers, field officers and administrators for an expanded Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) Programme.

·         UWI-FDCRC

o   Early Childhood Care and Development Programme

·         UWI - Open campus

o   Certificate & Diploma Early Childhood Development and Family Studies

o   BEd Early Childhood Development and Family Studies

o   BEd Educational Leadership & Management

o   Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education – Teacher

o   Certificate in Early Childhood Care and Education - Administrator

o   Certificate in Child Care

·         Caribbean Nazarene College

o   School Education with emphasis in Early Childhood Care and Education

3.      What are some of your professional goals?

·         To develop a professional cadre of early childhood practitioners

·         To create new curricula for the Caribbean that speaks to our culture and national and regional goals

·         To create a site that would allow for the development of a statistical unit for the Caribbean region

 

4.      What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

·         To assist in the professional development of our staff at the UWI-FDCRC

·         Sourcing funding

·         Not having timely and adequate data across the region to assist current research

Sharing Web Resources

Continuing my journey through the Child Care Aware America® website I found they are connected to many public policy and advocacy groups through links and posted resources.  They are either to support parents in selecting quality child care or to support providers of early childhood in the improvement of their quality.  Additionally, they provide a plethora of resources and links to provide support for an early childhood advocate.  The exploration of this website has provided me so much information and for an early childhood education public policy junkie it seems as if I have hit the mother load.  Before this class I primarily used NAEYC and National Women's Law Center so this has been very enlightening.

The section of the website that I explored this week was the Parent section.  One of the resources that I found very interesting was the "Family Decision Making Tool" to be used when deciding whether or not to return to work.  This tool provides some insight into all the different things that must be considered when making this decision.  I thought this was a great resource for family planning on having children.  They provide a plethora of resource for parents about how to select quality child care and also where and how to find quality programs.  They provide a very detailed and comprehensive resource section for parents.  They have teamed up with Parents magazine I think in a effort to ensure that parents are familiar that the resources they have are being utilized to the fullest.

I receive the newsletter "Capitol Connection" and the December 3 newsletter was about the need for increased funding and the direct link to this need with the continued battle about the fiscal cliff.  There was a link inside the newsletter that takes the reader to a NBCNews.com story about about rope-a-dope and that Speaker Boehner and House Majority Leader Cantor were discussing the fact that the proposal from the White House was not a serious offer.  The newsletter also provided information from both sides the Republican as well as the Democratic side on the fiscal cliff solution.  Both the newsletter as well as the links away from the newsletter shared that at this point in time we are not any closer to a solution and that cooperation is not being used to develop a solution.

The contents of newsletter is directly related to our coursework topic this week in that we have been talking about quality, affordability, and availability.  This website fully examines these three challenges from both the perspective of the provider, but also the parent.  The content of the website is very complimentary of the content of the course and very relevant.

The exploration of this website coupled with the information reviewed this week solidifies for me that idea that early childhood is a very political issue and when the country is in fiscal crisis early childhood is also in fiscal crisis.  This proves the need for more strong early childhood advocate working at all levels, local, state and federal because our children's lives and the quality of their lives depend on us.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Excellence and Equity in ECCE in Trinidad and Tobago

 

 

 

I learned so much from my newest contact this week Dominique Eustace with the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago.  Regarding equity Dominique reported that the Ministry of Education recognizes that universal access to early childhood care and education (ECCE) holds the key to equity in the education system as more young children are better prepared to benefit from formal schooling.  The Ministry has implemented a comprehensive plan that expands access and ensures the provision of high quality early childhood education and services in quality facilities designed, built and administered to international standards.  He went on to state that there are approximately 1,154 early childhood centers in Trinidad and Tobago, 750 of which are registered with the Ministry of Education.  The current Ministry of Education has highlighted the importance of building a partnership with private institutions in achieving Universal ECCE by 2015.

With regard to excellence Dominique reported that quality care and education hold the key to transforming children into healthy adults.  The National ECCE Centre Survey conducted during 2004-2005 found that many ECCE centers operate under unsatisfactory conditions both in terms of physical facilities and the teaching and learning experiences.  The survey also found that the qualifications of the majority of EC teachers were below the new standards set by the Ministry of Education in keeping with international requirements.  As part of the Vision 2020 agenda, the government embarked on a mission to put new policies in place to ensure quality standards in all early childhood environments.  One such mandated policy requires upgrades in the qualification of EC teachers and administrators.  In doing this teachers were provided materials needed for effective teaching.

Some of my follow up questions for Dominique are to find out exactly what these new mandated qualifications are for teachers and directors.  What kind of training they are providing for the teachers to help them become more effective.  I was amazed at the amount of information he provided me with just one simple question.  Additionally, I am beginning to see Dominique and Patrick as true colleagues and will use these contacts in my work and I am fortunate that this class forced me to step out of my comfort zone and reach out to international partners. 

Reference

Eustace (personal communication, November 29, 2012) excellence and equity in ECCE in Trinidad and Tobago.