When I Think of Research...

This course has taught me much about research especially in the early childhood field. From this course I have come to an understanding about the importance of research in the early childhood field. Research helps us understand past and current trends in the field. Research explains issues in the field we may have little or no understanding of. From this course I have also gained an understanding of the steps taken to design a research project. I have learned about the different types of research designs as well as different research methods.

My ideas about the nature of doing research have changed in a few ways. Before this class, I did not know how much time, thinking and planning goes into conducting research. I thought research was much simpler than I came to realize.

When it comes to planning, designing and conducting a research I learned a lot. I have learned the importance of developing a research question. I have learned different instances where you may or may not need to use random sampling when selecting participants. I have learned what it takes to make a research valid. I have also gained a better understanding on the importance of consent especially concerning research with children.

The most challenging part of this research journey was choosing a subtopic and research question. From the beginning of the course, I knew which topic I wanted to research; however, the difficulty came after selecting subtopics. My general topic was autism. I then decided to focus on different development skills in Autism. When I finally selected a subtopic I had to narrow it further down; which I decided to be cognitive skills. My next challenge came in deciding what about cognitive skills which drew me to language development and sentence formation. Once I figured this all out, I thought I had a good research question based on what I have learned. However, my research question was too basic. I changed it a few times but it was still not great. I met this challenge by taking suggestions by Dr. Dartt and re-reading how to form a research question. Dr Dartt helped me greatly with this challenge.

From this course, as an early childhood professional I will look to research, but not conduct research. I have come to understand that research is not for me. I know that it is important to know what research is being done in the early childhood field and use research when needed. However, in the future I do not plan on conducting any research projects.

Lastly, I am grateful for this experience. It was a challenge at times, but I have learned a lot especially from my peers. Thank you everyone and I wish you the best as you continue this journey in obtaining your Masters in Early Childhood Studies. 

Research Around the World

I chose to explore the Early Childhood Australia website. The link for the website is http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/. I chose this site because I do not know of any current issues or trends in Australia. I also wanted to see if there are any similarities between Australia and America. Their mission is to advocate for the rights, quality and equity in issues concerning children from birth to age 8. Early Childhood Australia is also the national umbrella organization for children’s services in Australia.

I clicked on the tab early childhood news to find current research topics in Australia. I found one article titled, “Fair, inclusive, quality education every child’s right; Early Childhood peak bodies welcome increased support for children with a disability”. This article discussed that quality early education and care is a right for all children. The article discussed how support should increase so that children with disabilities will be able to benefit from a quality education. I also explored the Every Child Magazine section of the website. I read an article on asthma and asthma management. The article was more of an information resource for families. The symptoms of asthma were discussed as well as the Emergency Asthma Management which provides directions and risk reductions for those with asthma. The article also discussed ways Australia can become more Asthma friendly.

It was very interesting exploring this website. They had a wealth of information available. They have a section called Early Learning Series. Here you can find resources to enhance learning for young children whether you are a parent or caregiver. They had so many different resources organized by topic including promoting positive behavior, confidence and coping skills, fussy eaters, sensory learning and math to name a few, there are much more topics. I clicked on the sensory learning topic to read more about it. I actually thought that the information was free so I was a little surprised to find out that you have to purchase the information on sensory learning or any other topic; however, they do provide sample chapters.

I randomly came across the Early Childhood Australia position statement on Children of Asylum Seekers. The position statement mentioned that half of the world’s refugees are children. The paper discussed that many refugee children enter Australia legally and illegally. They listed a list of principles and recommendations which should be applied to support the interests of refugee children and asylum seekers. One recommendation I liked is that these children should be allowed access to the same education that Australian children receive.   

For those who would like to stay updated with the organization they have a newsletter called the Voice which you can subscribe to for free. They also have their magazine Every Child which you can subscribe to as well but for a fee. 

Reference:

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

My beautiful flawless sis!

I know of a positive benefit of research. Research has affected my family in a positive way. Research has helped my family to figure out a chronic skin disorder my younger sister has. When my sister was a child, she had the clearest most beautiful skin out of me and my older sister. We were secretly jealous of her flawless skin. However, when my sister started high school, her skin was not so flawless. Her hair began to fall out, she became itchy all over, and she started to get bumps and blotches over her skin from head to toe. My sister and family were devastated; we had never seen this happen before. We took her to so many doctors and no one could tell us what the cause was. So my sister began to do her own research by studying her symptoms. My older sister (a pharmacist) did her own research as well to see if any medications she was taking could have caused this skin disorder. One doctor performed an allergy test which yielded no results. We conducted our own research and had her eliminate certain foods and drinks from her diet which helped a little. After talking to different doctors, reading different books and typing her conditions into Google my sister figured out that she had Psoriasis and Eczema. She was able to get in contact with a very good dermatologist who confirmed her conditions. Her doctor was very amazed that no one else knew that it was Psoriasis and was proud of the research she has done. My family was very relieved once this was found out and my sister was able to start receiving treatments. My sister continues to research her condition and continues to discover something new about Psoriasis. If we all gave up we would never know what condition she had and she would not have the ability to start treatment on time. Her skin is not as flawless as it used to be but with much care she is getting there and she is still beautiful to me! 

My Personal Research Journey

I chose the topic of Autism for my simulation. When I graduated from college, my first job was an internship at non-profit Autism organization. I interned for 3 months then begin to work part time as a Programs Coordinator. Before this job, I only knew of the term Autism and maybe about one symptom. However, I began to learn a little more and had the privilege of meeting wonderful children and families. After a year and a half I decided to get a job in the early childhood field. I still wanted to do work with Autism but wanted to get my foot in the door of early childhood as well. About a month ago, my former boss asked me to join the team again for a school the organization is building for children in Ghana with Autism. I gladly joined and was interested in getting back to working on the issue of Autism. I chose Autism as my simulation topic to learn more and start back where I left off.

This week I did a research chart on understanding research. The more assignments I complete each week, the better I understand what research truly entails. I have come to understand that research is more than just reviewing an article or a book. Research starts first from understanding and analyzing the journal, article, or book and checking for its quality and credibility. Although I an understanding how to first go about research, I am still a little worried that the information may be overwhelming. I guess the best thing for me is to review what I learn each week and begin to apply what I learn. I will also seek in my colleagues and professor if I am ever confused or frustrated. 

Building Research Competency

Starting my fifth class on my journey to receiving my Master's.
Excited to learn and share once again!!

Final Blog Assignment

Throughout these past weeks, I was able to connect with professionals in the Early Childhood Field while also learning about current issues and trends on an international level.

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field for my professional and personal development:

1. Establishing Connections

 I had a challenging time connecting with international contacts. Once I found 2 professionals, I was sure that everything would go great and we would communicate on a weekly basis. However, this was not the case. Either my contacts responded late or never responded.

2. Increased Awareness

Although I did have a hard time establishing my connections, I was not deterred from learning about early childhood issues and trends abroad. I was able to study about issues in other countries from the different websites provided by Dr. Meyers. Even though, I was not able to verbally communicate with professionals; I still became aware of issues by studying and exploring international early childhood websites.

3. Increased Interest

From these assignments, I gained a lot more interest in early childhood internationally. I learned that children internationally are in need of a lot more support especially those living in poverty.

Goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations:

My goal for the field is to establish and maintain connections with international professionals. I would encourage us to not give up if our connections fail, but to continue to reach out and share and learn from international professionals. 

International Contacts—Part 3

I have been very unlucky with my contacts. One gets back to me usually late and not in time for this assignment no matter how much I emphasize when I need his response back. My other contact just has not responded to me in a while so I had no choice, but to explore UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” webpage.

UNESCO has different initiatives to address education challenges in developing countries. One of their initiatives it titled, LIFE: The Literacy Initiative for Empowerment.  LIFE is a 10 year initiative targeting 35 countries that have 85 percent of the world’s illiterate population. It began in 2006 and will end in 2015. According to UNESCO, “Eighty-five percent of the world’s non-literate population resides in these countries, and two-thirds are women and girls”. LIFE targets African, Arab, and Asian and Pacific countries. I decided to look at the initiative in Africa (one of my professional goals is to build a quality child care center in Africa ) to see what their goals are there. I was hopi9ng they would specify which countries in Africa they are targeting, but they did not. The main focus on LIFE Africa LIFE focuses on the following strategic areas:

• Advocacy and communication to make literacy a priority on the agenda of different stakeholders and create a momentum for pooling resources and jointly accelerating literacy efforts;

• Capacity-building for the development of policies for sustainable and empowering literacy;

• Capacity-building for the delivery of empowering literacy programmes of good quality;

• Sharing of knowledge and inspiring innovations to continuously improve literacy policies and practices.

To make this initiative possible, they will need the support of the government, communities, civil society organizations, parliamentarians and international partners.

The more I explored the webpage, I discovered that they have a UNESCO Africa section and one of their main headquarters is in Nigeria; I was pretty excited once I discovered this. Nevertheless, I read an article on education in Africa and if progress was made. The article was about the Africa Education for All Conference from October 16-19, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa. According to the report, not all their goals have been made. They mentioned that 31 million children are out of school and the biggest gaps are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The countries have a deadline to reach their goals by the year 2015.

I also read an article on early childhood development in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2010 there was a conference on Early Childhood Development held in Singapore to discuss the importance of early learning for children under the age of three. In the Asia-Pacific region, most of the focus is on preschool and primary school, but ages 0-3 are often neglected. During the conference they launched the “Resources Package for 0-3”. The package aims to equip policy makers, practitioners and parents with a range of information on ECD for the under 3 period. Also, each country made a commitment to step up advocacy on Early Childhood Development especially for ages 0-3.

It was great to see what efforts UNESCO is taking to improve early childhood in developing countries. I do plan on following the LIFE Initiative to see if their goals have been met as well as the goals from the Africa Education for All Conference.

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