International Contacts

Final Blog Assignment

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

Finding out that internationally we seem to share similar interests professionally and tend to agree the best way forward for children and families.

Researching internationally with EC professionals and finding out about their issues and trends in the EC field.

Learning more about different cultures and the differences people have.

My goal is to continue my communication with my international contacts because I like the professional contact with colleagues from different countries, learning from each other’s experiences and mistakes to improve the lives of children.

Responses from my International contact.

Hello classmates, here are the responses I received to the following questions from my International contact Karen.

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

I am chairing a national review related to Registration, Regulation and Inspection of the workforce in Wales. This is important because it brings together inspection and quality standards. It raises questions about how inspection is a driver for quality. Consistency and standardized understanding of national standards is a key to this and is the current focus of the workforce who thinks interpretation of national standards varies too much.

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

 Professionals can undertake qualifications from entry level to level 5 (Foundation Degree) through work-based learning programmers and can go to University for a degree program, follow the link for the content of level 5, you will also find other levels of CCLD here too.
http://www.ccwales.org.uk/qcf-level-5-diploma-in-leadership-for-ccld-advanced-practice-wales-and-northern-ireland/
 

3. What are some of your professional goals?

 I would like to see Wales recognized for its work in relation to the UNCRC and to see the outcomes for children in our poorest communities improved through tackling poverty and low levels of education attainment. My role is helping to make those improvements through conducting evaluations and reviews, as above, and making recommendations for change and through working at community level. For example, I deliver programs to people who work with some of our most disadvantaged parents. These are my goals and challenges professionally too.

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

 I would love to see a global community of people working to the same end. We all work to the same issues on the same trajectory and are in different places on that trajectory but it would be, and is, fantastic to share practice globally. In this way we learn from each other’s mistakes and experiences and improve the world we live in.

I run the Centre for the Child, Family and Society. You may find out more about this if you google Professor Karen Graham, UK.

Kind regards and Merry Christmas for when it comes.

Karen

EXPLORING OUTSIDE RESOURCES

OUTSIDE LINKS

Some of the outside links I choose to follow are www.uschamber.com/icw

and www.PartnershipforSuccess.org. These websites has action items

that will encourage greater business involvement in early childhood

education which outlines state- and business-level activities, and business

 leaders may choose to engage. There is a summary of the economic

evidence behind investments in early childhood education.

From exploring these websites I have gained greater insight on the

business side of early childhood education. I subscribed for E-Mail Updates

on Ready Nation and I Invested in the Kids Working Group.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

 New Ideas / Insights Gained About Early Childhood Systems Around The Globe. 

The Global Children’s Initiative has begun to build a portfolio of activities in three domains: early childhood development; child mental health; and children in crisis and conflict situations.

Un Buen Comieno (UBC), "A Good Start," is a collaborative project in Santiago, Chile, to improve the quality of early childhood education through teacher professional development. . UBC, which has received some funding from the Center, is an example of the kind of integrated child development work that is central to the Center's mission.

As part of its Global Children’s Initiative, the Center is launching Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. In collaboration with local experts, the project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil

 Reference

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