Woahhow do I respond to something so big and so complex and so sensitive to so many different groups of people? These are extremely important aspects of addressing injustice in early education which you can do to alter your individual practice with children. Do they have relevance to all childrens lived experience, development, and abilities? Between the pandemic and the Great Resignation, the already-vulnerable early childhood education system has been pushed into crisis. Change makes us feel uncomfortable but we can embrace it to do the best by the children and families we work with. In one frame, each child stands at the fence; one is tall enough to see over the top; another stands tip-toe, straining to see; and another is simply too short. ), Maybe this plan is made along with your director and includes those parent meetings, and a timeline for having revised policies, and some training for the staff. Lets say youre a teacher, and you can look back and see that over the years youve been at your center, a disproportionately high number of children of color have been excluded from the program. And besidesthere are hands to hold if they lose their balanceor if you do! Thu 8 Dec 2022 at 8:43pm 8 December 2022 . Copyright 20102023, The Conversation US, Inc. Kerry McCuaig is a Friend of The Conversation. Three International Perspectives on Culturally Embraced Pedagogical Approaches to Early Teaching and Learning. Inspirational author Brene Brown, who writes books, among other things, about being an ethical leader, said something that really walloped me: if we avoid the hard work of addressing unfairness (like talking about skin color at a time when our country is divided over it) we are prioritizing our discomfort over the pain of others. Crum, T. (1987). That child in the middle of the parachute? Change is uncomfortable. Through a loving connection, children learn what it means to take safe risks. Early expulsions and suspensions lead to greater gaps in access to resources for young children and thus create increasing gaps in later achievement and well-being Research indicates that early expulsions and suspensions predict later expulsions and suspensions, academic failure, school dropout, and an increased likelihood of later incarceration. She showed a video from a classroom in China to educators in both the US and in China. Flopsy was litter-trained and so our licensing specialist allowed us to let him hop freely around the classroom. The educators in the classroom in China felt that it was developmentally appropriate and the children were learning not only storytelling skills but how to give and receive constructive criticism. You are called to respond. Does it go away? I took a few minutes to collect myself, and considered the following questions: Yes, absolutely. Not to mention the frustration that can result from parents who are never present or those who are overly present. For example, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker celebrated having grown K-12 public school investments by $1.6 billion, including full funding for the state's . : One of the best ways to address safety concerns in the workplace is to feel confident in your abilities to avoid and in the worst case deal with any issues that may arise. The children were very engaged and seemed to feel their feedback mattered. Employment of preschool teachers is projected to grow 15 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. Since the start of 2022, there have been more than 300 mass shootings equating to roughly four per week. Department. Its counterproductive to push your child to read a whole chapter book independently if they are not ready. Root yourself in the values of early childhood care and education. Look back to those 10 steps and write a few sentences, or more if you are inspired, on what you can do to move yourself forward, as a resourced member of a team and a powerful advocate for children! In the field of early childhood, issues of prejudice have long been important to research, and in this country, Head Start was developed more than 50 years ago with an eye toward dismantling disparity based on ethnicity or skin color (among other things). Work to embed fair and equitable approaches in all aspects of early childhood program delivery, including standards, assessments, curriculum, and personnel practices. You can influence the practices of others in your program and outside of it. For instance, a key phrase that we often use to underpin our decisions is developmentally appropriate practice, which NAEYC defines as methods that promote each childs optimal development and learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. The phrase is sometimes used to contrast against practices that might not be developmentally appropriate, like expecting three-year-olds to write their names or sit quietly in a 30 minute story time. 3 November 2022. Since early 2020, 8.4% of the childcare workforce has left for other professions which is especially worrying considering many centers were experiencing staffing problems before the pandemic. You are a leader, and change is happening, and you are making decisions about how to move forward, and how to adapt thoughtfully. have the potential to make disparities worse? Questions that are part of an equity lens might include: You can use this lens for all kinds of decisions, in formal settings, like staff meetings, and you can also work to make them part of your everyday thinking. This lens might help you to identify the impact of your decisions on students of color, and you can also use the lens to consider the impact on students experiencing poverty, students in nontraditional families, students with differing abilities, students who are geographically isolated, students whose home language is other than English, etc.) Cognitive, social and emotional, and self-regulatory skills grow together during early childhood, with gains in one area contributing to concurrent and future growth in other areas (OECD, 2020 [3]). It is a crucial time for them because they learn many things such as how to interact with other children, older & younger, their peers, teachers, and other adults. NAEYC provides the highest-quality resources on a broad range of important topics in early childhood. Kendi, the author of New York Times bestsellers Stamped from the Beginning: The . We might feel vulnerable when we think about skin color, and we dont want to have to have the difficult conversation. Gather your tools! Search an ECE degree directory, explore professional standards, and join our community of practice. Can you think of a time that you prioritized your comfort over someone elses pain? Thats uncomfortable, maybe even a little scary. Early childhood education isnt about warehousing children so adults can go to work. TL-academicservices@osu.edu. Did your plan look any different for having used these questions? Use them. Try using our search page! Realize that you are a courageous advocate for children. Job Outlook. You love children and you did what you believed was best for the children in your program. The stools are the supports they need to have an equitable outcomebeing able to experience the same thing as their friend. Its really cool that we get to do this, walk beside small human beings as they learn to traverse the big wacky world with all its potholesand it means we get to keep getting better and better at circling around, leaping over, and, yep, dancing around or even through those very potholes. In addition to worrying about their own safety while at work, early childhood educators also often have to worry about the safety of their students. The children would notice immediately that Flopsy was missing and would comment on it. For example, maybe you are deciding whether to go to school full time next term or go only part time to be more present with your family. Could you talk to your coworkers about how to bring it up? I can! Nicole Land, Toronto Metropolitan University and Kathleen Kummen, Capilano University, Helen Harper, University of New England; Bronwyn Parkin, University of Adelaide; Pauline Jones, University of Wollongong, and Susan Feez, University of New England, Anne-Marie Morrissey, Deakin University and Deborah Moore, Monash University, Christine McLean, Mount Saint Vincent University and Jessie-Lee McIsaac, Mount Saint Vincent University, Audrey-Ann Deneault, University of Calgary; Lorraine Reggin, University of Calgary; Penny Pexman, University of Calgary; Sheri Madigan, University of Calgary, and Susan Graham, University of Calgary, Emis Akbari, University of Toronto and Isabelle Vinet, Universit du Qubec Montral (UQAM), Natalie Spadafora, McMaster University and Magdalena Janus, McMaster University, Samantha Burns, University of Toronto; Calpanaa Jegatheeswaran, University of Toronto; Michal Perlman, University of Toronto; Petr Varmuza, University of Toronto, and Sumayya Saleem, University of Toronto, Petr Varmuza, University of Toronto; Linda A. Maybe you havent had your mind blown with new information lately, but Ill bet theres something youve thought about that you havent quite acted on yetmaybe its about individualizing lesson plans for children with differing abilities. Which values would you lean on to help you decide to go full time? Early childhood education is a large and robust industry, employing over 150,000 Australians and growing at an incredible rate of 17% over the last five years ( Job Outlook ). Objective 2: Describe strategies for understanding current issues as a professional in early childhood care and education. Stay up to date with research-based, teacher-focused articles on birth to age 8 in our award-winning, peer-reviewed journal. Canada is preventing provinces and territories from using federal child-care dollars to transform schools into one-stop centres for young children. However, these lagging countries are catching up fast, creating opportunities for local providers. Early childhood education lays the foundation for the rest of a child's educational journey. As a result, the teachers that stayed are dealing with longer hours, larger classrooms, and in some cases, new, mixed-age teaching environments. Broad objectives of the Early Childhood Care and Education programme are to: Ensure each child is valued, respected, feels safe and secure and develops a positive self-concept. You might turn them off reading altogether. By introducing them to letters, numbers, sounds, simple words and stories, teachers can help kids build their numeracy and literacy skills. But as a leader, and with the call to support every child as they deserve, we can develop a sort of super power vision, where we can look unflinchingly around us and understand the hidden impacts of the structures we work within. Email. UNESCO believes early childhood care and education (ECCE) that is truly inclusive is much more than just preparation . Maybe now you can do even better by them! Children see and hear the media and adult conversations, and they feel the unease, or even fear, around questions of difference. What can you learn from this memory? Read about NAEYC's DAP framework for high quality education. Child-care policy needs to be designed to ensure children have stable access to high-quality care. The Preschool Podcast: For Leaders in Early Childhood Education. Sometimes its something smaller like the personal story I share belowsomething small, cuddly, and very important to the children. If you run a childcare business or are considering what to expect when starting one in the future, here are five important 2022 childcare industry trends you need to be aware of. Maybe you feel angry about the injustice. Who is being left out? Parents and caregivers are vital partners in education, and together, educators and families can ease back-to-school jitters and help make this an exciting and positive transition for children. We learned a lot about the public education system and people's feelings about the education system, both of which have room for improvement. For those educators lucky enough to find themselves at fully staffed centers, there are still a number of new stressors brought about by COVID-19, including new safety measures, check-in protocols, and more. Systemic racism is also called institutional racism, because it exists sometimes unquestioned within institutions themselves. The Pandemic Plunge March 03, 2023. This might include your friends, your partner, some or all of your coworkers, a former teacher of your own, a counselor, a pastor. Changing your practice to avoid conflict with this parent means prioritizing your own momentary discomfort over the pain children of color in your program may experience over time. Sometimes people use the phrase Nothing for us without us to help remember that we dont want to make decisions that affect a group of people (even if we think were helping) without learning more from individuals in that group about what real support looks like). It might make you feel a little uneasyor, lets face it, even overwhelmedto also consider how the course of history may cause you to deeply rethink what you do over time. Okay, it might be a clumsy dance, and I might bruise my knees, but that idea helped me respond to each days needs with courage and hope. Do your practices affirm the dignity of every child and family? My kid wont read chapter books. Objective 1: Identify current issues that impact stakeholders in early childhood care and education. While this would be troubling for any profession, its especially hard for teachers as their mood can directly impact their students ability to learn and comprehend the material. As a leader, your sphere of influence is bigger than just you. The educators were asked what the impact of the activity would be on the children and whether it was developmentally appropriate. This year, given the strong fiscal position that many states are in and the unprecedented levels of federal funding for K-12 education, at least 36 Governors mentioned school funding. Given the clear importance of language skills for lifelong outcomes, it is critical to set children up early for language success. Current Issues in Early Childhood Education 2021 Many of the current issues teachers of early childhood education face are not new. Some states have adopted a version of the equity lens for use in their early learning systems. We can develop a toolkit of trusted sources that we can turn to to provide us with information and strategies for ethical decision making. ET. Its a series of questions to ask yourself when making decisions. Lack of parent engagement and communication. You may know at an intellectual level that change is part of the deal, but what about deep down? They were short but utterly important. Unlike other professions, teachers have to deal with the 20+ personalities in their classroom, as well as the 40+ personalities of those students guardians. Read about this initiative focused on equity in early childhood and find other equity-related content. How so? Since the start of 2022, there have been more than 300 mass shootings equating to roughly four per week. This literature-based article explores key trends in the integration of digital technologies in education and aims to highlight issues and challenges in the relationship between technology . All dancers think that maybe this one is just too hard and want to quit sometimes. I listened when they shared their own feelings. Such issues may also be exacerbated by demographics. Look at your behavioral guidance policiesare you expecting children to come into your program with certain skills that may not be valued by certain cultures? That said, the urgent need for mental health services will be a trend for years to come. Dads and caregivers play important roles in supporting the development of loving relationships. (Also some chocolate to reward yourself for being a courageous advocate for every child.). This has heightened our responsibility as early educators to approach these issues in the classroom, and to do it with sensitivity and self-awareness. Early Childhood Education Journal is of interest not only to classroom teachers, child care providers, college and university faculty, and administrators, but also to other professionals in psychology, health care, family relations, and social services dedicated to the care of young children. During my prep time that day, I wrote a letter to families, letting them know Flopsy had died and some basic information about how we had spoken to children about it, some resources about talking to children about death, and some titles of books about the death of pets. Who is helping make the decision? In the first few months of the pandemic, roughly 3.5 million mothers with school-age children either lost their job, took a leave of absence or left the labor market altogether, according to an . What factors impact your response? The day-to-day challenges you will face can range from dealing with difficult behaviors to crying and cranky children. I also gathered up some childrens books about pet death from our library. Children's early learning and development is closely connected across domains. Celebrate young children and their families with hands-on activities encouraging movement and healthy lifestyles through music, food, and art. This is equalityeveryone has the same chance, but not everyone is equally prepared. In ed tech, a focus on in-person learning will mean choosing tools that support these proven learning styles for young children. Talk them through with your teamspersonal and/or professional. Are you considering the needs of each child during difficult transitions? 8:00 AM (AZ time) Early childhood offers a critical window of opportunity to shape the trajectory of a child's holistic development and build a foundation for their future. The test is at fault, not the childs experience. The curriculum we use, the assessments we use, the standards of behavior we have been taught; they may have all been developed with middle class white children in mind. A study of students across Canada between 2004 and 2015 provides an estimate of anxiety symptoms in kindergarteners, and can serve as a baseline for comparing childrens anxiety after COVID-19. If you use a teletypewriter ( TTY ), call 1-800-926-9105. Maybe you feel scared to even face the idea that bias could have affected children while in your care. And then you can learn to improvise. Early childhood education is predominantly a white female profession, and Shaffer says teachers may simply lack experiences interacting with students with language or cultural practices different from their own. I asked if they had questions and I answered them honestly. Let me share a personal story with you: I had just become director of an established small center, and was working to sort out all the details that directing encompassed: scheduling, billing policies, and most of all, staffing frustrations about who got planning time, etc. Flopsy was a big part of our community and of childrens experience in our classroom. Funding issues in early childhood education can also lead to a lack of resources for teachers who want to seek help. Do their spheres of influence add to your own? You are courageously living your beliefs, and your actions are rooted in respect of the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of each individual your professional life touches! Early Childhood Studies: Current Issues and Trends Words: 2500 Pages: 10 Cite this Table of Contents Changing Demographics Poverty and Child Development Brain Research and Child Development Effective Use of Technology in the Classroom References Changing Demographics Read them over. Today, early childhood education is aimed at introducing key subjects and core concepts that will be developed later in the child's educational career but there is always debate about which educational methods are the best. Heightened safety concerns. And thensomehow, you just know how to dance. The Preschool Podcast brought to you by HiMama, is a platform for learning from leading professionals in early childhood education. (instruments), or other resources in which the current document plays a part. That gives me hope for 2022. You could suggest a parent meeting on the topic; or maybe do listening sessions with parents of color, where you ask them open-ended questions and listen and record their responseswithout adding much of your own response; maybe you could invite parents to be part of a group who looks over and works on the policies. NAEYC Annual Conference. All educators have the capacity to grow into compassionate, courageous leaders! Or maybe they didnt adaptwhat happened then? Almost as many trained early childhood educators work outside licensed child care as in it. Use your toolsyou can pull out the equity lens here! Applying an Equity Lens to the Child Care Setting. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 45 (S1), 77-81. Parents pay the price in available child-care spaces if a staffing recruitment crisis does not improve. What about your policies on sending children home or asking a family to leave your program? 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Plan look any different for having used these questions to all childrens lived,. Feel vulnerable when we think about skin color, and they feel the unease, or other resources in the. Considering the needs of each child during difficult transitions the highest-quality resources on a broad range of topics! The frustration that can result from parents who are never present or those who are never present or who! That said, the author of New York Times bestsellers Stamped from the Beginning: the having used these?... Flopsy was litter-trained and so sensitive to so many different groups of people in care. Young children childrens experience in our award-winning, peer-reviewed journal applying an equity lens to the child care as it. Are not New plan look any different for having used these questions this one is too!