Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Week 7: Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 3
I chose to explore the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/). One publication which I found that specifically related to my professional goals was the document titled, "The Early Childhood Workforce in 'Developed Countries' Basic Structures and Education" (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137402e.pdf).
In this document, challenges are discussed related to the changing view of early childhood education (ECE) and the need for restructuring the workforce in the field around the world. "The workforce in early childhood services in all countries must respond to two related developments: the divide between care and education is breaking down; and the professional role is becoming more complex with growing recognition of the importance of working with parents and other services and of the competence of young children as learners." (Moss, 2004, p. 2). The author of this brief, Peter Moss (Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education University of London), discusses that in all countries, the field as a whole is dealing with the challenge of shifting from perceiving EC staff as babysitters or second mothers to that of one as an educated professional with the same credentials as a school age teacher. One of the challenges that he highlights is that "restructuring the workforce around a 'core' profession will increase costs, both for the education of workers and their employment." (Moss, 2004). A second challenge he states is that there is a good chance that even with higher education, EC professionals may still not receive the social value that school-age professionals do. This accentuates the continued need for advocacy in the area of ECE for the purpose of highlighting why quality early care and education is so important for society as a whole.
One of my professional goals is to continue to work on broadening my knowledge of the field, and a way to expand that goal would be to help draw attention to the need for a highly educated work force. This is a challenge we are experiencing here in the US and as pointed out by Moss, something that is occurring around the world.
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Megan,
ReplyDeleteI agree that even if early childhood educators receive proper education and training they still will not make as much as public school teachers. I believe it is a current issue in the US and a major reason why early childhood programs have such large turn-overs. We technically do the same amount work, actually I believe we do more and get paid less. I love that so many are speaking on this and advocating for us because we do deserve it.
Thanks for Sharing
Pam
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI also believe that having educated early childhood workers is very important. I also think that paying teachers a good wage and supporting them with good benefits is a crucial part of keeping great teachers. It is interesting that around the world this is an issue. My hope in the future, is that early educators are taken more seriously and paid fairly.
Megan-
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the article in your post this week. I can agree with many of the points you discussed from the article and I intend to look it up myself to read. I am also interested to read the ways the article suggests helping to change the view of early childhood education. I know this is critical to bringing about changes in ECE but often wonder "How will this be done?", and "What can I do to help support these changes.". Hopefully this article will share some ideas.
Thanks,
Julie Ringle
Megan,
ReplyDeleteTotally agree the importance of EC professionals/teachers should be advocated more widely and seriously. I believe this alone can make a lot of other good changes to happen easily for the EC field. Thank you for your insightful post.