Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that I
will not hear back from any of the international contacts that I tried to
contact. Therefore, I feel it is safe to assume that I will be participating in
the alternative assignment for the rest of the course. These alternative assignments have been
interesting and I have been learning a lot from exploring websites that are
about early childhood outside the United States. I look forward to learning and reading about
what is going on in the early childhood field outside of the United
States.
This
week I visited Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website and
learned some great information about the early childhood field globally. The Global Children’s Initiative is focused
on three main areas.
Early childhood development
Child mental health
Children
in crisis and conflict situations (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard
University, 2014).
From the website I learned, that leaders
and policymakers from Brazil are very much concerned with early childhood development
and they attended a workshop at Harvard on the topic of child development.
Participants
came from more than 15 States in Brazil, more than 20 attendees were from the
executive branches of government at the federal, state, and municipal levels;
12 deputies from the federal parliament, who are members of the parliamentary
caucus on early childhood and who represent 8 different political parties; and
15 leaders from child-focused foundations and non-governmental organizations in
Brazil. (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2014b).
A second program that I learned about is
in Santiago, Chile and is working to improve early childhood education by
offering teachers professional development through a collaborative program, Un
Buen Comienzo (UBC), “A Good Start,”which has received some funding from Center
on the Developing Child and began in 2007 (Center on the Developing Child at
Harvard University, 2014C). This program also encourages families to get
involved in their children’s education, works to keep attendance up, aids in critical
health issues and assists with social emotional development (Center on the
Developing Child at Harvard University, 2014C).
A third program that represents the
concern to focus on the early childhood internationally is Zambian Early Childhood
Development Project. This project was the first in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010 assessments
on children’s physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development was done before
and throughout their schooling years (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard
University, 2014d). From the Zambian
Early Childhood Development Project it is hopeful that they will learn more
about child development and improve intervention for the developing world (Center
on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2014d).
It is quite clear that equity and
excellence in early childhood is just as important outside the United States as
it is inside the United States.
References
Center
on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2014a). Global Children’s Initiative.
Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/
Center
on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2014b). Learning and Leading:
Brazilian
Policymakers Chart a New Course with the Science of Child Development.
Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_
initiative/applying_the_science
of_early_childhood_in_brazi/executive_leadership_
program/
Center
on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2014c). Un Buen Comienzo Retrieved
From http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/ubc/
Center
on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2014d). Zambian Early Childhood
Development Project.
Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/
global_ initiative/zambian_project/
