EC Issues at Home and Abroad

After reviewing my Early Childhood professional goals I find they are still the same as when I first started the master’s program. The only thing that has changed is my deepened understanding of current challenges, successes, innovations, and opportunities within the field. My goals all still evolve around early childhood teacher trainings. My professional aspirations are to write/publish teacher training programs as well as provide actual training opportunities for EC teachers locally and abroad. In addition to writing and trainings I would also like to establish a foundation that collects classroom/teacher materials to be distributed in developing countries, especially for children with disabilities. Without any new information to report on my international contact, I explored the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This organization has created an organization, Intangible Cultural Heritage that seeks to maintain and protect cultural values within countries as they evolve to become part of a global society. Efforts are being made to reserve a wealth of knowledge and skills that are at risk of being lost as cultures merge or co-exist. Traditions and living expressions like, oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge an practices concerning nature and the universe and traditional skills and crafts are reserved to pass on the coming generations (UNESCO). Intangible Cultural Heritage is linked through UNESCO‘s website. More new information gained from my exploration of UNESCO’s site is the promotion of Global Action Week, scheduled April 22-28, 2012. This is a global effort to raise awareness of needed supports within Early Child Care and Education community, especially for disadvantaged children. This is another link from within the site under the Education link. A third insight is in regards to a universally accepted definition for “quality” within the early childhood community. Some of the issues are the same in developing countries as in the US. Providing monies for early childhood education programs when funds are limited creates problems of assess and availability within different socioeconomic classes. Should monies be placed in programs serving lower socioeconomic families that merely prepare children for school at the expense of more evolved programs that promote holistic child development? Sounds familiar? Whether a prosperous country or a developing country the issues of universal definitions of quality and excellence is the same.