Check out our site search . Join your professional membership association, explore local Affiliates, and access unbeatable member benefits. Imagine what you would have done instead. This would be a good set of steps to address an event like a hurricane, wildfires, or an earthquake as well. Now, lets address what it might look like to respond to a different kind of change, the kind in which you learn something new and realize you need to make some changes in who you are as an educator. From the mid-1960s up to the early 1990, there was an increase of 58 percent in the elementary schools and 362 percent in the tertiary schools. This might be a good time to freewrite about your feelingsjust put your pencil to paper and start writing. (2020). 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. It promises to be an exciting year, with growth forecast across the childcare industry. And now, your workplace team: who are your fellow advocates in your workplace? Search an ECE degree directory, explore professional standards, and join our community of practice. Ask yourself these hard questions while focusing on, in this case, how you look at behavior of children of color. I would read childrens books that would express feelings they might not have words for yet. Education Technology. Kindergarten educators who taught from home during COVID-19 and who were primarily responsible for their own children self-reported poorer mental health than those without these responsibilities. In addition, theres another kind of bias and racism, and it doesnt live inside of individual people, but inside of the systems we have built. All educators second guess their career choices. 1, 2022. Finally, despite the best attempts from schools and video conferencing providers, teachers and students still fell victim to technology issues, including lack of connectivity, dropped calls, and more. Are there any potential unforeseen consequences of the decision that will impact specific groups? Maybe just a little tired? What can you do? Current Issues in Early Childhood Education 2021 Many of the current issues teachers of early childhood education face are not new. 2023-02-24. But I mentally gathered up some wisdom from a training Id been to, where the trainer talked about how important it is that we dont shy away from addressing death with children. Learn about NAEYCs informed positions on significant issues affecting young childrens education and development. ), 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. 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. Many say they would return to the field if offered decent work. What can you do? Words matter in how we envision living well withchildren. 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. : 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. 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. Sometimes we dont make the right decision and need to change our minds, but as long as we make a decision based on values about the importance of the well-being of all children and families, we wont be making a decision that we will regret. Among provinces, Ontario is the least generous supporter of its childhood educator workforce. Applying an Equity Lens to the Child Care Setting. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 45 (S1), 77-81. Sometimes its something smaller like the personal story I share belowsomething small, cuddly, and very important to the children. While not all of these shootings have taken place at schools, enough have left teachers worried about their workplace safety. Do your practices affirm the dignity of every child and family? Its not wrong to advocate for and use developmentally appropriate practice as a framework for our worknot at all! What were your first thoughts when you sat back and FELT the reality of ever present change? To explain what an equity lens is, we first need to talk about equity. Read this paragraph slowlyits important! Many of our standardized tests were made with middle class white children in mind. This is hard, but there are steps you can take to make sure you keep moving forward: To make this real, lets imagine you just learned about expulsion rates among children of color (and maybe you just did!). 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. And besidesthere are hands to hold if they lose their balanceor if you do! 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. Objective 3: Create an informed response to a current issue as a professional in early childhood care and education. Here are a just a few of the current trends in special education: LAMP Language Acquisition through Motor Planning, or LAMP, is an approach that connects neurological and motor learning in a way that makes communication easier for students with autism and related disorders. 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. Work to embed fair and equitable approaches in all aspects of early childhood program delivery, including standards, assessments, curriculum, and personnel practices. 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. I was really sad. A new study by early childhood researchers looks at four important features of a centres physical environment. We might feel vulnerable when we think about skin color, and we dont want to have to have the difficult conversation. Celebrate your awareness, and brainstorm about how you can do better for everyoneand then do it! TECHNOLOGY IS BEING INTEGRATED INTO THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Child Care workers and Educators cannot afford to ignore the benefits of technology in early learning. Its counterproductive to push your child to read a whole chapter book independently if they are not ready. Our practices in the classroom and as leaders must constantly adapt to changes in our communities and our understanding of the world around us, which gives us the opportunity to continue to grow and develop. 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. Examine the policies, structures, or systems that affect your program in light of this change. Its a complete tool to help you think carefully about a dilemma, a decision, or a plan, based on these values. Still can't find the topic you need? Education is constantly evolving and being reformed. ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI) is the industry leader for online professional development. Make a plan, including a big vision and small steps, and start taking those small steps. In other words, it is through practice that you will become adept at and confident in responding to change, and learn to move with grace on the shifting carpet of life. One of the most important of these is the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct, which expresses a commitment to core values for the field, and a set of principles for determining ethical behavior and decision-making. Early childhood education interventions can improve children's development and act as a protective factor against the future onset of adult disease and disability. I asked for their quick advice, and shared my plan, since the news would travel to other classrooms as well. Realize that you are a courageous advocate for children. Who can you reach out to when you realize something might need to change within your program? Plus, funding issues in early childhood education can often hamper parent-teacher communication. Enable a sound foundation for physical and motor development of each child- as per each child's potential. East Asia is also gearing up for universal pre-K. As any teacher can attest to, trying to build an engaged and communicative parent base is another one of the prominent issues in early childhood education. Flopsy was litter-trained and so our licensing specialist allowed us to let him hop freely around the classroom. Your heart, your brain, and your antsy feet have led you to become a professional in early childhood care and education, and they will all demand that you jump into the uncertainty of leadership in times of change, and learn to dance for the sake of the children in your care. One of the leading problems facing early childhood education is an escalating rate of teacher burnout. ET. Online Resources for Current Issues in the Field. Enhance your career and improve your knowledge, skills, and practices with our in-person and online training. The educators in the United States had deep concerns that the activity would be damaging to a childs self esteem, and was therefore not developmentally appropriate. How can we try to make sure the impact will be positive? (Also some chocolate to reward yourself for being a courageous advocate for every child.). 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. Which values would you lean on to decide to go part time? Ontarios child care policy now creates a universal, flat-fee child care for medium and high-income families But if keeping ourselves safe from discomfort means that we might not be keeping children safe from very real and life-impacting racial disparity, were not making a choice that is based in our values. The earlier children experience reading, writing, and storytelling, the more improved their vocabulary and reading comprehension will be. Wonderful. Early childhood education establishes early literacy concepts that help children prepare for reading, writing and numeracy skills. The Preschool Podcast brought to you by HiMama, is a platform for learning from leading professionals in early childhood education. Donate to help NAEYC advance a strong and dynamic early childhood profession and connect educators to cutting-edge resources. 1. In addition to the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Equity Statement, another tool for addressing decision-making is an equity lens. One of those resources is our course Parent Communication: Building Partners in the Educational Process. This database updates weekly. Ontarios flat fee for child care should be replaced by an income-tested fee reflecting family incomes. Who is on your team? Use those tools! The new learning and child care agreement requires a paradigm shift as we begin to consider early learning and child care as a public service. For many parents, caregivers and children, the entry into kindergarten is a watershed transition. You are being really really brave by investigating! Does the new activity, rule, 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]). As you reflect on whatever the hard change might be, are you able to explain your choices from a values standpoint? Then your plan might be sharing information, communicating enthusiasm about moving forward and making positive change, and clearly stating your thoughts on where change is needed! Contact us with your questions-- we're here to help! UNESCO believes early childhood care and education (ECCE) that is truly inclusive is much more than just preparation . Kindergarten is an important living space for young children, and the environment of kindergarten is crucial to the growth of children and affects . Course Cartridges, Presentations and PDFs, Leadership: An Introduction to Leadership Skills in Early Childhood Care and Education, 2. Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning for Natural and Man-Made Events, Fire Safety in the Early Care and Education Environment, Indoor Safety in the Early Childhood Setting, Outdoor Safety in the Early Childhood Setting. : The best way to combat the ever-changing technology landscape in early childhood education is to make sure youre staying up-to-date on industry recommendations and research. We'll start with the most obvious problem in the field of ECE: the pandemic. You are worth admiring! Human beings encounter death. All dancers bruise their knees along the way. Some new issues come from things like classroom-related changes. Heightened safety concerns. And guess whatall this change is a good thing! For almost 70 years, the UNESCO Courier has served as a platform for international debates on issues that concern the entire planet. Login to the Early Learning Accreditation Portal to take charge of your accreditation process. Here are 50 Best Early Childhood Education Podcasts worth listening to in 2023. Current Issues in Education is an open access, peer-reviewed academic education journal produced by doctoral students at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State University. Importantly, 88%. Our online courses can help! What can you do? Almost as many trained early childhood educators work outside licensed child care as in it. We are called to respond. You might be wondering how we link the Code of Ethical Conduct to the change all around uslets roll up our sleeves and dive into an example that has risen to the forefront in our culture and in early childhood care and education in recent years: skin color, bias, and prejudice. 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. Legislation can be searched by state, topic, status, primary sponsor, bill number or keyword. For the same period, enrollment in all three levels also rose by 120 percent. This, truly, is your call to action, and your pressing invitation to join the dance! The first thing I did was text my husband. NCSL conducts policy research in areas ranging from agriculture and budget and tax issues to education and health care to immigration and transportation. Signs of anxiety in kindergarten should not be ignored. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, plays with children in an early learning and child care centre in Brampton, Ont., March 28, 2022. Learn about and purchase the best books and resources to support young children's learning and development. There is an ethical imperative to support a paradigm shift in how our society values educating young children. Parents pay the price in available child-care spaces if a staffing recruitment crisis does not improve. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the day-to-day learning for children across the nation, bringing anxiety and uncertainty to yet another year. What do Ido? 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.) Remember your spheres of influence. Because the average salary for the profession is so low, most educators are forced to take on a second job or rely on public income support programs to make ends meet. You may be very intentional about including materials that reflect people with different racial identities, genders, family structures. While it proved to be an effective way to limit the spread of coronavirus, it didnt come without its own share of challenges. Why doesnt Canada let schools provide childcare? I want you to think for a moment about the people who help you in times where you are facing change. At the NAEYC conference in 2020, during a session in which Dr. Jie-Qi Chen presented on different perspectives on developmentally appropriate practice among early educators in China and the United States. Recognize that children and adults achieve their full potential in the context of relationships that are based on trust and respect. Each and every day, you will have to deal with parents and caregivers, some of whom may be quite demanding. 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. Masters. 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. I had cared for this bunny for years and I loved him too. I wanted them to know its okay to be sad, and that the sadness grows less acute over time. Who can you collaborate with? Objective 2: Describe strategies for understanding current issues as a professional in early childhood care and education. SoAs a leader is early childhood, you will be called upon to be nimble, to make new decisions and reframe your practice when current events or new understanding disrupt your plans. Lets consider what you can do: What is your sphere of influence? We all have bias and addressing it is an act of courage that you can model for your colleagues. Flopsy was a big part of our community and of childrens experience in our classroom. To the best of our knowledge, no quantitative evidence has ever been produced for his theoretical model. Maybe an old teacher of your own? What are the kindergarten design trends for 2022? Researchers and educators with the Climate Action Childhood network are generating responses to climate change alongside young children. It means we should return to our big ideas with respect and bravery and sit with them and make sure they are still the ones that serve us best in the world we are living in right now, with the best knowledge we have right now. And then, yes, you are walking the walk, dancing the dance (or maybe not The Dance, but some other, new, even more inspiring dance!) : If youre looking to advocate for higher wages and other funding issues in early childhood education, there are a number of groups you can join, including NAEYC. We recommend starting with this list of 50 resources from Teach.com. They might lose their footing, but in that uncertainty, in the middle of the billowing parachute, there is the sensation that the very instability provides the possibility of rising up like the fabric. I knew it was important not to give children mistaken impressions about death. I would give children the opportunity to share their feelings, and talk about my own feelings. At ChildCare Education Institute, weve spent the last 15+ years helping teachers navigate life in and out of the classroom. The new search allows you to filter by audience, age group of children, or topic. Thats uncomfortable, maybe even a little scary. You are a leader and an advocate, and a person whose action mirrors their values. Remember your role as educator and caretaker; address their emotional needs, consider what you hope they will learn, gather the resources and your team, and make decisions that affirm the dignity of each child in your care. Excited? [Conference presentation]. In conclusion, all dancers feel unsteady sometimes. Make a quick list of people you can turn to when you need to do some deep digging and ground yourself in your values. What was most interesting to me here was the idea of self-esteem, and how important it is to us here in the United States, or rather, how much protecting we feel it needs. It was then that a co-worker shared a quote with me from Thomas F. Crum, who writes about how to thrive in difficult working conditions: Instead of seeing the rug being pulled from under us, we can learn to dance on a shifting carpet. Ive avoided uncomfortable conversations about disparity lots of times, for instance (though I also try really hard to be courageous and open when faced with these moments, and think I am doing better). What factors impact your response? As technology changes in the classroom, teachers must race to keep up with it. Systemic racism is also called institutional racism, because it exists sometimes unquestioned within institutions themselves. How we got here. You love children and you did what you believed was best for the children in your program. These can significantly add to a teachers burnout and can cause stress that spills over into their personal life. Many played a direct role in their child's learning for the first time. Kindergarten teachers were tasked with adapting a hands-on, play-based curricula in a virtual environment a nearly impossible task even without parenting ones own children at the same time. Perspectives: Expert Voices in Health & Health Care. As a leader you have the opportunitythe responsibility!to look beyond your own practices and become an advocate for change. My point here is that even our big ideas, like developmentally appropriate practice, have an element of vulnerability to them. Discover the benefits of early childhood accreditation, learn about the four step process,find support and resources for your program or login to the accreditation portal. 2. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation US, Inc. Kerry McCuaig is a Friend of The Conversation. These are the 5 Trends that are Transforming Early Childhood Education: 1. Critical Issues in Education Heading into 2022. 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. For others, not being able to have one-on-one time with educators led to a decline in learning. Maybe you talk to your partner or your friends about your fears before youre ready to get started even thinking about taking action. 13, 2018 72 likes 67,712 views Download Now Download to read offline Education Trends and issues in education Soumya Ranjan Parida Follow Health Care Advertisement Advertisement Recommended Process of Curriculum Development Vijayalakshmi Murugesan 134.2k views Your director makes policy decisionscan you bring this information to him or her? Download Now. Caregivers. Studies on the K-12 system show that some of the reasons include: In other words, educators need more support and help in reflecting on their own practices, but there are also policies and systems in place that contribute to unfair treatment of some groups of children. Trends and issues in education 1 of 35 Trends and issues in education Mar. This list could become very long! I also told them I had happy memories of FLopsy and we talked about our memories. The risk is that behaviors outside that teacher's own norms could be viewed as . Early childhood education describes the period of learning between birth and when a child turns eight years old. The children were very engaged and seemed to feel their feedback mattered. In factgiven that you now know how extremely impactful expulsion is for preschoolers, could you take it off the table entirely? Imagine a vocabulary assessment in which children are shown common household items including a lawn mowercommon if you live in a house; they might well be unfamiliar to a three-year-old who lives in an apartment building, however. Cookie. You can influence the practices of others in your program and outside of it. Educator Development & Professional Development, 5. And so can you rise when you allow yourself to accept change and adapt to all the new possibility of growth that it opens up! You might not always walk yourself through a set of questionsbut using an intentional tool is like counting out dance stepstheres a lot of thinking it through at first, and maybe forgetting a step, and stumbling, and so forth. As a result, educators may find themselves having to send important updates via email one family at a time. Expulsion is for preschoolers, could you take it off the table entirely learning from leading professionals early. 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