After sending a couple of invitation emails, I still have not heard fromt the international contacts I chose. In spite of this, I have been able to find a wealth of information by researching the assigned topics. What I have discovered is that other countries are dealing with the same issues and have the same beliefs about early childhood education as we do in the US.
While researching equity in education in Ireland, I found an excellent website, developed by the government, that spells out diversity and equality guidelines for childcare providers. http://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/childcare/diversity_and_equality.pdf
The most powerful statement on this site is their definition of equality. "Equality refers to the importance of recognising different individual needs and of ensuring equity in terms of access, participation, and benefits for all children and their families. It is, therefore, not about treating people the same."
Their national childcare strategy is to help each child feel a sense of belonging in his/her program. They hope to accomplish this through the following four goals:
1) Support of children's identity and sense of belonging
2) Support childrn to become comfortable with difference
3) Foster each child's critical thinking about bias
4) Empower children to stand up for themselves and others in the face of bias.
In this report, I found much of the same language used in the US. They key to changing the face of poverty is to make quality education accessible to all children and to serve each of those children in a way that they will respond.
I don't think I've ever researched early childcare programs in Ireland, so I was happy to hear about another country's take. Their goals for programs seem quite promising. I am curious if they use play as a means of meeting these goals, or how else they do so?
ReplyDeleteThanks again for posting! I'm looking forward to reading more about Ireland!