Saturday, April 19, 2014

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Current issues that are being discussed where I live and work is the change in race/ethnic demographics. As many states may be experiencing, here in Texas there has been a shift in the demographics in the need for more educational programs. Murdock, et al (2012) provides the following statistics, “the future of the United States is critically tied to the success of the education of children in Texas. While accounting for only 15.7 percent of growth in the total population in the United States between 2000 and 2010, Texas accounted for an equivalent of 53.2 percent of the growth in the early childhood and school age population (ages 0-12) alone.” Opportunities for professional development are available to all involved  in education programs. For instance, Head Start offers their employees professional development and even helps assist its teachers in gaining degrees relevant to the field. Public school professionals are required to do so many hours of professional development, this depends on district policy and teacher certification requirements.
Some of my professional goals include developing strategies to use with the diverse group of children I serve as a teacher. Another professional goal I have is to build connections with others in the field to gain more knowledge about early childhood. . The last professional goal for me would be to learn how to apply research studies, strategies, techniques into my own profession as a teacher. I believe that having a resource such as UNESCO’s, will help provide me with information to help me follow my goals and stay connected with other’s in the field of early childhood education.
New insights I gained from the UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” is the following:
1. UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) 
2.  It organized the first World Conference on ECCE in September 2010, which culminated in the adoption of a global action agenda for ECCE called Moscow Framework for Action and Cooperation: Harnessing the Wealth of Nations.
3. UNESCO works in partnership with Member States, partners and other stakeholders to encourage timely and effective implementation of the Moscow Framework so that all young children develop their potential to the fullest.


References

Murdock, S. H., Cline, M., Perez, D., & Hough, G. C. (2012). Change in the early
childhood and school age population in Texas, 2000 to 2010, and projected to 2015. Houston, TX: Rice University, Hobby Center for the Study of Texas. Retrieved November 7, 2012, from the University of Texas at Austin, Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, Web site: http://www.utexas.edu/research/cshr/pubs/pdf/final_ECEA_Deliverable_1_October_31_2012.pdf.


1 comment:

  1. I always knew that there was race issues where I lived but I never knew to the extreme until I took this class. With my husband being Asian I never knew what it was like to be the minority until I went to a family event with him, and they all spoke a different language than I did. I am for sure lucky to of had that experience and keep in mind of that day, so i can understand other kids.

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