Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

My attitude toward racism is that of a person that has grown to just live with it. Gowning up in a town where this was the norm taught me how to deal with many levels of racism. Do I like it? The answer to that is no, I just deal with it. When I encounter racism I handle in the way Dr. King asked us to deal with it in a non-violent way. I do say how I feel and let the person(s) know that all black people are not drug dealers or uneducated. There are times when I get upset about this that go on it the world with racism.

This week made me look at my stereotypes about people and allowed me to see why people have them about me. It gave me a better understanding on how to deal with the many forms of discrimination. It effect people in different ways and people deal with it different ways. Wejust have to learn to live with it and move on at times.

My Family Culture

The three items I would care with me will be the Holy Bible, Photo Album, and my degree. I would take the Holy Bible because my family and I have deep roots with in the word of God. The Bible is a symbol of our family belief and what we draw strength from in the time of need. The next item would be photo album to remember our family members that did not survived or was put in another country. This is so we can show our children and they can show their children. The last thing would be my degree so it would not be hard for me to locate work to provide for my family in this new country.

I would feel very sad but thankful I’m able to carry one thing that holds value to my family. Then after being told which country we will be relocated to that will determine what item I carry with me.

I gained insight about myself. People always told me that I was caring and know I can see it for myself in this exercise. I always felt as if I was all about me but know I see what other see that I care more about my faith and family well being then my very own.   

When I Think of Research...

I have gained a deeper understanding of the different terms that we should use when conducting a research. The biggest insight has been learning how to make my research valid. In addition, how to detect when research is not valid.

My ideas about research change a lot during these eight weeks. I have developed a greater appreciation for the people that conduct research in the early childhood field. I see now that everyone don’t conduct research the same way nor collected their data the same way. My idea was that it was one way and you had to do it that way in order for it to be valid, but these eight weeks have showed me what it really take to do research.

I learn that when doing research there is a lot of planning involved. You most set time aside just for the research. The many designs we have to pick from to make our research valid is awesome to look at. I learn that as early childhood educator we conduct research all the time.

The main challenge I had in this class was finding time to do a effective job on my research development. With my center getting ready for visits from some many people and complete our annul NAEYC report it was hard. I learn that with my research topic I was doing it everyday so all I had to do was use what as in front of me.

The main way was being able to pull the good research from the not so good research. In addition to the leadership of Dr. D. I was able to gain so much understanding of research.

Research Around the World

The following are some of the current research topics in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA):


Building Community Leadership for Quality Sustainability in Madrasa Preschools: The Case of Madrasa Preschools Post Graduation Support

Pilot Study of the Adaptation of an Established Measure to Assess the Quality of Child Services in a Selected Orphanage in Zambia: The Inclusive Quality Assessment (IQA) Tool

One of the insights i gained from the Building Community Leadership was it take everyone to build a leader. The teacher of young children play a big part in building young children in to future leader. That is why it is so important for the government to better fund child care. Children that attend High Quality programs. We must fight to for funding for our programs so that we can build future leaders.
         Assessment of the Caring Practices in Two Motherless Babies’ Homes in Abia State, Nigeria and   the   Development and Delivery of a Nutrition Training Program to the Staff of These Homes to Improve Nutrition of Children in Their CareThe Development of an Integrated Early Childhood Development Urban Model Training Program for Informal Minders and Community Volunteers in Ghana

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Early childhood experiences from birth to age 8 have an enormous impact on children's lifelong learning.  This will also have a positive contribution to their health and development and is an advantage for a greater readiness and success in school. Highly quality staff interactions with children; an environment providing lots of books and written material and where children could select from a variety of learning activities; the child’s starting age and the total length of early childhood education; and the socio-economic mix of the children attending the centre. These programs enabled children to make a positive contribution to their own learning.

Early Head Start programs produced statistically, significant, positive impact on standardized measures of children’s cognitive and language development.  Program children at age 3, scored 91.4 on the Bayley Mental Development Index, compared with 89.9 for children who did not attend Head Start.  Early Head Start children were less likely versus none Head start children to score in the at risk range of developmental functioning in these areas.  By preventing children from scoring in the lowest functioning group, Head Start may be reducing their risk of poor cognitive, language, and school outcomes later on in life (Overall Impact, 1999).

Author Unknown. Child Care Bureau. Administration for Child and Families <http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/progams.htm>

Your Personal Research Journey

Will getting ready for my application 2 for this week I was able to follow the steps of finding relevant literature. It gave me a better understanding of how to look at online database. It gave me helpful hints on how to keep all of my literature in line so that I don’t lose track of my review at the end of my research.

From doing the research chart I was able to better understand the meaning of terms used will doing research. It also allowed me to pull out my weakness in doing effective and meaningful research. Will doing the chart I learned how important it is for use as educators to conduct research that is relevant to the field of early childhood. Finally, how to spot out good resources when conducting meaningful research.

What good advice can you give me on keeping track of my literature review?

National Black Child Development Institutehttp://nbcdi.org/
(Newsletter: http://nbcdi.org/support/sign-up-for-nbcdi-newsletters/ )

National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/
(Newsletter: http://nieer.org/resources/newsletter/index.php )

The National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/ 
(Review also the position statements: http://www.naeyc.org/positionstatements )

Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States
http://www.preknow.org/ (Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm )

Harlem Children’s Zone
http://www.hcz.org/  (Newsletter: http://support.hcz.org/site/PageServer?pagename=signup )

National Head Start Association
http://www.nhsa.org/  
(Newsletter: http://www.nhsa.org/news_and_advocacy/advocacy/legislative_eupdate )

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators
http://www.naecte.org/ (Newsletter: http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=29 )

The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/  (Review also the position statements: http://www.dec-sped.org/About_DEC/Position_Statements_and_Concept_Papers )

Children’s Defense Fundhttp://www.childrensdefense.org/ 
(Newsletter: http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/enewsletters/ )

Center for the Child Care Workforcehttp://www.ccw.org/
(Newsletter: http://www.ccw.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=78&Itemid=72 )

Issues and Trends: Change, Contexts, Consequences, and Constraints Revisited

The wonders of child development and the long-term consequences of the experiences of young children has made me focus on child development and early learning a key policy focus on the early childhood education programs shows a variety of short- and long-term outcomes from high-quality early childhood  programs. As a result, the early childhood field is focusing on developing programs and systems that lead to the best outcomes for children. In addition, alignment of programs for children from birth to age 5 with the K-12 system and considering the multiple facets of the transition to kindergarten are also being undertaken. An overarching consideration is the development of a coordinated system of early childhood programs to maximize the positive growth and development of young children.

A recent report issued by the Department of Education found that statewide, only 49 percent of kindergartners were deemed “fully ready” at the time they entered kindergarten, with the percentage much lower for poor children (2002). It is anticipated that children not “fully ready” will need special and more intensive teacher support in order to succeed in kindergarten, thus creating a problem not only for the child but for the teacher who is charged with educating children with a wide range of knowledge and skills.