The first thing that stands out for me when reading this article is that “the great need of early childhood care and education programs should not overshadow the method used” (Lee & Hayden, 2009). When implementing an early childhood education program the culture of the country needs to be taken into account. The article on Zambia was very interesting. This country may not be ready to implement an early childhood program due to the already poor conditions of its primary schools. It appears that this country needs to take a closer look at better funding and other issues that are affecting its current education system before adding an early childhood program.
The next article focused most of its attention on using indigenous knowledge and practice in the early childhood programs. The Gambia uses a community’s mother tongue in the early childhood classrooms because they know that this helps with literacy rates. By using the mother tongue, they also help to preserve the culture and pass on stories and dances to the children and families. Mali has strong community support for their early childhood programs. The community comes together to talk about curriculum and to choose the teachers and children. There is training and communication about how children spend their days to aid in planning. What a great way to get the community involved and another way to bring in the families culture.
The article on Brazil , particularly the PIM was very interesting. This reminded me of the home based services that are provided through Head Start. Home visitors make visits on a weekly basis and spend time educating the family and implementing an activity. They provide resources to parents and assess their activities and the children. This helps parents understand the importance of their participation in their child’s education and also gives them ideas and activities to do with their children. It appears that this program has made a big impact in Brazil and is being studied by other organizations.
The last article made me think of something that my mother always told me, to remember my own childhood and what I liked and didn’t like, what made me think and made me happy and to think about that when I am raising my own children. This is one of the first things this article starts out saying, that we need to remember our own childhoods. We have to remember that we are working with children, not a set of numbers. This article focuses on staff training and the lack of it in Brazil . They are working on ways to strengthen the qualifications of teachers and have implemented an Educational Board where teachers come together and share their stories and are provided with training. Wouldn’t this be great for all early childhood educators…to come together to share ideas and work out difficulties?
My contact, Gayle, mentioned that teacher training is highly needed where she works. She stated that the children need more hands-on activities. Perhaps that is why she is a Montessori teacher. She also told me that some public schools are very much accepted but not because of the core curriculum, but because of the facilities. She also talked about the importance of parental awareness and information dissemination being the key to an educated decision for the parents to think that a school’s program is more than enough.