When I Think of Research...

From taking this course, I have learned how to read a research paper, what parts I can skip and what parts are going to hold the most information and where to find it.  I have also learned about how research is conducted and what goes into designing a research study.  It would take a great deal of planning and organization to conduct a research study!  As far as my ideas about the nature of doing research, I probably have a greater interest in research and if the opportunity to do research or to be a part of a research project was presented to me, I would be more apt to become a part of it.  I had mostly thought of research as quantitative when we began this class and I now know it can be very qualitative! 

Lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood are many.  There is a lot to think about when planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood.  You have to consider who will participate, gather consent, perhaps present your research to an ethics committee, design surveys and questionaires.  There are also questions about ethics whether you will used mixed methods and if your research will be a case study, take place over time or not.  There is a lot to think about!  When this class started, I figured we would be doing research of some type, and I was grateful that we weren't, but I still feel as though I would be better prepared to do research after having this class.  Challenges were getting my research topic narrowed down and developing a hypothesis. 

Before this class I had not thought of an early childhood professional as being a researcher.  Now, I think that a lot of early childhood professionals are doing research daily.  All the observation we do in the classroom is a form of research.  I also had not thought of early childhood research as being a profession in itself, but I can see how this could be an important part of the early childhood profession. 

Research Around the World

I decided to check out the Early Childhood Australia site...http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.  As I looked around, I found that they are discussing many of the same things that we are talking about here in America.  They want better compensation and training for teachers, they are focused on play based learning and intentional teaching, and there are also articles on literacy and numeracy.  I found a media release from May 1, 2012 that was noteworthy.  They were asking that the government end child detention.  My understanding is that immigrants are detained and children and families are not allowed access to education until their immigration status is approved.  I don't think we can imagine that happening here as we have immigrants that are not legal, but whose children attend Head Start programs and our public schools everyday.  I had no idea that something like that would happen anywhere.  I hope that they are able to make change happen so that children have access to school.  I also found that they have a code of ethics quite similar to NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct.  There were so many links to look at and articles to read.  This site has quite a wealth of information for Early Childhood Professionals!