The organization that I looked into this week was: ECDVU in Sub-Saharan Africa: the ECDVU is committed to improving the quality of life for children and their families in Africa. The program seeks to accomplish this through working, on a sustained basis, with ECD leaders from across the continent.
To meet the ECDVU’s child and social development objectives, it employs a number of approaches to post-secondary education that are ‘non-traditional’ in nature. These include: recognizing the strengths and expertise that exist locally and regionally; incorporating these ‘voices’ and experiences into the learning process; promoting sustainable, interactive networks that reach rural as well as urban populations; and using computer technology as a means for developing strong information and communication systems within Africa. At the same time, certain other features of the ECDVU seem more familiar as part of a traditional educational process: delivery of a sequence of courses, each with a course number and title, and delivered by academically qualified individuals. Blending strengths from both approaches is an essential characteristic of the ECDVU. http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php
What are some of the current international research topics?
Some of the things they are doing are:
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 In Eritrea they are doing the Improving the Quality of Childcare Through Parenting Enrichment and Training of Trainers: The Eritrean Model
Next we have: Nigera and their program is called: Involving Fathers in Early Childcare and Development
This is just a few of the things they listed but you can clearly see they are on the right path and want to do the right thing for all the children and families.
What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?
It was interesting to see that no matter where a person lives they will have the same or similar problems to deal with. We in the United States are not alone when it comes to having issues with parent involvement, men in the childcare field, fathers taking a more active role in children’s lives and this is just a few issues. Everywhere around the world we all have to learn to work together and learn together in order to give the best for the children. What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?
I thought that the way they helped the online learners navigate their site was very similar to ours and had the same resources available. The other thing I noticed was how easy it was to find what you needed and also I really enjoyed reading about their “Generative curriculum" approach”.
The ECDVU "generative curriculum" encompasses the following characteristics:
a learner-focused approach - drawing as much as possible on the learner's experiences in their personal and professional lives; an ecological approach - placing individuals, programs and policies into an interactive and dynamic context and seeking to plan activities and interventions to maximize resonating impact throughout the larger ecology; a capacity building approach - aiming to strategically strengthen the capacities of participants to effectively fulfill their mandates in their professional position and to be accountable to their constituents and the broader ECD community in their countries. Although most education activities claim this as a general 'purpose', the ECDVU program addresses capacity development in a specific, strategic manner. a co-constructive approach - encouraging each learner to draw upon provided curriculum material as well as their own in-country experience and data to derive their own perspectives and applications; a multicultural approach - considering ideas, research, and goals pertaining to child care and development from many different cultural sources, including (but not limited to) African and Euro-Western sources; a cohort driven approach - encouraging collaboration, reciprocal learning among peers, and consolidation of networks within and between learners representing each participating country. an historical approach - exploring 'how we came to be here' vis à vis the evolution of various theories and constructions regarding children and their care and more recent international development activities focusing on children's care and development.
References: http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/learner.php
Susan great job I can not agree more everyone needs to but children first at all cost. I really wish one day parents will see the importance of being involved in there child's education.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that ECDVU looked for strengths and expertise locally. I think that everyone can bring something to the table to better the learning experience for children. I also know some wonderful teachers who do not have the "traditional" educationally journey you might expect from teachers but they do a wonderful job teaching their students. I think it is wonderful that they are incorporating the local "voices" into the learning process!
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