Blog Conclusion

•  One thing that I have learned is that there are organizations out here in the world who are putting themselves out there to get investments in early childhood education. Head Start is starting projects that work together to provide high quality services for children. These organizations can help in my development as a professional in continuous learning about early childhood education.

•   Programs such as "Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains” brings together mentors and experts in the fields of early childhood development, innovation systems, and learning communities. This worldwide project is committed to protecting the child’s brain development that mostly fails due to poverty or birth defects. This helps me to understand that we should be more cautious of those communities around us and to pay attention on how to better help families and children that are in this situation.

•   Home based centers I think are great to have because it will make the child feel like they are in a real home and they can be more comfortable but funding for these programs are hard to home by and are not considered as high quality due to no early childhood qualifications. A diploma of teaching in ECE is currently being implemented in New Zealand but they have a long way to go in implementing more qualifications.

One goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations would be to have every early childhood professional contact another international professional or research early childhood international organizations.  This helps with awareness through the sharing of information and collaboration, it would also encourage the professionals and people involved to create more passion and enthusiasm for the field.

Home Based Early Childhood Services in New Zealand

Home-based services in New Zealand are education-oriented, and catered for diversity. The main reason for the increase in enrollments in home-based services and for the decrease in enrollments at play-centers (parent co-operative center with parent involvement in running the program) was the rise in mothers’ participation in paid work. Parents of infants and toddlers sometimes choose a home-based service, rather than a center, because they prefer a home environment. The rise in early childhood services, including home-based services, has been accompanied by research, lobbying, and government initiatives aimed to enhance the quality of services.

   

 Research studies of family daycare in North America support the importance of: licensing and regulation of services, qualifications of providers, and commitment of providers to taking care of children and to learning about children’s development and care. No formal early childhood qualification requirements are specified for home-based caregivers. Changes to qualifications, requiring a Diploma of Teaching (ECE) or equivalent for coordinators in home-based services, are currently being implemented. Policy initiatives are also in place to encourage improved outcomes for children through educators’ self-evaluation.

 In order to improve implications for countries where home-based programs are in the hands of individuals, with no administration and funding from government, New Zealand and other countries are responding to research on the educational and social benefits of high quality early childhood education and care services for young children, priorities are to increase participation and to enhance the quality of a diverse range of services. Integral parts of meeting these priorities potentially include developing appropriate administrative infrastructures, regulations, curriculum, and support systems; and fostering quality through education (qualifications of coordinators and caregivers, and ongoing professional development).  These requirements are important, to avoid problems of administrative fragmentation, and most importantly to enhance quality.

                                                               Reference

Podmore, V. (2002, September). Home-Based Early Childhood Services: The Case of New Zealand. Retrieved from UNESCO: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137381e.pdf

Sharing Web Resources

On the Children’s Defense Fund website, I decided to look into their Head Start & Early Head Start tab. CDF supports Head Start’s mission of providing comprehensive, quality early childhood services to children and their families, and advocates for increased funding for the program so more eligible children and families can benefit. They also had a link to the National Head Start Association. One of the association’s current initiatives is the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 set aside $500,000,000 for a new investment in high quality early learning opportunities for infants and toddlers through partnerships between Early Head Start and child care programs. The Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, the National Head Start Association, the California Head Start Association, and representatives from numerous other child care and Head Start practitioner organizations came together to form the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Project to help guide the planning and creation of successful partnerships that will reach a growing number of vulnerable children and families with high quality services that enable children to learn and grow in nurturing environments while their families achieve greater stability and long-term success. Efforts that have been done by the groups are:

•  Listening calls with Head Start/Early Head Start directors and their child care partners
•   Survey research on experiences and attitudes of the Head Start field around partnerships
•   A national convening of experts and practitioner organizations representing both center-based and family child care and Head Start
•  Development of a website to organize resources about Early Head Start-Child Care partnerships
• Webinars and resources to encourage the successful planning and implementation of partnerships for all stakeholders
•  A Learning Network to support new and established partnerships

    The association and their collaborators are grateful for the Administration’s commitment to increasing investments in high-quality early learning experiences for the children and families who needed this for success both in school and throughout their lives. The money was awarded this year at the end of March.

Reference

Association, N. H. (n.d.). Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Project. Retrieved from National Head Start Association: https://www.nhsa.org/content/early-head-start-child-care-partnership-project