ECE Issues in Slovenia

I have been talking to Jerneja, my contact in Slovenia, about the issues and challenges that early childhood educators are facing where she lives. Her responses were very interesting and I wanted to share them here. According to Jerneja, the main two challenges that Slovenia’s early childhood education system faces are (1) the lack of spaces for children in early childhood programs and (2) the inclusion of Roma children.

1. Jerneja told me that Slovenia has recently been through what she calls a “baby boom” and as a result there are many young children and families in need of childcare. In addition to the “baby boom,” there “is a state law that every second, third etc. child from the same family has a free pre-school service (no monthly fees have to be paid)” (personal communication, April 10, 2011), which also places a strain on the system financially. Jerneja says that this issue has been going on for a few years but is becoming more challenging although the government is working on it. She says that she hopes it will be resolved soon because many children and families are being turned away from preschools and educators have larger class sizes.

2. Jerneja says that the other main challenge Slovenia is facing is the full inclusion of Roma children and their families because they currently have “low representation” in early childhood programs. She says that this has also been a challenge that Slovenia has faced for some time but “our Centre is currently involved in a project, which is co-financed by Ministry of Education and Sport and by European Social Fund. The main goal of this project is to include Roma children and their families in pre-school programs from the very beginning” (personal communication, April 10, 2011).  She said that she is glad to be a part of this project because she thinks that it is important for children and families to have access to quality programs from birth. (For more information on the Roma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(Romani_subgroup).)

Jerneja also told me that ISSA provides many training and professional growth opportunities for early childhood educators in Slovenia. She says that ISSA is working on expanding- there are currently 35 centers implementing ISSA practices in Slovenia (personal communication, April 10, 2011)- and sharing resources with other programs in the area in hopes that children and families have more access to high quality programs; this is Jerneja’s hope as well.

It has been very interesting talking to Jerneja; I have learned a lot of information about a place that I have never been to over these past few weeks! It amazes me that we are so far apart but still have similar issues, challenges, and hopes for the future.

Sharing Web Resources: ISSA & Equity

This week I did a little more exploring on the ISSA website. First, I looked under the Events section and followed some links about the past ISSA conferences. The one that I found most interesting was the link to the Riga 2010 International Conference, Embracing Inclusive Approaches for Children and Youth with Special Education Needs. This was a conference held by Division of International Special Education and Services/USA (DISES), the Council for Exceptional Children/USA (CEC), the Center for Education Initiatives/Latvia (CEI) and the International Step by Step Association. When I followed the link, it directed me to a section of the Council of Exceptional Children’s website and I found information about the conference and select power point presentations from the speakers. In addition to this, the website had more information about professional development, news and issues about special education, and policy/advocacy information…another great resource to bookmark!

Going back to the ISSA website, I searched another area of the website that I have not really paid too much attention too and found some more really interesting information. Clicking on the ISSA Bookstore link takes you to a section about ISSA’s Reading Corner Initiative. This ISSA initiative is designed to provide information about high-quality children’s literature and reading to parents and educators. I thought it was really neat because all of the books promoted here are from one of the 26 countries ISSA works with, are available in all the languages spoken in those countries, and can be downloaded and used by parents and educators. Overall, I just thought that this was a really great way to promote literacy and provide high quality books and materials to children and their families.

Lastly, I read another article this week from the Winter 2010-2011 ISSA Newsletter. The article that I read this week, “ISSA and Partners Work to Improve Access to Quality Early Education Provisions in Rural Kazakhstan” is really relevant to the discussion that we have been having on equity and excellence. The article discussed a current project in Kazakhstan “Civil Society Partnership for Rural Children.” This project aims “to support every child’s right to quality education by developing models of child-centered, cost-effective early education services in rural areas in partnership with parents, local educational institutions, and municipal governments” (ISSA, 2010-2011). We have been talking about how many children and families do not have access to high quality early childhood education and what can be done to eliminate the barriers to awareness, access, and responsiveness. ISSA and its partners are working in Kazakhstan to eliminate these barriers by working with and empowering local communities, establishing high quality programs in rural areas (including teacher and parent classes/training),  and developing other outreach programs.

For more information about Kazakhstan from UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/kazakhstan.html

This week gave me some new insights into global issues of equity and excellence as well as other issues in the early childhood field. I learned what steps other countries and organizations are taking to reduce inequities and promote excellence and high quality programs. I also gained some new information from looking at the power point presentations from the Riga 2010 International Conference and what the countries involved in this conference are doing to promote inclusion of all the children in their areas. From exploring the ISSA website and its links this week, I saw many issues are surrounding the field of early childhood and what professionals in this field are doing to address them. I think what I really gained this week was a sense of how the international community of early childhood educators is working towards promoting positive child development and sharing information and resources with each other.

References:

ISSA. Winter 2010-2011. “ISSA and Partners Work to Improve Access to Quality Early Education Provisions in Rural Kazakhstan.” Retrieved from ISSA Newsletter: http://www.issa.nl/newsletter/10/winter/network5.html.

Equity and Excellence in Slovenia

I am really excited that I have heard back from one of my contacts! Jerneja is a doctoral student of Educational Studies at the University of Primorska in Slovenia. She has a Bachelor’s in Pedagogy and her Master’s in Inclusive Education and currently works at the Educational Research Institute’s Developmental Research Centre for Educational Initiatives Step by Step. Overall, she sounds like an amazing person and I am honored to learn more about her and the early childhood system in Slovenia!

This week we have been discussing issues related to equity and excellence here in the US. Jerneja has shared with me what she knows about these issues in Slovenia. She said that the early childhood education system in Slovenia is divided into two parts. The first part is the national preschool curriculum that preschools are required to follow. The national curriculum does not tell the teachers how to teach but what to teach. It is divided into 6 different areas: movement, language, arts, nature, mathematics, and environment (society and relationships). To ensure equity, Jerneja says that “there are also principles and goals in the curriculum, which require the inclusion of all ‘different’ children and families - with ‘different’ I mean migrants, children with disabilities, Roma children, etc.” (personal communication, March 28, 2011). One of the main goals for equity in early childhood education in Slovenia is to fully include Roma children and their families, something that the ISSA preschools are currently working on.

In addition to the national curriculum, the second part of the preschool system in Slovenia is the “how” part of the curriculum. While the national curriculum tells teachers what to teach, the principles of the centers influence the methods and practices that they use. Jerneja says that ISSA’s principles for preschools help promote quality and excellence through the developmentally appropriate methods that they use. According to Jerneja, there are 35  ISSA preschools in Slovenia that use these high-quality practices, other early childhood education programs may use other principles that do not necessarily ensure high quality but ISSA is working on expanding and promoting developmentally appropriate practices to other centers. 

I also just wanted to share what Jerneja told me about poverty in Slovenia. She wrote that poverty has affected many families, especially over the past few years. The concern is that enrollment in preschool services will decline because families will not be able to afford it. Right now, families with low-incomes pay less but Jerneja says that many of the families she works with are struggling to pay these costs. She says that she is concerned about this because she knows the affects of early childhood education and how it is especially important for children from low SES backgrounds. She wrote that in general, “poverty in society maybe still isn't so well seen, because people still have some savings. But it's going to be bigger and bigger problem in our society very soon.” (personal communication, March 28, 2011).

So far I have learned a lot from my conversation with Jerneja. It’s interesting that even though we are miles apart, we still have some of the same concerns and goals for our early childhood programs. I also thought that it was really interesting that Slovenia has a national curriculum that preschools are required to use, this seems that it could potentially increase the equity in the Slovenian early childhood education programs.

More information:

This is the website for the organization that Jerneja works for: http://www.issa.nl/org_profiles/slovenia.html

Slovenia’s Step by Step Program (Korak za Korakom): http://www.korakzakorakom.si/content/view/16/30/

Sharing Web Resources: ISSA

I have been studying the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) website and reading the current ISSA newsletter for these past few weeks and have learned a lot from this web resource. As a professional, the section that is probably the most relevant to my professional development is the Global Network section. This section provides information on ISSA members and organizations (useful for contacting professionals in other parts of the world), the ISSA Newsletter (current issues in the field and ISSA projects), and ISSA’s partners (links to even more early childhood organizations and resources!).

The article I read this week was “New Publication: Early Childhood Development and Education in Emergencies: Country Profiles from the CEE/CIS Region.” This publication is the result of a project ISSA has been working on with UNICEF. The article describes this project which has focused how young children are included in emergency preparedness and response strategies in 5 countries in the CEE/CIS region (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan). The results of the project found that “young children's needs and early childhood development (ECD) are generally absent from the emergency preparedness and response strategies in the region. Each of the five country profiles identifies a general omission of young children from emergency preparedness and response strategies” (Izsak, n.d.). From reading a little bit of the publication "Early Childhood Development and Education in Emergencies," I learned that this region has a lot of what the publication calls “emergencies,” including armed conflict, toxic waste, energy shortages, and natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, avalanches, etc.). In fact, Kyrgyzstan has about 200 natural disasters a year (ISSA, 2010)! Thinking about this gave me new insights into thinking about child development and how much the community and environment influences and impacts it. According to this article,” young children and the elderly are among the first victims and most vulnerable groups. Young children in emergency situations are more likely to experience life-threatening and other physically, emotionally, and socially extreme situations” and the “the negative impacts of emergencies on young children are multiple, affecting all dimensions of their development” (Izsak, n.d.). I just thought that this was really interesting and relevant today, especially in light of what is currently happening in the world!

In addition to this new insight, this article also showed me how other fields are supporting the early childhood field. The ISSA/UNICEF project was a result of poverty alleviation research (from the field of economics) and the article talks about how children’s brain development (from the field of neuroscience) is affected as a result from toxic stress which is the result from the “emergencies” in the region. This project is not only a collaboration of other fields but is working towards changing policies in the region so that young children and child development are better supported during times of emergencies.

This issue of how children are affected by emergencies in their region-whether they are from conflict or natural disaster is one that I think is particularly relevant today. The ISSA website has some really good information on issues such as these and what the early childhood programs in the region are doing to promote positive child development despite the challenges that they may face. Keeping up to date on global issues has helped me further understand just how many issues are affecting young children and their development today. Reading about this particular topic has made me wonder what is in place in my local community and region for young children in case of a natural disaster or emergency; I will now have to look into this!

References:

ISSA. (2010). Early Childhood Development and Education in Emergencies. Retrieved from: http://www.issa.nl/docs_pdfs/Unicef-country-profiles-final.pdf

Izsak, Eva. (n.d.). New Publication: Early Childhood Development and Education in Emergencies: Country Profiles from the CEE/CIS Region. Retrieved from ISSA website: http://www.issa.nl/news_publ2010.html

International Contacts: Alternative

I was really excited that I had heard back from 4 early childhood professionals in other parts of the world who said that they would like to be my contact, but unfortunately I have not heard back from them since then! Hopefully I will hear from them soon, but in the meantime, I listened to a podcast from World Forum Radio this week.

I chose to listen to Episode 6: Meridas Eka Yora. Mr. Yora is the founder and director of the institution Fajar Hidayah for Islamic Education, director of the Yayasan Fajar Hidayah Foundation, and has founded three boarding schools in Aceh, Indonesia for children who have been orphaned.

I picked this podcast because this week we have been discussing poverty and have looked at homelessness and how these issues affect children and their families. According to UNICEF, 29% of Indonesia’s population falls below the international poverty line of $1.25/day and there is an estimated 4,700 orphans (UNICEF, 2010). In the podcast, Mr. Yora talks about the orphans that he works with; most have been orphaned as a result of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake which killed over 225 Indonesians and left 500,000 homeless (World Forum Foundation, 2011). Others have been orphaned due to the conflict and war that has been going on for 30 years in Aceh. Mr. Yora talks about the challenges working with these orphans, he says that many have been traumatized-some having watched their parents being killed-and this has deeply affected them. The staff that work at his schools have had “special preparation” and act as family for the children as well as teachers in what Mr. Yora calls a “holistic approach” to create a home for the children (World Forum Radio, 2011). He talks about the challenges that the children face with not only losing their families but their homes as well, and how his program works to create a sense of home and community for them and provide them with the support that they need.

Since I have not been able to contact anyone else, I researched a little into poverty elsewhere in this region-India. Some background from the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP): India is a highly-populated country with a high percentage of people living in poverty, in fact, “India is home to the majority of poor people in South Asia” (CHIP, n.d.) and UNICEF says that 42% of the population falls below the international poverty line (UNICEF, 2010). The statistics for children are heartbreaking: about half of India’s children (62 million) under the age of 5 are malnourished and Indian children account for 20% of the world’s “out of school” children (CHIP, n.d.).

Reading about poverty in India from the CHIP website gave me some new insights and information about the issue of poverty:

1. Most of the anti-poverty programs in India are run by the central government. The measures they use include: increasing economic growth (through liberalization 0f the economy) specifically targeted programs (mainly rural employment creation/infrastructure development, self-employment, and food subsidy), land and tenancy reforms, participatory and empowerment-based approaches, and providing basic services to those in need. Since implementing these programs, poverty rates-both rural and urban- have declined (CHIP, n.d.).

2. Even though poverty rates have been declining, there is a large disparity between genders, classes, and castes. Girls have a smaller chance of survival than boys, are less likely to receive education, and more likely to be involved in child labor. In addition, lower social classes and certain castes are also less likely to receive education and social services, such as health care, due to lack of access and/or quality (CHIP, n.d.).

3. India’s social sectors also face challenges. In education, “a growing population, industrialization, and a globalizing economy that places a premium on information and technology, are stretching the capacity of India’s education system to deliver relevant and effective services” (CHIP, n.d.). Aside from this, there are 33 million poor children who need access to primary schools of high-quality and improvements are needed in the retention rates of poor children, girls, and children from certain castes (CHIP, n.d).

Looking at the issues from the podcast and researching poverty in India showed me even more complexities related to this issue. I learned that there are many factors that can be related to poverty including the environment (and natural disasters), gender issues, class issues, and other social/economic issues (such as war) as well. All of these factors not only play a role in poverty but they can play a role in the quality and access of social supports and services as well. In addition, the effects of poverty run deep and as a result children are put at a disadvantage. Fortunately, there are programs (such as Mr. Yora's and those run by the Indian government) that are working to combat poverty and related factors.

References:

Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP). (n.d.). Country Overviews. Retrieved from: http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

UNICEF. (2 March, 2010). Info By Country: Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html

World Forum Foundation. (2011). World Forum Radio. Retrieved from: http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/

Sharing Web Resources: ISSA & Home Visits

I have chosen to focus on the International Step by Step Association (ISSA), http://www.issa.nl/. I learned from the information on the website that this organization works to connect early childhood professionals and programs while promoting “equal access to quality education and care for all children, especially in the early years of their lives.” Its focus is on providing educational services and advocacy tools for children and families, especially those ages birth through primary school. Although ISSA is a global organization, its “core members are the 29 nongovernmental organizations, located primarily in Central/Eastern Europe and Central Asia.” (ISSA, 2011).

The ISSA website does not have a weekly newsletter, but it does have a newsletter: ISSA Newsletter. I looked at its most current newsletter, Winter 2010-2011 and chose to read the article “Interview with Hea Algus, Estonia on Home Visiting." I chose to read this article and look at the topic of home visits because we have been talking about home visits and how changing demographics affect them so I was interested in another perspective.

The Family Visiting Program of Hea Algus is an Estonian program that reaches out to at-risk families through weekly visits with individual families and monthly activities for all families in the program. (Hea Algus is the program in Estonia that is associated with ISSA.) The interview was conducted with Liivi Türbsal, Executive Director of Hea Algus and she talks about how the need for the program’s home visits “came from the concern that there were many families in Tartu in which the parents lacked the skills and knowledge to develop and interact with their children and create a supportive environment for them.” (ISSA Newsletter, 2010- 2011).

The part that struck me as most relevant to this week’s topic is how the program restructured due to the needs of the community’s changing demographics. It was founded in 1997 but began to work solely with at-risk families in 2000 and then expanded to meet the needs of families with children birth-7 years rather than birth-3 years (ISSA Newsletter, 2010- 2011). This gave me a new angle to think about for the issue of changing demographics: it’s may not just be the diversity of languages and cultures that are changing; changing demographics also encompasses socioeconomic statuses and age groups too.

Reading about the Family Visiting Program of Hea Algus was really interesting and I saw that it had the same goals as home visiting programs here in the US do: to support child development through educating parents. We have been talking about how family visitors should reflect the populations that they are serving; the family visitors in the Hea Algus program have backgrounds in "medicine, special education, speech and language therapy, social work, or psychology" plus additional training (ISSA Newsletter, 2010-2011). Having a wide range of fields involved probably helps meet the needs of the families the program serves. 

Here is the link to the Hea Algus website if you are interested, I found it really informative and it has information on its home visiting program (you may have to translate it though!): http://www.heaalgus.ee/.

References:

International Step by Step Association (ISSA). (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.issa.nl/

ISSA Newsletter. (Winter 2010-2011). Retrieved from ISSA website: http://www.issa.nl/newsletter/10/winter/network2.html

Expanding Resources

I am really interested in learning about education and development from an international perspective… actually I think I am sometimes more interested in what is happening abroad than here (probably the reason why I have my BA in International Studies!). So I am super excited about establishing a professional contact from outside of the US, this will be a great resource to have and learn from!

I looked at the Global Alliance of NAEYC’s website (http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance) for the email addresses of some potential contacts. I am interested in the Central European/Asian region so I chose some email addresses from that area and emailed them…unfortunately some emails were returned as the addresses were not correct and some I just did not hear back from. So the next day I researched some more and sent out more emails. I am hoping to get an email back soon…I sent out quite a few emails so with any luck I will end up with 2 or 3 contacts, but for now I do have 1 contact! An early childhood professional in Bulgaria has agreed to be my professional contact, I am looking forward to learning more about his work and program!

In addition to this, I am looking forward to expanding other resources. I have chosen to focus on the International Step by Step Association (ISSA). The website for this organization is http://www.issa.nl/. It was hard to narrow it down to one website, but this program seems really interesting and ISSA is the organization that my contact works for-so it will be neat to learn more about the program in general and then learn about it through his perspective and experiences.