When I Think of Research...

Before this, I never really thought about research as something that I would be particularly interested in. I knew that research is important to the field of early childhood- we can learn so much from it-but I did not know how it worked, I had always assumed that it had a lot to do with analyzing data and crunching numbers…I did not even really think of how exactly it was conducted or that there are so many different approaches to it! Now I know that there is so much more to research than that; I have gained new insights on research and the process behind it. I learned that there are many different types of research studies and methods to choose from, many different ways to approach a research question/topic, and many different types of data and ways to collect it. Ultimately, I learned that research is actually really interesting and I have gained a new appreciation for it!

I was surprised at how complex the process of doing research is. My previous beliefs about how research is done have changed as I now know what is involved in the process. I knew that there were some things that needed to be planned for-such as resources, participants, and location-but there were many more that I did not know of-such as validity, sampling, and equity challenges.  One thing that I learned was that research does not always involve a hypothesis and that sometimes it can be open-ended. Even if the research study does not have a hypothesis or the hypothesis is proven wrong, we are still gaining valuable information.

The main lesson that I learned about research is that it is important to choose a design that best fits the research question. You can have a good research question but without a good research design the research may fall apart. Careful planning will help the researcher choose the best design and methods to use and will make conducting the research feasible.

The main challenge that I encountered while learning about research was the new terminology. It was a little hard for me to wrap my head around some of the terms and it took time for me to figure out what the independent and dependent variables were- I had to go over them again and again! To overcome this challenge, I utilized resources, mainly the articles by Lepuschitz (2011) and Mac Naughton et al.’s Doing Early Childhood Research.

My perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of studying research; I have gained a new respect and understanding for the research area of this field. Typically when I think of the early childhood field, I think of educators, directors, advocates, etc., but researchers provide the backbone for the field-from them we gain new strategies, techniques, and information. 

I have enjoyed learning about research and it was made much more fun and easier thanks to my colleagues who have shared their knowledge, opinions, and insights with me. Thank you so much, I am looking forward to learning more with you! 

Research Around the World

Looking at research done internationally is really beneficial to learning about research in general. You can see what topics other researchers in other regions are focusing on, what methods they are using and what their current research issues and ideas are. There also may be opportunities for collaboration and gaining new insights from an international perspective. This week, I looked at the Early Childhood Australia website, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.

The Early Childhood Australia website has a section on their Research in Practice (RIP) Series. This is a resource for early childhood professionals and parents and it looks as though it has a lot of useful information. Unfortunately, the books in the RIP Series (and most of the articles in the journals) were not available for free-you need to be a subscriber or purchase the books/journals individually. Browsing through the index, I saw that some of the topics covered include diversity, coping with change, communication and relationships with families, aggression, and overall well-being in children.

The website also had a link for the Every Child Magazine as well. I was pleased to see that there were sample articles available and after browsing through this section I found some really interesting information and articles. Some of the topics in this section include supporting bilingual learners, social-emotional development, legal issues in early childhood care, ethics, and health.

I noticed that many of these topics on the Early Childhood Australia website similar to ones that early childhood professionals here in the US look at too. There were some topics that I have not heard much about here, such as indigenous issues and males in the early childhood profession. I thought that these sounded pretty interesting; overall this website had a wide variety of international research topics!

I gained some new insight into different early childhood topics that I have not really focused on before. Browsing through this website and reading some of the available articles gave me new information on a wide range of topics. I was surprised at the focus that Early Childhood Australia has on diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion-there were many articles on these topics in different sections of the website. It seems as though a lot of the current research is based on indigenous issues and the inclusion of Aboriginal children and families. I also thought it was noteworthy that there was a “statement of regret and commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families” in the position statement section; this seems to tie in with the focus that Early Childhood Australia has on diversity and indigenous issues. 

Looking at this international research website was very informative. Although a lot of the research and topics can be generalized to children worldwide, there were some sections in particular that are solely for Australia. To me, this was really interesting because it gave me an idea of what some of the early childhood issues unique to Australia are and an idea of the Early Childhood Australia’s perspectives. Overall, I enjoyed looking at the Early Childhood Australia website and am happy to have a new international research resource to add to my collection of resources!

Research That Benefits Children and Families

If I had the means and knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field, I would choose to look into diagnosing and working with children who have learning “disorders” or difficulties. Today, many children are quickly diagnosed with a “learning disorder” such as ADHD and given medication as a treatment. I would love to be able to look into this topic and see what answers research could provide. Maybe there are different techniques that parents and teachers could use rather than medication, maybe certain behaviors are present from a young age and early intervention could help. A long term study could show the consequences-both negative and positive-from medications that are associated with and used to “treat” children with learning difficulties. It would also be interesting to find out if there is a more effective process that could be used in diagnosing learning difficulties from an early age so that appropriate supports and resources can be provided to the child and family and so that misdiagnoses do not occur.

 I think that research such as this would be beneficial to children, families and educators because it could help develop new strategies to enhance and support a young child's development and educational experiences. Other positive benefits could include new knowledge about learning difficulties and the best strategies for working with them, effective supports and resources, and appropriate interventions that could help foster positive development in the child and help them succeed in an educational setting.

My Personal Research Journey

I am excited about doing a research simulation in these upcoming weeks; I know little about research and the processes behind it so this will definitely be a learning experience! After much thought, I narrowed down my topic of imitation/modeling behavior in children to a few subtopics. The one that I chose to focus on for my research simulation is the role that gender plays in what children imitate and model. Are young girls more likely to model behavior from a female adult? Are boys more likely to imitate other boys? Do boys and girls choose different types of behavior to model? Or does gender not even play a role in what children choose to imitate? This subject is really intriguing to me and I have a lot of questions about it!

I chose this topic because for two reasons. First, I am interested in it from a professional perspective. The early childhood field is heavily dominated by females; does this influence what children in early childhood settings imitate? Secondly, I am interested in this from a personal perspective. I have an 18-month old son and am raising him as a single mom; he imitates and models behavior that he sees me do. Would he imitate the same things if he had a male to choose to model behavior from?

The simulation process so far has been interesting. It has been a little bit difficult to understand and take information from research articles, but I am slowly beginning to understand the language and presentation better. I have realized that I have to read certain paragraphs of research articles multiple times to grasp the meaning, but hopefully once I have a better understanding I will be able to tackle it more efficiently! Having a research chart has been helpful because I have come across a lot of new vocabulary; it helps me to have a concrete visual aid that I can build upon.

Research is such an important part of the early childhood field; I expect that I will gain a lot from taking the time to understand and learn about the research process. If anyone has any insights into the research process or the topic of gender and imitation, let me know, I would love to hear some new ideas and perspectives! One website that I came across that has a lot of credible research on a wide number of topics is from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), http://nieer.org/, hopefully this resource will be beneficial to someone else too! 

Impact of Having International Resources

Over these past few weeks I have really enjoyed learning about the early childhood field from a global perspective; studying the ISSA website and talking with Jerneja, my contact in Slovenia. Having these resources enriched my professional development and gave me new insights into the early childhood field. 

For me, the three main consequences of learning about the international early childhood field have been:

1. Gaining new resources. To be an effective professional in this field, you need a wide range of knowledge. Today’s world is very interconnected and we have to learn about and respect others if we want to promote healthy development for all children. Learning about the international early childhood field not only expanded my knowledge on global issues that affect children and their families, but gave me new resources to draw upon.

2. Learning about the issues, trends, and challenges early childhood professionals in other countries are facing. Studying the ISSA website and talking with Jerneja opened my eyes to issues and challenges that others are facing-and also how they are overcoming them. Sometimes I take for granted the resources we have here, I complain about the budget cuts and lack of resources, but looking at the early childhood field from a global perspective and realizing that others may have even less to work with has been really motivating. Seeing how they work with their resources and overcome their challenges have been great examples and have given me ideas and inspiration.

3. Developing an awareness of the international early childhood community and the resources others use. Not only have I gained new resources, but I have an awareness for the international early childhood community and international organizations that promote the well-being of children and families worldwide. We can learn so much from others if we keep an open mind, and knowing that I can communicate with someone from another country or read about a initiative in another region is wonderful. I now have a sense of how strong the EC community is and I have gained more confidence from discussing early childhood issues and trends with a professional outside the US. I surprised at how many international organizations for the field of early childhood there are and my awareness of this field at an international level has increased-and this is a large community of professionals with great ideas, opinions, advice, and perspectives that they are willing to share!

Overall, I think that one goal for the early childhood field in relation to international awareness of issues and trends should be to have more collaboration, workshops, newsletters, and shared resources between countries and programs. The organization of ISSA is an international organization (made up of 29 nongovernmental organizations in Central/Eastern Europe) and is a great example of what can be done when resources are pooled together and shared. The ISSA Newsletter highlights different issues and trends from the different countries it works with and holds conferences and workshops in different countries that ISSA members attend to discuss current issues, trends, and promote collaboration. If the early childhood field adopted more strategies like these, organizations from different countries could help each other, share resources, and collaborate on ways to promote healthy development of children worldwide and provide high quality services for all. 

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.