Ethical of social reform: Expectation that education and schooling for young children have the potential for significant social change and improvement.
- Child care
- Quality and cost
- National crisis
- Education reform
- No child left behind
- Reform issues and strategies
Issues:
- Endangered childhood, stress level is getting higher nowadays and children do not have safe place to go without worrying of getting harm.
- Child abuse and neglect
- Children with AIDS
- Poverty
- Family support
Values Transmission:
- TV and other media culture
- Violence and disaster
- Diversity
Many people have misconception that studying Early Childhood Education be it in diploma or degree or other level are people who will ended up becoming an early childhood educator, it’s far beyond this. The following are the career options that those studying this course can pursue:
- Teacher in early childhood program
- Director of childcare facility, nursery school
- Family day care provider
- Nanny/au pair
- Foster parents
- Social worker/adoption agency
- Pediatric nurse/school nurse
- Family therapist/parent educator
- Pediatrician
- Early intervention specialists
- Recreation leader
- Play group leader
- Home visitor
- Curriculum specialist
- Instructional specialist, e.g. computer
- Child developmental researcher
- Early childhood education specialist
- Program consultant
- Consumer advocate
- Teacher trainer
- Consultant
- Resource and referral program
- State and national departments of education and/or human services
- State/local licensing worker
- Legislative advocate
- Child care law specialist
- ECE environment consultant
- Interior designer for children’s spaces
- Government planning agent on children issues
- Consultant in bilingual education/multiculturalism
- Nutrition specialist for children
- Child care referral counselor
- Communications consultant
- Script writer/editor
- Freelance writer
- Children’s book author
- Children’s photographer
- Microcomputer specialist/program consultant
- So on and so forth…
Effective Professional Development:
- Uses an integrated systems approach
- It is an ongoing process
- Part of a coherent system that provides a continuous program of study
- Must be evidence based
- Provides opportunities to apply knowledge promotes teacher reflection and provides opportunities for feedback
- Provides a system for collaboration
- Includes sustained leadership
- Continuous assessment
- Include a variety of methodologies
Personal development comprises of:
- improve self-knowledge
- improve identity
- develop talents
- develop potential
- build human capital
- enhance employability
- bettering quality of life
- realizing dreams
- achieve aspirations
- become a person one aspires to become
- integrate social identity with self-identification
- increase awareness or define one’s priorities
- strategize and realize dream
- develop professional potential and talents
- develop individual competencies
- learn on the job
- improve quality of lifestyle
- learn techniques to expand awareness, gain control of one’s life or achieve wisdom
10 essential attributes of successful teaching:
- Professionalism
- Satisfying role
- Flexibility
- Open and frequent communication
- Self-awareness
- Mutual respect and acceptance
- Team Spirit and empathy
- Willingness to share the spotlight
- Clearly define role
- Evaluation
As described by Lialain Katz(1999):
- Survival: First year/In the beginning, feels inadequate and ill-prepared.
- Consolidation: Begins to focus on individual children and specific behaviour.
- Renewal: Third and fourth year, ready to explore new ideas and resources.
- Maturity: Come to terms with teaching and searches for insights and perspectives.
Skills needed as an early childhood professional (NAEYC standards):
- Promote child development and learning
- Build familiy and community relationship
- Observe, document, and assess
- Teach and learn
- Use developmentally effective teaching and learning strategies
- Becoming a professional
Professional in the field of Early Childhood Education are people who are:
- committed to caring for all children within the contexts of both family and the community
- high tolerance for ambiguity
- flexible
- has specialized education and training in child growth and development and early childhood education
- possess certain body of knowledge shared by others in the profession
- has specialized set of skill essential to caring for and educating young children
- committed in providing healthiest and most psychologically sound experiences for young children
- articulates the essentials of developmentally appropriate practices to others
- participates in the early childhood profession at large through membership in early childhood professional organization
- accountable to a professional code of ethics
- expects ongoing professional development
Distinct characteristics:
- Ethical performance that is fair
- A high level of “essential” expertise and skills combined with “sensitivity” to meaningful patterns and the capacity to use “varying levels of flexibilities in their approach to new situation”
- A body of deep knowledge and skills that lay people do not possess
- Considerable autonomy in practice and control entry into the profession
- Commensurate compensation
- Professional organization
