International Overview

Poverty can strike anyone; it is both a national and international problem.  Differing societal living conditions affect children’s outcomes as it relates to poverty.   I visited the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Center page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/).  As I was reading through the web page I came across a publication, Migrating for More: Children's Access to Education in Mongolia and I read the following report summary, Children on the move:  Rural-urban migration and access to education in Mongolia.  The focus of the report was whether or not migration impacts the education of Mongolian children. 

According to the report, schools in rural areas had a decrease in the student population due to migration.  The school environment lacked adequate heat in an area where it is cold; lacked equipment and materials for learning as well as a decline in teaching standards.  Teachers were not receiving adequate training.  These issues in turn pushed many families to leave their rural areas and seek urban education for their children (Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2005). 

It was interesting to learn that Mongolian families not only migrate to find work, but that these families value education for their children’s success.  Many families migrate so as to provide their children a better education (CHIP, 2005).  The quality of teaching in urban areas is far superior however these families face other education challenges.  Urban schools are sadly not equipped to handle the large numbers migrating children; they lack the room and resources to address the learning needs of all the children.  In addition, the migrant children are working to catch up to the curriculum level of all the other students and therefore are discriminated against (CHIP, 2005).  Sadly many of the students drop out of school because their families are struggling to provide for basic needs, students live in homes with inadequate heat and electricity preventing them studying or the students felt they did not have familial support (CHIP, 2005).    

The education system in Mongolia had some similarities to the education system in our country with some themes that plague our school systems.  Teachers are not adequately trained.  Teachers also feel pressured to encourage and move students forward academically without providing great teaching care to those migrant students who need time to adapt and perhaps achieve academic success as well (CHIP, 2005).  The education system is not accessible by all and adequate supports are not provided for migrant children (CHIP, 2005).  Lastly, education budget funds are limited and are not enough to sustain and provide quality education for all the entire country. 

Disenfranchised children may look different, but I learned through this study and website that education is lacking across the board and the physical, emotional and academic needs of these children are not being met.   

 

Resources

Child Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2005.  Children on the move:  Rural-urban migration and access to education in Mongolia. Migrating for More: Children's Access to Education in Mongolia.   Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php/action=documentfeed/doctype=pdf/id=190/

Resource Sharing

As I have not heard from any of my potential contacts for further discussion on global issues as they pertain to children I decided to continue to dig deeper into the website, Early Childhood Australia, a voice for young children.  I have included the link; http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.  Early Childhood Australia is a non-profit organization that advocates for children from birth to 8 years of age and works towards sharing and providing resources and information on early childhood to educators, parents, and social and government bodies.  Information about development, children’s behaviors, assessments and observations to school readiness can be found on the website.   

I have family who emigrated to Australia many years ago and cousins who were born there, but as you might imagine the topic of early childhood education does not come up in conversation.  Australia, like many countries is made up of many people representing different cultures and languages.  This week’s discussion prompted me to think that perhaps many of the same issues facing us in this country are also very much alive in other countries as well; discrimination, language and cultural barriers that are perhaps creating an education gap among the different cultures in Australia and if so how are these issues being address?   The goal would seem to a similar one; to become culturally aware however that is a challenge as it pertains to education and families.  Navigating the site, I came across a piece on creating personalized learning plans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students so as to create positive learning environments for all students and therefore having improved academic success.  (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/early_childhood_news/eca_webwatch_issue_122_september_2011.html).  Indigenous populations like the children attending our school systems, share culture and language that bond them to their community.   Teacher, parents and children are collaborators in creating the learning plan that includes clear learning goals as well as potential obstacles to learning and how to navigate through those obstacles.  The learning plans respect the Aboriginal children’s cultural differences, their knowledge and obligations within their community (www.whatworks.edu.au).  The plans assess where the student is now, where they should be and how they will meet their academic goals; once goals are met, the process begins again scaffolding additional knowledge and learning.   The personalized plan certainly promotes both parent and student participation and engagement in the learning process. 

The child’s identity as connected to his or her family is celebrated and acknowledge as a path towards learning.  This I believe is a positive example that could perhaps be utilized to bridge culturally and linguistically diverse communities in our own country. 

Resources

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/early_childhood_news/eca_webwatch_issue_122_september_2011.html

www.whatworks.edu.au

Professional Contacts & Expanded Resources

This particular blog assignment has proved challenging.  At the beginning of the week I emailed 4 different sources which I found through the UNICEF website.  I was interested in making contact with professionals in the Early Childhood field in the following countries; Greece (because of my heritage, I am curious to see learn advancements in the EC field in a country where many women stay home to care for their children), Albania (because many refugees flee Albania and enter Greece as illegal immigrants, however entire families do not emigrate; families, including children are left behind.  I want to learn about the conditions of education as a whole in a country such as this), Kosovo (because I believe there are still many displaced families and orphans following the war there; how are all those orphans and refugee children being cared for?) and Morocco (this is a country I know very little about, however it is a country rich in culture and heritage that it would be interesting to learn about the state of EC education there). 

In an effort to stay ahead of the game in the event these international professionals do not reach out to me, I took a tour of the World Forum Foundation site and listened to two radio interviews.  The link for the web site world radio forum is as follows;

http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio

One radio interview was with Susan Lyon, who views children as individual thinkers who view the world and understand the world in their own manner.  She created a pilot program based on the Reggio Emilia program in a public setting to provide children an avenue of success.  The link to the podcast is below -

http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_10_SusanLyon.mp3

The other radio interview was with Maysoun Chehab, of the Arabic Resource Collective in Beirut, Lebanon.  She worked effortlessly to raise awareness on children’s rights and to raise awareness and training of care givers on best practices.  She also began a psych-social support project to assist children, families and educators with coping and healing strategies following the 33 day war.  The link to the podcast is below -

http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_04_MaysounChehab.mp3

Lastly I visited http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org, seeking to explore Early Childhood Education and resources from another country’s perspective.  I subscribed to ECA Web Watch newsletter and read the September 2011 issue found here; http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/early_childhood_news/eca_webwatch_issue_122_september_2011.html

I came across an article on early childhood and education services of indigenous children.  The focus of the article dealt with the notion cultural competency as well as the idea that children can be more successful in later life when intervention in the areas of health and education begins at an early age.  The article can be found through the following link;  

http://www.aihw.gov.au/closingthegap/documents/resource_sheets/ctgc-rs07-updated.pdf