Week 8 :: Final EDUC 6162 Blog Post

This week I was asked to talk about the three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field for my professional and personal development.

A consequence of learning that happened for me was that I was reminded of how differently each country treats and deals with their young children. I was also reminded of how much money, or lack thereof, influences and makes a huge difference in the types of program that can and do exist for young children and their families.

These new developments have inspired and motivated me to continue my focus on my higher education and use the contacts and information I have gathered to work on a documentary film about the causes and effects of poor quality early childhood education in the States and abroad. It will be a very long journey and project but it will be an important one and my contribution to the cause of getting the public's perception of early childhood educators/education to change.

One final word of encouragement to my fellow colleagues: Keep on doing what makes you happy in this field. We need more of you out there and with your knowledge and drive and passion, you will help build the leaders of tomorrow. You will help mentor the early childhood educators we need in the future. Thank you for being inspirations to me.

Week 7 :: Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 3

The issues and trends presented thus far in the class have really helped me to start to narrow my focus in what I want to do with the rest of my professional career. I know I want to be more active in the early childhood education front, however, time and money are factors that hold me back. I want to also make films about the state of preschools in America and what that means for future generations.

I never heard back from my international contact this week, so I asked another international contact who currently teaches English in China and on weekends volunteers for a non-profit preschool where she is in charge of overseeing some of the workers/volunteers. They run the preschool in a remote, rural part of farm land in China. The residents walk five to six miles to bring their children to the preschool 7 days a week. The children learn English, play games, and are given healthy meals. Here are her answers to the following questions:

What are some of your professional goals?
I really want to go back to school and get my teaching credentials and my Master's I want to teach back in the States. I like the young children so I think Kindergarten is what I want to do. I also would like to one day  open my own international child care center in another country.

What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?
Like I said before, I would like to open a center in another country. India perhaps or China. I see how hard it is for foreigners to do this so I think that would be a challenge for me. That and finding money to do it. It is easy to set up a non-profit but it is difficult to get support and money and volunteers. Everyone wants to be paid and no one wants to volunteer long hours with no incentive or compensation.

Week 5 :: Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 2

I asked my international contact, Jody, about the topic of excellence as it related to her current position working with The Qatar Foundation at a new early childhood education center that is about to open. I asked her about the governing bodies (if any) that oversee the program and how they are accountale. Here is what she wrote:

"Being a part of the Qatar Foundation, which oversees the whole of Education City, (made up of a whole host of mostly American Universities) we need to report results directly to the Board of Governors, according to the outcomes, new goals are set and supports are put in place to strengthen areas that need it.  The foundation has their own Health and Safety Department, but the final say is with Civil Defense, one of the reasons for the delay in the opening of our new center.  We are also answerable, as with all schools private or otherwise to the Supreme Educational Council.  We are also answerable to the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization) Qatar Academy is a fully accredited IB World School. QA also holds accreditations from the U.S. based New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the Council of International Schools (CIS).and soon within our Early Education Center, we will be going through the accreditation process with the NAEYC.  

http://www.qataracademy.edu.qa/about-qatar-academy/about-qatar-academy

http://www.qataracademy.edu.qa/primary-school

About Qatar Academy

Qatar Academy is part of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a private, chartered, non-profit organization founded by His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar.

It is the mission of Qatar Academy to provide internationally accepted, comprehensive, English medium programs plus Arabic and Islamic studies from pre-school through to secondary graduation. Comprising a Primary School and a Senior School, it occupies a magnificent campus in Doha.

I know the YCAT is also a requirement for our Pre 4's (4 yr olds) this is done one on one with trained teachers who know the children well and with whom the children have a relationship with.

and again in Grade 3, but I think this is done in a whole class context if my memory serves me correctly, followed up in Grade 9.

Teacher's receive ongoing PD mostly through the IBO, most times we are sent away on courses, one building on the next as the courses are organized into different levels.  Sometimes we have visiting 'guru's' who stay for up to two weeks to share their knowledge with staff, sometimes working one on one and other times whole school meetings in the afternoon.  At the moment we have Marilyn Burnes visiting us."

The way things are run in Qatar have some similarities and of course obvious differences than the way things are set up in the states. I learned that Qatar is a very wealthy nation and can therefore spend the government's money in the best way and that there is a lot of money set aside for early childhood education.