To locate and establish contact with early childhood professionals outside the United States, I visited the UNICEF website and contacted local representatives in New Zealand and Bolivia. I have always been interested in New Zealand and Australia and decided on Bolivia because one of my current students was born in Bolivia (her mother is a native) and they still have many family members there. I thought this relationship could provide me with additional resources/information on the region. I have not heard back from either e-mail yet and may have to contact others if I don't hear back soon.
Because of my ancestry, I was interested to see what the European Early Childhood Education Research Association website had to offer. While the website contains lots of research papers, it doesn't really discuss current issues or much as far as "hands-on" work. I next checked out the Center for Child Care Workforce website. This is a very interesting website for professionals in the early childhood field. They discuss such topics as wage issues, professional development, and ways to make early childhood professionals voices heard. This still wasn't exactly what I was looking for, so I checked out The Global Fund for Children's website for an international look at early childhood. When explaining what they do, they said, "we transform the lives of children on the edges of society—trafficked children, refugees, child laborers—and help them regain their rights and pursue their dreams. In other words, we do all we can to let kids be kids—no matter what their circumstances." This was something that definately interested me and I can't wait to dig further into their work!
Hi Kathy
ReplyDeleteI am very eager to learn much more about the UNICEF in New Zealand and Australia, I hope that you will get a response from them soon ,and share your experience with us to impart what are the important issues that can effect children’s development. . I also would like to thank you for your attempt to checking out many website , and comes up with the one that you would feel can produce a lots for us as professional.
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you chose to contact an early childhood professional in Bolivia due to the family origin of one of your students. I think you will benefit from hearing about the early childhood issues there and applying what you learn to your work. I also used UNICEF to locate contact information for professionals from several different countries. However, I have not received any responses yet either. I hope you hear back soon!