Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Since I still have not heard back from my international contacts, I visited Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website. On this website I learned about many initiatives that they are taking part in around the globe. Three areas they are focused on are Brazil, Zambia, and Chile.

In Brazil, the Center is launching Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância which works with Brazilian scholars, policymakers and civil society leaders. Translating and adapting the Center’s existing print and multimedia resources for a Brazilian audience. Some of the work they are doing is to build a scientific agenda and community of scholars around early childhood development, synthesize and translate scientific knowledge for application to social policy, strengthen leadership around early childhood development, communicate the science of child development in the Brazilian cultural context, and translate and adapt the Center’s existing print and multimedia resources for a Brazilian audience. 

In Zambia, the center is working to increase evidence available on early childhood development in sub-Saharan Africa. They are working with the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, and the University of Zambia to create the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP). Their goal is create a new comprehensive instrument for assessing children’s physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling careers. The ZECDP collaborators hope that the data collected as part of this project, as well as future work in this area, will not only improve understanding of child development in this context but also help identify key interventions towards improved outcomes in a rapidly changing developing world.
In Chile, the center is working on a collaborative program called Un Buen Comienzo (UBC). The goal is to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development with a focus on improving the quality of educational offerings for four-to-six-year-olds, particularly in the area of language development. This project is also designed to intervene in critical health areas that improve school attendance as well as socio-emotional development, and it seeks to involve the children's families in their education. 

The work that is being done in Brazil, Zambia and Chile is all being completed so that equity and excellence of early childhood programs is present. For example, in Brazil the hope is that adapting the Center’s model will create more effective programs and policies. The longitudinal study in Chile has never been carried out in any other country in Latin America and will place Chile at the forefront of demonstrating the impact of a high-quality early education. The work being done in Zambia will be a model for all developing countries.