Perspectives on Diversity and Equity

This course is about diversity and equity. I find this an exciting and interesting topic as I have experienced many different cultures in many different countries. I taught in West Africa as a missionary children's teacher. I love working in Africa although it was very difficult in many ways such as not electricity, no running water, no refrigeration, no vehicle but the people were loving and accepting. I taught in two different language groups with children from 4 different countries, yes, missionaries from 4 different countries. I met diversity right in the face. I was not told when I went there that I was not only going to be living with African people but teaching children from 4 countries. They were all different grades also. This was a great challenge but I would not trade it for anything in the world.

Building Research Competencies

Some insights that I gained is understanding quantitative and qualitative research types. I have been so surprised at the attitudes of researchers with children. I was not knowledgeable that children were such a “non-person” until recently. I do think that consent and respect of the child as a participant in a research project is a necessity.

I have learned many lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood. I have written many research papers in my college years but have never studied the details. It has helped to learn why I did the things that I did in doing research and the things that I should have or could have done to make it easier.

Equity is beyond equal, meaning fairness and justice. Children are having the right to fairness and justice in their lives. Research in Early Childhood has changed my knowledge about the issues and trends that are being studied.
Thank you to my classmates for your support, your conversations, and your participation in class. Thank you to Dr. Davis for being so supported and helpful in my understanding of research. This has been a difficult class for me and I entered it with trepidation.

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Early Childhood in other countries

The Australian Early Childhood Advocate says:
Our mission statement:
Early Childhood Australia will advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years. Our values are:
• The rights of children
• Leadership, excellence and respect
• Courage, honesty and openness
• Collaboration and diversity
• Justice
• Social inclusion of children
Early Childhood of Australia. retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/about_us/about_early_childhood_australia.html

GHANA’S EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Government committed to early childhood education-Minister, The Minister of Education,
Mrs Betty Mould –Iddrisu, on Sunday said the Government considered early childhood education a priority as a long term solution to Ghana’ s economic and social problems……..She said: “our goal is that every Ghanaian and African child must be valued equally and our early childhood education and development service must meet their needs whether they live in slums remote communities or cities”
Staff Writer, Ghana News Agency

Retrieved from http://www.ghananewsagency.org/details/Politics/Government-committed-to-early-childhood-education-Minister/?ci=2&ai=38308.

I looked at a number of different countries and their attention to early childhood. All of them have much in common. The Australian mission and values very closely matched the one that was reported by the Ghana News Agency. The Minister of Education at a conference on Early Childhood pointed out the goal of the value of childhood education and how the services needs to meet the needs regardless of the child’s living conditions.

I see the goals and values of both are very much like those of the National Association of Education of Young Children. This is called their code of ethics which we have studied.
National Association Education Young Children. Code of Ethics http://www.naeyc.org/ecp/resources/ethics

Week Three

A music game is a tool for children to relate to each other, especially with the autistic child. When I was teaching before surgery, I had a child in my class who had been diagnosed as autistic. He went to a child assist class in the afternoon. On two particular occasions I observed this class doing music games in the “big room”, this child was forced to sit on the floor by an assistant and not allowed to participate. I was disappointed that this child who needed so much was not allowed to be a part of the game. In my class, he was much calmer and more cooperative when music was being used. I observed in this classroom this child being left behind but yet in conference of thirteen consulters he was made to look like a child who was completely cooperative and allowed to do everything the rest of the class. As it turned out he was dismissed from my class and put in a private setting because of his behavior. I know that he was pretty much ignored in the afternoon class after this. I was disappointed with myself that I could not help him more than I did.

On a different note, I found a great website that has information about consent/assent for parents and children. I want to share with you:

Parental Consent Form Retrieved from
http://www.research.umn.edu/consent/mod2soc/parent_consent.html

Children’s Assent Form Retrieved from
http://www.research.umn.edu/consent/mod2soc/child_assent2.html

The topic I chose is: Using music as a teaching tool

I am looking at music therapy as a tool to reach people who have limitations in communication. My specific interest is children with autism. In my experience the children in the class that are autistic are either overlook or over disciplined. I want to study an avenue to communicate with the children that gives them a sense of accomplishment and security. Music therapy appears to be a source of relaxing and calming plus a learning tool.

I have lots of research to do to answer my question: how is music used as a teaching tool for autistic children.

I do not know as much about autism as I would like, but have had some contact with autistic children. Those experiences were not necessarily rewarding. As I was not the one to make decisions, both children were dismissed from the school because their behavior was unacceptable. There was no attempt to find ways to relate to them.

I was disappointed that the children were not evaluated and given the attention that was needed. The parents answer was to pull them and place them in another childcare.

One site that I found that is very informative is:
Wigram, T., Gold, C. (2005) Music therapy in the assessment and treatment of autistic spectrum disorder: clinical application and research evidence
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16919132

I would appreciate any experiences or thoughts you, my classmates, might have on this subject. As I read the text with its definitions of the different methods of researching it gives me directions for the principles to be followed. Ethical research has nine principles for measuring good research. This helps me have a guide for pursuing good research.

Research Class

Hello to all of you,
I had to drop out for a time to have hip replacement surgery. I only recognize one name from former classes, Melanie.
I am looking forward to learning how to do research correctly. I have done research in the past for various subjects but now I will know the correct steps to take.
I am looking forward to learning with each of you and sharing ideas.

Recovery

I am recovering from surgery. It has been a long slow process and am coming along. There are many things I still cannot do or do with pain. I guess most of you are finished with the research class and moving on. I feel sad that you are all so far ahead of me now. I would love to hear from you and know where you are in your process. God bless each of you!!!