Table of Contents
Introduction
Early childhood education is a formal teaching that is done outside the family settings. This education focuses on children around the ages of 3-6 years. Children must receive affection as well as attention in order to develop in a healthy way. Practitioners and teachers are the key to high quality early childhood education and outcomes. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the quality of professional development and support that is available to early childhood teachers and practitioners.
Disintegration of Early Childhood Preparation
This takes place within a disintegrated non-system consisting of different entities and agencies with money, authority and power to license, support, educate and train a diverse workforce. Policy necessary for inclusion of children with special needs in a community based and natural environment heightens the interdisciplinary nature of teachers serving young children. The training requirements for these disciplines vary widely. For every discipline there are different licensure requirements, standards and opportunities reflecting the diverse nature of the code of ethics, guidelines and theoretical frameworks. Differences in training requirements can also occur within disciplines as different states require different levels of training. The infrastructure that currently supports the professionals comprises varying approaches, training requirements and program standards. This translates into inconsistency on quality and how content is offered. This argument is valid since it is very evident in children undergoing early childhood education. They acquire different knowledge from others as they are taught using different resources and professionals having training skills that differ.
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Accountability
Practitioners are expected to have knowledge and skills necessary to ensure that children achieve what is outlined in the early learning standards. They should also know how to use evidence based practices when making intervention decisions and teaching, even though there is no clear definition of the practices or how to implement them. As a result, there are raised expectations on the early childhood teachers to ensure that they meet goals of early childhood education. These practitioners should also be prepared adequately and acquire support in their professional roles.
Therefore, professional development efforts should be in line with programs, standards and personnel related to children. Professionals should also be aware of the changes that occur in children and how they can best support these children. These changes can only be understood on the contexts of socio-economic background, family and the community as a whole.
Children’ Diversity in Early childhood programs
Programs and services that are offered to children are supposed to be flexible so as to cater for the needs of children. Supportive and responsive programs should respect and recognize the child’s cultural backgrounds and the community’s values. As a result, there is a need to recruit diverse teachers and specialists to teach and work with children of different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. However, universities and colleges are not offering much hope for increasing the diversity of those educated in early childhood.
Even though increasing demands for serving the religiously, ethnically diverse children, research has shown that the available workforce is not prepared. Some of the practitioners feel that they are not able to meet the needs of the students, including those with disabilities. The traditional homogeneity in race, religion and language has facilitated this challenge. As diversity is a continuous move to working with children, therefore, the professionals should ensure that the children learn about their own backgrounds as well as those of others so as to embrace their differences. The children should also have exposure to materials, activities and experiences so as to discover that there are different ways of doing tasks and solving problems. Children should also feel comfortable in groups so as to explore the differences that exist within them. This creates a sense of loyalty and solidarity in the children at the expense of them disliking other people.
The reasons for choosing the three journals is the fact that they highlight the current in issues in professional early childhood education and what can be done to improve on the current situation. This information is relevant and comprehensive especially in relation to the NAEYC Standards which aim at incorporating an integrated system of early childhood education. This system will include a comprehensive approach that involves communities in program implementation, design and evaluation. For instance, NAEYC’s vision that “all young children deserve excellent early care and education” is crucial for children as it will ensure that children receive quality education and have exposure to all the facilities. This can be supported through funding, and implementation of systems that enhance best practices in all early childhood programs. This will ensure that we enjoy long-term savings as we will have invested in our children and families leading to a vibrant nation of achieving, healthy children and more stable families. On the other hand, if we fail to make the investment, we pay the price of lowered productivity, greater educational failures and fewer adults prepared to be responsible in their future.