Thursday, October 3, 2013

Research Around the World


This week we have been asked to read and discuss international early childhood research.  I chose to explore the Early Childhood Australia website at:


The position statements posted on this website were very insightful to me.  Like the United States’ early childhood organization, NAEYC, ECA provides position statements that affirm their stance on issues that affect early childhood education.   The three statements provided on the website discussed ECA’s vision and framework for the education and inclusion of children with disabilities, children of refugee asylum seekers, and children of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritages.  While the U.S. NAEYC provides position statements that are similar in regards to children with disabilities, the other two position statements are unique to Australia.

This website has great access to research information, as subscribers can view scholarly journals, recent news updates, conference reports, and research topic abstracts using their “Research in Practice Series” links.  While I was not able to view some of the research because I am not a subscriber to this website, I did find the links to the news articles, other websites, and online journal topics very informing.  It seems that many of the current early childhood issues that we face in the United States are similar to those in Australia.  For example, they have news reports on the low wages of early childhood teachers, reforms to make early childhood programs more affordable and better quality, and advocation to increase the investment of government funding for early childhood programs.

Reading through some of the journal articles, this website seems to be a great source of research information for one to gather information on various topics.  Most of the topics coincide to those that early childhood professionals face in the United States, so I will add this website to my resource list for future reference.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Collett,
    The http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au link certainly provides a wealth of information on various topics in research. I chose to focus on
    the link http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php. I was able to learn about factors which militate against the successful implementation of early childhood education in Ghana.I was surprised to learn that I was surprised to learn that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have continued to be poorly represented due to successive wars and droughts. Reports show that the overall opportunities created for early years’ interventions have remained of low quality and limited to only a small percentage of children. There is a wealth of information on research in the African continent on this site.

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  2. Hi Collett,
    Thank you for sharing the information you found in the Australian website. I too will have to add that to my collection of website. I wonder if it cost to subscribe to the sites newsletter. I explored a website that primarily researched learning and teaching conditions in Africa. I too, found that many of the topics and issues are similar to the topics and issues we face in the United States. I enjoyed your blog.
    Maria

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  3. Collett,
    I searched this site as well and was very pleased with what I found. I have bookmarked it for future reference. It was interesting to see how closely related their research topics are to the topics we research here in the U.S., for example the importance of play in early childhood.

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  4. Hi Collett,

    Thank you for your informative post. It was interesting to read about how similar the issues are in Australia. I looked at the European website and, again, many of the research topics are similar to those in the United States and Australia. I think it will be beneficial for us to review international research in early childhood to help expand our knowledge of various issues.

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  5. Collett,
    Thanks for your description of the resources and research available through Early Childhood Australia! I often look to Australia for their wealth of information and resource in the EC field. This is an organization I have bookmarked~ I intend to dig a little deeper to discover some of the great things you have described here.
    Lisa

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