Understanding and Using Early Learning Standards for Young Children Globally (original) (raw)

Standards for Early Childhood Education

2019

I have been researching and focusing on a topic that has been of interest to me from the beginning of my undergraduate studies in the field of kindergarten education. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not have its own standards for the early childhood stage. It took from the United States. When I started my graduate level studies, I focused on the perception of Saudi Arabian faculty, graduate students, and kindergarten teachers regarding standards for early childhood education. I designed a survey and published it to faculty in Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, as well as graduate students and kindergarten teachers in Saudi Arabia. Ninety people responded to the survey. I used SPSS to analyze my data and most of the results agreed with my expectations. Most people believed that Saudi Arabia should has own standards because it has its own culture and traditions. Respondents also believed in the importance of Islamic religion and that the standards should include Islamic religion.

Introductory article for Special issue: Conceptions of early childhood and institutions in a global context

Hungarian Educational Research Journal, 2021

The recognition of the importance of early childhood education (ECE) has been growing continuously in recent years. Early childhood institutions are where professional pedagogy and child-rearing practices meet first in someones' life (Tobin et al., 2009), it has great significance in education. Acknowledgement of the existence of the needs of young children's education is evident, however, we have limited chances to compare different education systems outside of Europe and the United States. Realizing this situation, we came to the conclusion that it is highly necessary and required to publish such an analytical issue in the Hungarian Education Research Journal. Teacher's views and their narratives of childhood are relevant if we aim to understand the fundamental differences of ECE institutions in any region or country. In our present investigation we collected data from Hungary, Laos and Malaysia in order to acquire greater knowledge on the conceptions of early childhoo...

Global Initiatives for Early Childhood Care and Education: Global Guidelines and Global Guidelines Assessment

2015

This report focuses on the Association for Childhood Education International’s (ACEI) Global Guidelines (GG) and Global Guidelines Assessment (GGA), which were developed in response to and in keeping with the prominence that the issue of quality early childhood care, development, and education has reached globally. Further, the paper positions the GG and GGA within the context of international initiatives addressing quality in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and identifies ACEI’s future plans in regard to GG and GGA.

Unpacking Standards in Early Childhood Education

Background/Content. Policy-makers at the federal and state levels have increased their efforts to implement standards-based accountability reform in early childhood education (ECE) to improve the academic readiness of children for elementary school. As these policies have taken on more prominence within ECE reform, national organizations such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialist in State Departments of Education and the National Institute for Early Education Research have produced guidelines and suggestions for formulating standards. Early childhood researchers have investigated and questioned the purpose, goals, and policy process of early learning standards. These works examine a range of issues such as capacity and capital, curriculum and assessment, and readiness and retention. Focus of Study: In this article, I examine how early childhood stakeholders in the state of Wisconsin responded to the current Bush Administration's Good Start, Grow Smart (GSGS) initiative by creating a double-voiced document that answered requirements of the GSGS initiative while at the same time attempting to pique the interest and support of the state's loosely coupled field of ECE to a voluntary set of standards. Examining these stake-holders' response highlights the tensions that exist in attempting to reform ECE and how simple policy solutions such as the GSGS initiative fail to address the complexity that exists within the field of ECE. Research Design: This research project is a qualitative instrumental case study that examines the formulation and implementation of Wisconsin's Model Early Learning Standards. Conclusions: Even though the Early Learning Standards Steering Committee created a double voiced document that responded to policy-makers' demands for early learning standards while attempting to attract and unite early childhood programs and practitioners around a collective understanding of the goals of ECE, the future of thefield is uncertain. The second-class status of ECE in the realm of policy and the investment of capital that is required to

Global Trends in Early Childhood Practice: Working within the Limitations of The Global Education Reform Movement

Global education review, 2017

Introduction to Global Education Review: Global Trends in Early Childhood Practice: Working within the Limitations of The Global Education Reform Movement. The Global Education Reform Movement, also known as GERM, is rooted in economic theory and neoliberal thinking. The trends associated with GERM – such as the standardization of teaching and learning, over-emphasis of core subjects of mathematics and literacy, test-based high-stakes accountability and testing, prescribed curriculum, privatization, parental choice, and increased control over students and teachers – have infiltrated the everyday practice of teachers and practitioners in the field and remain a deep cause for concern.

Early Childhood Education, Care, and Development: Perspectives from around the Globe

Global education review, 2018

Early childhood education, care, and development (ECECD) has reached prominence due to its recognition by the global community as an important national investment and right for children. ECECD programs advocate for quality in education, protection, health, and nutrition for children and families, in most countries and nation-states. Global seekers of quality programs and practices recognize variability in how quality is defined, developed, delivered, and assessed; as well as recognizing each nations' unique focus on culturally relevant aspects of programs and practices for specific contexts. Research indicates that well-designed ECECD programs of high quality contribute to children's holistic development and sense of well-being, educational attainment, workforce productivity, international collaborations, sustainability of peace-building initiatives, and improved economies in the long run. Eleven diverse articles are presented in this themed journal as a contribution to the ...

The OECD's International Early Learning Study: what happened next

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 2017

In this article, the authors provide an update on what has happened over recent months with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s proposal for an International Early Learning Study, and review responses to the proposed International Early Learning Study, including the concerns that have been raised about this new venture in international testing. The authors call on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and its memberstate governments to enter into open discussion with the wider early childhood community about the future direction of comparative work on early childhood education and care.

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Quality Standards in the Republic of Ireland and the Republic of Serbia: Two Discourses of Quality

2015

The paper provides a comparative analysis of establishing quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the Republic of Ireland and the Republic of Serbia. The analysis is done through desk research of documents dealing with the standards of quality. The following dimensions were compared: 1) The way of preparing and adopting documents; 2) The function of standards; 3) Structure and content of the documents; 4) Evaluation of quality. The comparison of understanding and the purpose of ECEC standards in the two countries has shown the difference between the discourse of building quality and discourse of quality assurance by standardization as the external measure of quality. Whilst in Ireland, the evaluation of the quality is seen as the process of re-consideration and building quality, in Serbia, this is a one off ‘act’ of measuring and control.