I have been
communicating with my international resources on the topic of excellence and
equity. The following are brief summaries about each country:
El Salvador
Franchesca shared her perspectives
on the country’s movement towards a child-centered curriculum, with progressive
education. Although, there is a push towards child-centered education the
resources and support are limited. Franchesca is sad by the state of an impoverished
system, resources are outdated and do not represent the nation. She uses an
example of books about the months in which December is represented by snow, but
in El Salvador snow is nonexistent. She feels passionate about helping young
children in El Salvador, and hopes there is a better tomorrow (Y.F.
Ventura, personal communications, May 24, 2012).
United
Arab Emirates
Deepa shared information on Abu Dhabi Education
council (ADEC). They make the decisions regarding the education of young
children. It used to be that anyone with a High School diploma could teach in
the early childhood, but now there are strict rules that a teacher before
signing a contract with the school or nursery must first undergo many hours of
teacher training. ADEC has updated their standards and policies and are
enforcing them in schools and nurseries to follow which are based on the
current research and practices (D. Joseph, personal communications, May 26,
2012). Here are a few links on ADEC http://www.adec.ac.ae/English/Pages/PressItems.aspx?PRId=526
Germany
Wanda works in an American army
base in Germany, so her experience is mainly with American education, but
living in Germany she has been able to observe their education system. She is
impressed with the resources available for German youth. The parents receive
quite a bit of help through the early years. Mothers are given THREE years for
maternity leave. The early childhood education programs are paid for by taxes.
Germany’s Kindergartens are based on the thinking by Friedrich Fröbel (W. Martin,
personal communications, May 25, 2012). Friedrich Fröbel was an educationalist whose philosophy
involved play based education and child-led learning. Here is a link http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-froeb.htm.
I also found an
article about the German policy for moms to stay at home and not send their
children to day care. Basically the Betreuungsgeld creates certain inequities based
on socioeconomic status. The subsidy would be too small for wealthy or
middle-class mothers who might earn more at work, but be inviting to low-income
mothers, but not necessarily for single mothers since it would be too small of a
sum to live on. It is a good read if you are interested. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/the-real-stakes-of-todays-child-care-debates-in-the-us-and-germany/256385/
 |
| Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/the-real-stakes-of-todays-child-care-debates-in-the-us-and-germany/256385/ |
Your contacts have given you some great information about each country. A policy for Germany moms to to keep their children at home and not send them to daycare it very demanded. Parents should have the right to send his or her child to school if they want too. Single moms that are not working should stay at home with their child if they cannot afford the services.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the information from your contacts with us this week. I was surprised to read that anyone with a high school diploma could teach on the early childhood level in UAE. I am glad that more training is now required. As I continued reading, I became shocked again when I read that in Gernamy, mothers are given 3 years for maternity leave. That is huge!! Their kindergartens sound amazing as well. Thank you for sharing this information. I am going to go read the article you suggested at the end. Thanks again :)
ReplyDelete