Collaboration as a foundation for early childhood education programs

Teaching Philosophy

Early childhood education in many ways demonstrates an adjunct or even a primary alternative to the intensive nurturing and learning process that occurs in the family home for young children. The society in which we live must recognize that preschools and daycare centers are essential to the development of community, in the sense that they are the first places where children learn how to interact with others, outside the family and develop a sense of likes dislikes and civic responsibility.

A preschools should be understood as a public good, of great social, cultural and political importance. They should be viewed as part of that wider network of public provisions that makes society meaningful and creates possibilities for solidarity and democracy. Rather than competing with each other within a market, preschools should work together collaboratively. Rather than enterprises producing tradable commodities, we argue that not only can preschools be seen as sites of ethical and political practice, but that they should be seen in this way. (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p. 29)

In many communities childcare centers have a tendency to compete for the business of a family, as apposed to developing cross business collaboration, that could allow them to run more like school districts, sharing resources and opportunities to elicit greater cost savings and community development. Collaboration in my community is limited to a networking seminar among childcare owners and teachers that occurs annually. Ultimately this annual meeting could result in a network of collaborative partners, seeking not to compete but to help the community's families find the best possible match for themselves and their children and potentially to weed out individual centers who do not meet the needs of the community.

Currently these community events serve as accreditation tools for teacher continuing education but the events do not stress collaboration or mingling among individual teachers or care providers or the development of long-term contact systems. Many individual businesses keep information close to the chest in an attempt to not allow competitors to build better more profitable facilities than themselves. Teacher providers tend to look as if they are simply enduring the event to make sure that they maintain accreditation for the year. Ultimately these events could serve as jumping off points for what collectively this essential community of providers believes is needed, starting with a greater pay scale and more professional and longer serving teachers in the field all of which cannot be achieved without community support and collective bargaining.

These networks could result in a collective of entrepreneurs, not unlike ecumenical organizations in the community that seek to express the highest goals and standards in a community-based ideal. This group could also more effectively lobby for changes, when such changes are needed in the local, state and federal laws and to help obtain more universal funding sources for centers to provide this essential care to the community. For this to change individual students of early childhood education must seek such change by communicating with the governing board of the event and suggesting supportive solutions such as essential contact exchanges and collaborative social events that occur more frequently throughout the year. This is clearly an aspect of my teaching philosophy that could benefit my community. As a community advocate and a student of ECE I might be more able than an active business owner to stress collaboration for the greater good of the community.

Section 2

There are three legal codes that I am aware of as an ECE professional that I believe will be most influential in my future work; disabilities legislation regarding the requirements for least restrictive environment, i.e. mainstreaming, the mandatory reporting laws regarding concerns about abuse or neglect of a child and lastly the accreditation requirements for home-based childcare centers.

The disabilities legislation associated with an environment of least restriction for those who have special needs is an essential piece of legislation to understand. It stresses that the teaching philosophy of anyone that provides services (private or public) to a child with special needs should be demonstrative of mainstreaming.

A to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the general education environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that the child cannot achieve academically in general education classes with the use of supplementary aides and services (20 U.S.C.[section] 1412(a)(5)(a)).

(Etscheidt, 2006, p. 167)

This emphasis makes certain that the provider does not isolate the special needs child unnecessarily and does not allow him or her to miss opportunities for socialization with other children.

Abuse and neglect are frequently observed most intimately by those who directly care for children. Some aspects of basic care can go unmet and simply need outside teaching to resolve conflict but other aspects of direct abuse or neglect can become obvious to a care provider prior to such observations by parents, (regardless of who is the perpetrator of the abuse or neglect).

As a result of the potentially harmful impact that abuse can have on children, all 50 states have enacted mandatory child abuse reporting laws for school professionals (e.g., principals, teachers, counselors, and psychologists; Meyers, 1986). According to McEvoy (as cited in Bridgeland & Duane, 1996, p. 454) "the failure of school personnel to identify and report suspected cases of abuse and neglect can result in civil and even criminal liability." Research (e.g., Kesner & Robinson, 2002) suggests that school personnel are in the best position to identify and report abuse and maltreatment because they have consistent daily contact with students.

(Domrowski & Gischlar, 2006, p. 234)

Care providers in the public and private arena must then be aware of reporting laws and concepts as they apply to children in their care and others. The need for awareness and understanding when it becomes essential to open a dialogue with whom is essential to keeping kids safe.

Lastly the license requirements for a home-based ECE setting will alter the manner in which I teach as it will likely be this manner that I begin in the field.

To have a state or county license, a provider must be trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification, undergo a fire inspection and criminal background checks, and take annual training courses in child development and programming. The caregiver also must provide character references and have an adequately childproofed home. ("Home-Style Child Care; Children," 2002, p. D03) will likely either work in a home-based center or begin my own as a first step towards an ECE career.

Section 3

Parents are an essential partner as they are the first teacher of children and have the greatest influence over behavior and ability. Pre-reading is the stage associated with the ECE setting but essential pre-reading skills can be taught at home as well as in a childcare setting. The partnership between parents and care providers is essential as it makes it possible for the child to be reading ready when they reach school age.

Child's First Reading Teacher: His Parents." Reading Teacher 23 (May 1970): 756-760. Develops the idea that the first teachers in a child's life are his/her parents, who help develop the environmental experiences, skills, concepts, and feelings that he/she brings to school. This pre-reading stage is the base on which the educational system will build. Provides examples of how parents and the family help children learn from vital experiences and develop skills for reading success. Describes programs such as Head Start and Follow Through, which mandate parental involvement. (Peltzman, 1998, p. 121)

School readiness is the essential goal of the care provider, even when the setting is not a clear Preschool. Children must be collaboratively supported through parent and teacher interaction to support reading readiness and social network readiness for school.

Evidence is growing that children's family experiences affect their readiness for school (Walker, 1994). Three of the most important parental influences on children's adjustment to school are parental expectations of school success, cognitive stimulation that the child receives at home, and parent-child interactions. Children whose parents expect them to do well in school tend to perform better than do children whose parents have low expectations, even taking the child's mental ability into consideration (Maxwell & Eller, 1994). (Lunenburg, 2000, p. 519)

Collaborative cognitive stimulation is also something that can be achieved through a good partnership between care providers and parents. Seeking to meet with parents on a regular basis and to have a parent come to the center at least twice a month, during project-based times could greatly impact the ability of the parent to help influence the child to succeed.

Evidence consistently indicates that the cognitive stimulation that the child experiences at home is also systematically related to children's school performance (Belsky & MacKinnon, 1994). Families who engaged in more teaching at home and who provided more toys, games, and books had children who outperformed their age-mates in reading and writing early in their school years (Lunenburg, 2000, p. 519)

Lunenburg offers a series of suggestions for parents than can effectively aide the parent in home teaching, an essential aspect of child development and school readiness. Those which are applicable tot the ECE classroom are as follows:

1. Read to preschool children at least 20 minutes a day. Regular reading to children is one of the most important activities parents can do with their children to improve their readiness for school, serve as their child's first teacher, and instill a love of books and reading.

2. Keep good books, magazines, and newspapers in the house; the home can mirror the school in this respect. Make it easy - both for adults and children - to find something interesting to read.

3. Add to children's enjoyment of reading by discussing each book they read. Discussing the book familiarizes children with story components such as character, plot, action, and sequence and helps them associate language with printed text. Offer them computer-assisted games that promote language, writing, mathematics, and thinking.

4. Make sure children see parents or the caregiver read for at least 20 minutes a day. Remember, parents are a child's first teacher.

5. If a parent has difficulty reading, tell children stories. Telling stories is another important way that parents can participate in shared literacy activities with their children. In some cultures, storytelling and oral traditions play a more central role than reading books aloud.

6. Limit childrens' television viewing to no more than two hours a day. Studies indicate that while some television viewing every day is alright, excessive time watching television is directly linked to poor school performance. Watch the program with the child, then discuss the program and its implications in simple lessons. (Lunenburg, 2000, p. 519)

Lunenburg also goes on to stress the importance of seeking and keeping high standards with children as they will be more likely to meet them if they are not frequently given rewards that they do not earn. Cultural diversity can also be extremely important in this aspect of teaching as families diversity is essential to individual identity and can help support the role the child plays in community and school. Seeking to support diversity through bilingual support and cultural reflections opportunities in school can be essential to such development of identity and for children to find a place in the world through understanding differences and similarities.

Section 5

My teaching philosophy has been highly influenced by the works of Rinaldi and Freire. Carlina Rinaldi stresses that the teacher is not a child in an adults' body but a co-creator and collaborator who brings tot the teaching experience the knowledge of an adult and the understanding of the child's perspective. The transmission of knowledge through lecture and instruction is a very limited aspect of teaching that can only be supported and supplemented by actions that express concepts. There is no place where this is more true than with regards to the ECE. Small children do not learn by listening they learn by doing and they are aided along the way by adults who are willing and able to place themselves at child level and "do" with them. Children, according to Rinaldi, possess their own theories, interpretations and questions that must be supported through process of development and cannot simply be dismissed when one individual has more knowledge (i.e. The teacher) than the child. This does not effectively teach the child anything it simply reiterates inexperience and for many children a sense of not being good enough and/or smart enough to do the work of learning. To support children we as ECE professionals must support their own discoveries of right and wrong in experimental and practical ways through an ethic of collaboration and co-creation. "The task of the teacher is to create a context in which children's curiosity, theories and research are legitimated and listened to, a context in which children feel comfortable and confident, motivated and respected in their existential and cognitive paths and processes." (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005, p. 97)

Another researcher and thinker who has been significantly influential to me as an ECE professional is Paulo Freire. In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Freire attempts to bequeath to educators everywhere a blueprint to aid in the transformation of our education system from that of an authoritarian "banking" method to that of a dialogical "problem-posing" based system. Hence the need to early on develop a system of learning that involves adequate stimulation, testing materials and hands on learning, rather than simply telling children what to do and how to think. Freire's road map to freedom is applicable to any revolutionary cause and can be practiced by liberationists of any age as they begin to confront the reality that is their oppression. This could in fact serve as a basis of the development of funding and extension of the education system to meet the essential needs of children far prior to age 5, as this learning period has been shown through countless levels of experience to be the most essential one of all, and one that should not go ignored. In the case of young children they are oppressed in the sense that they have limited voice and cannot adequately express, care for or even support themselves in any way. It is therefore the job of the educator (and the parent) to provide these things for the child in a manner in which they can be self-possessed to do so for themselves in the future. (Freire 1970, p.71) According to Freire it is not only that this system of communication is broken but that it needs to be recognized as the most logical and powerful exchange for change as the group of agitators who finally elicit change will likely be teachers, who have a genuine love for the oppressed and through this will gain a belief in the cause of the oppressed to shirk the oppression that has become their educational indoctrination. "As individuals or as peoples, by fighting for the restoration of our humanity we will be attempting the restoration of true generosity. And this fight, because of the purpose given it, will actually constitute an act of love." (Freire 1970, p. 44)