Sharing Web Resources

What a fantastic way to end the week! Traveling and meeting people with different cultures and languages excites me the most during vacations. Since I have not been able to travel in the last few years, the opportunity to explore countries and their approach of early childhood education fills that gap every week.

Follow some of the outside links that you have not yet explored. Where do they lead?
With a click of my magic mouse, I am in Australia at the “Australian Government” website, at the “Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations” page. My research questions are awareness and accessibility of early childhood education in Australia. Surprisingly, Australia has committed to universal access to pre-kindergarten by mid 2013. Although access is limited to 40 weeks of 15 hours each, such government effort will change many lives. Also worth noticing, preschoolers will receive instruction by a well-trained and educated teacher. States and provinces will receive governmental funds that will be spent according to a set of agreements that states and provinces have previously agreed to.
Thoroughly search one area of the site. What do you find?
Remarkably, Australia appears to readily put their decision into actions as affirmed by a parent who spent 4 years over there and, who on the other hand, deplored the Australian rampant machismo. Obviously, cultures work at resolving their society issues at their own pace and in their own time. Californians may be less openly macho and yet less progressive regarding early childhood education as in 2006 they rejected a proposition for universal pre-k (Jacobson, L. 2006).
If you receive an e-newsletter, follow a link related to one of the issues you have been studying. What new information is available?
Does the website or the e-newsletter contain any information that adds to your understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education?
In response to the concerns of providing equity and excellence to their young population, Australia demonstrates heightened awareness of the challenges at hand. Below are a few excerpts from the “Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians” addressing the challenges to enforcing equity and excellence in the school system:
“As a nation Australia values the central role of education in building a democratic, equitable and just society— a society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally diverse, and that values Australia’s Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation’s history, present and future.
Schools play a vital role in promoting the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians, and in ensuring the nation’s ongoing economic prosperity and social cohesion. Schools share this responsibility with students, parents, careers, families, the community, business and other education and training providers. In recognition of this collective responsibility, this declaration, in contrast to earlier declarations on schooling, has a broader frame and sets educational goals for young Australians.
In striving for both equity and excellence, there are several areas in which Australian school education needs to make significant improvement. First, Australia has failed to improve educational outcomes for many Indigenous Australians and addressing this issue must be a key priority over the next decade. Second, by comparison with the world’s highest performing school systems, Australian students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are under-represented among high achievers and over- represented among low achievers. Third, there is room for improvement in Australia’s rate of Year 12 completion or equivalent.”
Strikingly, Australia’s commitment to making it right by their aboriginal populations manifests every time they make a decision that can potentially affect the greater part of the population. In order to be equitable and provide excellence to all children, Australia has realized that some children have greater needs than others and that meeting those needs responds to what society needs to do to be equitable and dispense an education that is excellent to everyone.
What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain this week from exploring the website and/or the e-newsletter?
As Delila Vasquez mentioned “inequity is a social issue and it concerns all of us.” The field of early childhood must promote high-quality early childhood education to every child and endeavor to make preschool available at birth through kindergarten. Writing policies benefitting every child and working in partnerships with communities to ensure culturally sound programs will help children grow physically and socio-emotionally healthy. This effort needs to be a “sustained and coordinated approach” (Council of Australian Government, 2009).

In his State of the Union Address last Tuesday, February 12, President Obama expressed his commitment to be working with states to make early childhood education available and accessible to every child (Avance, 2013). Professionals in the field must make sure the president’s words manifest into actions and continue advocating when and if interest in young children fades away.

Resources
Jacobson, L. (2006). Calif. Voters Reject Universal Pre-K Initiative
Foes raised questions on plan’s benefits, costs to taxpayers. Education Week. Retrieved from:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/14/40reiner.h25.html

Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. (December 2008). Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CEEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mceecdya.edu.au%2Fverve%2F_resources%2Fnational_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_australians.pdf&ei=plwgUcXgOMmLiAKip4HABA&usg=AFQjCNEiz3h7n-tbLyUrxqo2d7xFw-2lQQ&sig2=01xY-2aN56xHDxjehlwybw&bvm=bv.42661473,d.cGE

Council of Australian Government. (2009). National Integrated Strategy for Closing the Gap in Indigenous Disadvantage. Retrieved from: http://www.coag.gov.au/node/65

AVANCE’s Statement on President Obama’s Renewed Commitment to Early Childhood Education in Annual State of the Union Address. Retrieved from: http://www.avance.org/2013/02/avances-statement-on-president-obamas-renewed-commitment-to-early-childhood-education-in-annual-state-of-the-union-address/