Blog Assignment: Research Around the World

Week 5 Assignment 2

Early Childhood Australia: This is the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based National Association Education of Young Children.
Resource: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

baby Australia

• What are some of the current international research topics?

Early Childhood Australia is a very interesting, extensive, intense website. This site speaks volumes for children in the international country of Australia. Some of the current research topics are found on the left side in blue that link to Early Childhood News. The articles are from 2002 to the present. One current article that I found interesting was: ‘Can we make our children smarter?’ On Sunday morning of May 6, 2012, the program 3Q aired on SKY asking this question.

            Follow this link to watch the video: http://bcove.me/211fnsf1

• What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

One surprising fact about this international early childhood site is that they have appealing  peer-reviewed academic journals.

Children in Australia

The Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) is Australasia's foremost scholarly journal and the world's longest-running major journal within the early childhood field. It is published quarterly, and offers research-based articles that are designed to impart new information and encourage the critical exchange of ideas among early childhood practitioners, academics and students. One interesting article, The challenges of implementing primary arts education: what our teachers say by Alter, F. et.al, (2009) shares about the creative arts as a key learning area within the primary curriculum that is an essential component of every Australian primary school.

• What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

Noteworthy were the mission statement and a list of their values:

Our mission statement:
Early Childhood Australia will advocate ensuring quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years.

Australia's National Flag

 Our values are:

• The rights of children
• Leadership, excellence and respect
• Courage, honesty and openness
• Collaboration and diversity
• Justice
• Social inclusion of children

My Blog Link: http://www.nmcclain-nmcclain.blogspot.com
 

Option 2: Week 3

Topic:

Why Children Play?

Colorful Play

I want to research why children play and at what age do they develop play. Why is play so important to children? Why do parents think that too much play is not good for a child? These would be some of the important question that I would ask in research. 

Outdoor Play

I would create a huge play space for children. The age restriction would be: Ages three to eight. This play area would consist of indoor/outdoor play spaces. The play space would be age appropriate and have a special area for children with special needs. 

Large Areas

This research study would be a longitudinal experiment to give the parents an opportunity to observe and participate.  There would be informed consent as well as child assent. There would be graduate students to monitor and take notes and professional teachers taking notes too. 

Special Play

The positive contribution: Family understanding of the importance of play. Children will be safe and have fun while undergoing an important experiment. The Ethics Review Board will approve the experiment and go over the vital rules and responsibilities of all the participants.

Week 2 Assignment 2

~Blog Assignment: My Personal Research Journey~

Summer Fruit!

"Global Tag"

My blog Link:      http://www.nmcclain-nmcclain.blogspot.com/

The topic I chose is~ Alternative parenting: psycho-social implications in children raised by Gay and Lesbian couples.  I am interested in this topic because it is unique and seldom explored. With the “coming-out” of millions of women and men several decades ago, there has been a shift in parenting of children by Gay and Lesbian couples. Currently, the Obama Administration approves of Gay and Lesbian marriage. Some people are strictly homophobic and do not like the mention of same-sex couples, yet we cannot stop to think that one day we will be seeing more and more alternative parents coming into our child care centers. What will we do? What will we say? How will we react? Will we feel sorry for the parents or the child (ren)? 

Baby Mermaid

I chose this topic also, because I have a relative that is Gay/Lesbian and they have recently adopted a newborn infant. My personal experience is that this week has been very slow. I am not up to summer school. Yet, I must move on…I want to do more research on this topic and I think it is most beneficial to look at the references of the research articles that are of interest to you and the topic and go from there. I found one sight that had a host of bibliographical links to more interesting research on my topic.

I researched “alternative parenting” and “parenting styles” and found that “alternative parenting” can mean a host of structured parenting styles:

Blended parents

Foster/Adoptive Parents

Teen Pregnancy

Grand Parents

Yours, Mine, Ours ~ Parents
Single Parents

&

Gay/Lesbian Parents…and many other types of parents.

QUESTIONS:

Is this topic relevant to early childhood development?

Is this topic relevant to this class?

Search yourself~ could you be homophobic?

Do you have “alternative parents” in your program? What do you think of them? Specially, what do you think about same sex couples and those couples who are open about raising or adopting children?

In today’s society we have bi-racial couples and children, how do you feel about gay/Lesbian couples and their children or child, are there any differences in these alternative parents?

LINKS: