Reflecting on my journey for these past two years I
must say that my love, passion and understanding of early childhood development
and education has grown tremendously.
Through this program I have learnt some valuable lessons. Among all the lessons learnt some which
really resonated with me are as follow;
1. Early
childhood education is a diverse field which is ever growing and changing and
it relies on interconnected disciplines to foster the healthy growth and
development of children, the families and the early childhood community. As Dwayne Crompton cited in Scott (2005) so
eloquently put it “early education and care is a complex human development
project requiring a keen understanding of sociology, science, management,
community, politics, economics, finance, psychology, and a range of other
interconnected disciplines…(An educator need to be well-grounded in these areas
and understand that these disciplines intersect at families and children”(p.20)
2. Building relationships and partnerships is critical in early childhood
education. These partnerships should not
merely be among children and their teachers, but likewise there should be
partnerships among families, colleagues, professional organizations, community
organizations, agencies and the local community. The wider and stronger your
network of relationships and partnerships, the more support you have for
yourself, the children and families as children develop best in the context of
relationships.
3. Since the early childhood field is continually evolving there will
always be issues and trends which surface.
Hence there is always room for growth.
As early childhood educators we need to remain abreast with research
that is being done in the field. We need
to keep learning and growing so that we can provide the best opportunities for
children to grow to their optimal. As
Julie Olson Edwards remarked “we never know enough. In this arena there’s always more to learn…This
is a lifetime of work.”
4. Self-awareness and self-reflection are powerful tools in this
field as we are able to self-examine and look at our biases, stereotypes,
misconceptions and prejudices. This
gives us the opportunity to better understand ourselves and plan on ways to dispel
these biases and stereotypes so that we can adequate serve our children and
families.
5. Being
the best educator I could be is not enough. To impact positive social change
and truly support children and their families, we as educators need to advocate
on their behalf so that there will be equitable services provided for all
children.
I would like to thank my professors at Walden
University for this wonderful learning experience. Thanks to my colleagues for your support and
encouragement through the two years.
Yours insights, perspectives and feedback on the discussion and blog
post were truly appreciated. I wish you
all the best in your future endeavours!
Congratulations to you all! I know that you will make some great impacts
on the lives of children and their families.
I leave you with these final thoughts
References
Laureate Education, Inc.
(Executive Producer). (2012). Practical application in the early childhood
field [Webcast]. Being mindful of
outcomes and consequences. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_5572037_1%26url%3D
