Sharing Web Resources

 

 

Website Link:  http://www.acei.org/

The Association for Childhood Education International is a global community of educators and advocates who unite knowledge, experiences and perspectives in order to exchange information, explore innovation and advocate for children worldwide. Their tag line is “Bright Futures for every child, every nation”.

Their mission is ‘to promote and support in the global community the optimal education, development and well-being of children from birth through early adolescence, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society’.

Their vision is that ‘every child in every nation will have access to quality education.  This education will prepare children to become responsible and engaged citizens and ready them for life in a changing world’.

Their website contains a number of links with a wealth of resources and information which focus on various age groups, topics, issues and trends worldwide, but I was very curious about the news and publications link.  This link contains a number of sections including ACEI News, Global News, ACEI Publications, ACEI Bookstore, ACEI Radio and E-News.  I decided to review the ACEI publications section.  This section included the following publications;

Childhood Education

·         Journal of Research

·         Childhood Explorer

·         Focus Quarterlies

·         Early Years Bulletin

·         Research Round Up

During my exploration of the Early Years Bulletin, I realized that most of the publications can be viewed online.  However, to view the archived publications membership is required Summer 2013 issue of this publication that I came across the article “Culturally Responsive Teaching: Exploring Children’s Names and Cultural Identities.  In this article, the authors emphasize the importance of identity and cultural ties, as well as the importance of educators being responsive to children’s culture to help them learn and live as citizens in a global society.  They highlighted that many children in the U.S. who are from a different culture are given American names in an effort to help them fit into the American culture.  Nonetheless, this gives the children a dual identity.  However, they explained that learning children’s names can be a way of honouring their culture and identity in the classroom. The article goes further to explain the importance of names in the children’s literacy achievement and gave some strategies/activities in which children’s names can be used to foster cultural identity and literacy.  They also provided a list of children’s multicultural literature.

Reference

Association for Childhood Education International.  (2013). Culturally responsive teaching: Exploring children's names and cultural identities.  Retrieved from http://issuu.com/acei/docs/eybautumn13?e=1693993/6073455