When I think of research...

Over the last several years there has been a growing understanding for the need quality research to benefit the field of early childhood education. There has been much political discussion on the importance of the high quality early childhood education, not only to support school readiness but also to support the future of our society. As I embarked on research I felt that only those advancing the field and work research universities in the field. As I read literature on my issue, I saw the importance of including professionals at every level in the process. Classroom teachers need to understand their role in classroom research, and that they are researchers investigating and discovering what the children in their care are showing them and each day. 

In planning research it is important to look at all of the factors and implications of the research topic. I learned that all research has intended and unintended consequences, and all of these need to be considered. As I looked at the why and how of working with children that have challenging behaviors I needed to look at several factors and take several things into consideration. This caused some challenges and I needed to continually examine my own beliefs and value systems to avoid bias in the process of design my study.

This has been a great process and has allowed me to grow in my own competency level in the field. I learned that every person in the field needs to be an active participant in advancing quality through research.

International Early Childhood Research

Around the world the field of early childhood education is booming with research about supporting the physical, emotional, and social development of young children. This week I spent time reading some of the research projects that were done by graduate students at the Early Childhood Development Virtual College in Sub- Saharan Africa. Many of these research studies were about parent education, engagement, and collaboration. These studies were conducted in different African countries, but all researchers understood the importance of the family in early childhood development.

As I explored the research papers and the ecdvu.org website I found that the trend was community building and working with the families, this is not only important internationally or in developing nations, but something that we need to spend more time researching how to support children and families in our own communities.

On the ecdvu.org website there are country profiles for the students who were part of the first Master’s program. I strongly recommend that when there is extra time in your day that you read some of the research as well as the country profiles.