Time Well Spent

The course is about to finish, and it also means the learning for my Master’s Degree will come to its end. From this eight-week course, I think I have gained 3 deeply felt learnings:

1.       How to make a social change in my community.
The love to children and the calling to work in early childhood field should be implemented seriously to make a change in the society. This program has helped me not only to think about what change needed, but also how to do it by learning about issues in EC and their consequences.

2.       Countries or governments put serious consideration and takes actions for their EC development.
I never thought Malaysia, a country which is side by side with my country, has put a serious effort to develop their early childhood, or how the government of Indonesia has set their goal to build minimum 1 early childhood center in each village in 2045.

3.       The importance of a Community of Practice (CoP)
I knew there were many NGOs or Community organizations in this world. I only knew that they did it for social work, but I just learned that a CoP is a must for any people who want to make a change, because CoP may bring significant influences and impacts to an organization’s vision and mission as well as to the individuals as the members.

From what I have learned, my long-term goal is to be acknowledged in the EC community in my country, and to share my expertise and experiences to others all over the country through conferences, writing books or articles on CoP, and to be a source of information and advice for any party who needs for establishing and improving an early childhood center.

I thank you so much Dr. Darragh, my instructor for bringing me to this stage through her step-by-step questions on the assignments that I can finally realize that I have learned not only the concept, but more to the perspective of what learning for a Master’s Degree is for. I also thank all my colleagues for your fruitful thoughts that may not be the same as mine, but they have contributed much to my thought and helped me to broaden my knowledge about concerns and effort people have and do in EC. I hope we will achieve what we have imagined and are passionate about. Who knows one day we will meet not as colleagues, but in different shape as professionals in international scope.  

 

Brigitte Wullur

Jakarta, Indonesia

biggysiregar@yahoo.com

 

 

“We must do things we think we cannot do.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dream.”

Eleanor Roosevelt, Humanitarian, United Nations Delegate

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: International

Taking a role in an international organization or community in early childhood field in the future could be a good consideration for broadening my experience and insights; and searching from some resources, I put my interest in the following three organizations/communities:

1. Save the Children

It is an organization aims to give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm by fighting for their rights and saving their lives. I am interested in this organization, because they care for the children in all aspects, not only in their education. Unfortunately, they currently open vacancies for working in places like Congo, Tanzania and Liberia that I am not interested. For future time, I would be interested in working as their Project Management in education sector when they open it for their project in Indonesia. My educational background and working experience will be beneficial to help them in their educational program. 

2. The International Step by Step Association

It is an organization in the Netherlands which is committed to providing access to quality care and education for all young children from birth to 10 years old. This community consists of families, communities and professionals who work together to empower each child to reach his or her full potential and embrace values of social justice and equity; and one of their programs and activities  is focusing on raising awareness of the importance of quality care and education through informing the general public and influencing policies. This program focus is pretty much related to my passion. They have not reached Indonesia although they have members from 58 countries, and they do not provide career opportunity. The only possibility is to become a friend in which I can get relevant news and information and have access to their online library at no cost; or possibly join their online professional groups and discussion forums so that I may share my knowledge, insights and on field experience.

3. Metro Child World

This organization aims to serve and save inner-city children, and is located in New York, but they have spread their service to some other countries including Philippines, and recently Indonesia (although it is not mentioned on their web, yet). Their activities are to reach children through their Metro Sunday School Programs, visit children where they live (garbage dumps and slums of Tondo in Philippines), and help Metro team with the practical work and program for the ministry. I am interested in joining their internship program, because getting involved in it will teach me to reach children from different approach. I used to teach Sunday school for 10 years, and with all I have learned through this course, I believe that I will be competent to work with them and to be a contribution.

Having the opportunity to learn and share with others from other countries will really enrich my experience, and help me to have better perspective about early childhood education. This is important, because as educators, we will have to keep learning and improving.

Reference

International Step by Step Association. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.issa.nl/index.html

Metro World Child. (2014). Retrieved from www.metroworldchild.org

Save the Children. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National Level

Since ECE issues cannot be separated from a national ECE condition in the field, I need to get involved in the national level in order for me to be able to face the EC challenges that I have. Out of so many communities or organizations which aim more to specific region or concern, I come to choose the following 3 communities:

HIMPAUDI (Himpunan Pendidik & Tenaga Kependidikan Anak Usia Dini Indonesia) or an association of teachers and educators of young children in Indonesia, is gathering EC educators and teachers to educate the nation by increasing their professionalism, caring for their welfare, and by setting EC organization standard and building partnership with any parties. I am interested in getting involved in this organization because they are relatively new so they must need members and contributors. They are an EC organization in the country which is open to anybody interested in developing EC in Indonesia in any aspects. I believe I can contribute the knowledge and insights that I have received from my EC course in this community.

guru.or.id – Indonesia Memanggilmu untuk Menulis, is an online forum for any teachers or educators to have the opportunity to share insights and ideas through a writing. They claim themselves to be the professional resource and development from teacher network. Its orientation isn’t specifically on EC, but it is open for EC. I find this forum to be interesting and may be beneficial for me to share ideas and my knowledge through writings for EC community. This forum may also be the media for me to practice and develop my scholarly capability.

PLAN Indonesia is the representative of PLAN, an international EC organization which works for 51 developing countries including Indonesia. They are promoting child rights to end child poverty and lift million of children out of poverty. Their core areas of working are on basic health services, water & sanitation, economic security and education & school improvement; and they offer people to sponsor a child, to make a donation, to become their global corporate partner and volunteer. This last offer interests me. Being their volunteer or at least helping them disseminate this information in my community and finding ways to promote partnership can be useful either for them and for my community of practice. 

      

Resources

HIMPAUDI (http://himpaudi.blogspot.com)

Guru.or.id (http://guru.or.id)

PLAN Indonesia (www.plan-international.org/where-we-work/asia/Indonesia)

Exploring Roles in the EC Community: Local and State Levels

Involvement in an early childhood community for anyone working at early childhood field is a must, I think, because he or she can get insights from or share experiences with those who are capable and have great interest in the field. 

As a person interested in early childhood field in Indonesia, I find three early childhood communities to be suitable for me to share and gain more knowledge. They are Dewi Hughes International Foundation, Komunitas Pendidikan, Kesehatan dan Lingkungann Hidup, and Rumah Dongeng Pelangi. ‘Dewi Hughes International Foundation’ emphasizes its activities on helping marginalized area to establish the early childhood education center, and additionally advocating families by socializing information to mothers through their ‘Komunitas Ibu Sehat’ program. Besides, their teaching program for training the tutors all over Indonesia interests me a lot. I may contribute in this program by becoming the instructor for the tutors or a presenter in advocating the families. My early childhood knowledge and experience in leadership will be an advantage for this purpose.

The second community, ‘Komunitas Pendidikan, Kesehatan dan Lingkungan Hidup’ is an online magazine community in which I could be the contributor for articles for early childhood community who are members or just the readers. It certainly needs writers who are capable and have adequate knowledge about early childhood as what I have learned at Walden University through the courses. 

The third community, ‘Rumah Dongeng Pelangi’ is a community whose members visit early childhood centers in marginalized area, and voluntarily tell stories to the children. I believe it is the very right place for me to share my experience and hobby to tell stories to little children where I can build network and relations with early childhood centers all over the places.

Resources

Dewi Hughes International Foundation, www.dewihughesinternationalfoundation.blogspot.com

Komunitas Pendidikan. Kesehatan dan Lingkungan Hidup, www.majalah-kumunitas.blogspot.com/2011/08/forum-paud-kabupaten-bekasi-adakan-buka.html

Rumah Dongeng Pelangi, www.rumahdongengpelangi.blogspot.com

To all colleagues of Group 1,

Time flies and we have come to the end of the course. There are so many things that we have shared, learned and gained from this course. I did enjoy reading your thoughts on our discussion forum, especially because I come from a very different part of culture, so reading your thoughts and experiences was really insightful for me.

I have not got much experience in leadership in the early childhood field, but from the course materials and your ideas and thoughts, I think I conclude one very imprtant thing, the trust and respect that a leader must possess and to keep learning to be competent and experienced in collaborating with other related people related in EC field.

Wish you all the best in your career path as a leader in the EC who will foster the children and their families with more skillful, knowledgable and resepectful mindset and attitude.
  

Experiencing the Adjourning Stage

There was time when I was involved as a program coordinator in an Easter program committee at my church. It was indeed a solid team in which we always ended a meeting with satisfaction no matter how hard debate we just had. Some of the committee members including me often continued with a hangout after the meeting and we brought our wives or husbands and children. We had such an attached relationship and it caused us felt so sad when we realized the program was over and the committee had to say goodbye. After the formal closing meeting, we continued with a hangout closing meeting with the members of the family. The funny thing, several weeks after our closing we went for a hangout again, and it became like a routine meeting almost every one or two weeks we gathered. We became a big family and often times among the children they made an appointment to meet and play together in one of our houses.

Learning about the stages of team development, I understand that such team had successfully developed, and the norms on how we shared information, the rules we set and the conflicts we resolved were naturally formed and flowed. That is why we did not realize we had come to an end as we were all satisfied, felt each positive contribution, and we wanted to work and work together again.

I always believe that a face-to-face relationship is much better, but what I experience through this online master’s degree program is unique. The group discussion in where we virtually address ideas, insights and possibly disagreements has made me feel as if I was sitting and talking with the members, especially when we have similar opinions, concerns and passions while we live far away from each other and have different cultures and backgrounds. So, when it is time to adjourn, we will feel that time flies, and yes, such feeling will usually appear at the last two weeks when we just start to go deeper.

I think adjourning is always the essential stage of a team work. When a team can reach this stage, everybody will feel satisfied and gain the most from the vision of the team.  Such experience will be really beneficial for an individual’s self esteem, confidence and experience for further team development with different people at different time. The more an individual experiences this stage, the better insights he or she has about how a team should be and work.      

                                                         

Reference

 

O’Hair, D. & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York:

Belford/St. Martin’s, Chapter 9, “Communicating in Groups” (pp. 256 - 258)

Managing and Resolving a Conflict

There is a new director who just started working at my school. Within a month of his presence, he started to create some changes which to some teachers and principals are not important and worse he presented it in a very bossy way. As a school principal, I have to have a regular meeting with him with the other principals from other units. What I noticed, the other principals preferred to just follow whatever he instructed with almost no comments, but I showed a disagreement once when I thought a change sounded so unimportant. He showed dislikes and we started a silent war for quite some time.

Two strategies I have learned from this situation to manage or resolve a conflict:

1.       Avoiding confrontation to some extent has two impacts. First is the negative impact that it causes further communication becomes stiff. People who try to avoid confrontation tend to reduce creativity. They just prefer to listen and do not want to forward ideas. Second, the positive impact is that the communication can go on and business still runs.

2.       Learning from other principals who tend to follow, I try to do the same by accepting the changes. I try to put aside my dislikes and think positively by focusing on how the changes may result. What I think is good may not be ‘that’ good in its application. This attitude has brought a peace to the atmosphere of the team work as well as my own feeling.

I could have done those strategies by looking at the other principals, and when we had chance to discuss about it they advised me to do so and see for the result first. It may be in the long run, but whatever it may come up in the future at least we can go on with what we have at present time.