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.

How Others and I Evaluate Me as a Communicator

There are similarities and differences in how I evaluate myself and how others do to me. I chose a colleague and my husband as the evaluators. The similarities, both of them agree to put me in group 1 or the ‘people-oriented’ group as my listening style which also the same as my own result. They also evaluate my verbal aggressiveness in the same moderate level although I have seven points’ lower score. The difference fall in the communication anxiety inventory level. They result in low level which means they consider me to be comfortable communicating in most situations and feel confident in anticipating it while I result in mild level. This surprised me because what others see me to be comfortable in most situations, as a matter of fact, I feel differently. My husband who has known me more than 20 years sees me as a confident person in encountering for a comfortable communication situation while deep down in my heart I do have a feeling of in confidence in communicating with others in certain situations.

The results of the evaluations give me two insights:

1.       There is always a ‘part’ of each individual which will not be recognized by others no matter how close they are. As what I got from the evaluation on me, the self-esteem (how I feel about myself) is not recognized by the people I meet and interact every day.  

2.       Although the result of my verbal aggressiveness is categorized in moderate level, I realize that my ability to argue has to be put as an alert to remind me to be careful when I deal with a difficult person or specifically difficult families in early childhood context.   

References

Rubin, R., Palmgreen, P., &Sypher, H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.  Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com

. Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com

Communicating with People from Different Culture

One of my neighbors has a principle that I think is unusual. All the females in the house have to wear long pants, long sleeved blouse or T-shirt and a veil on every single day, including their nanny. When they replace the nanny with a new one whose outfit is the same as most people in general, they require her to wear the way they set the standard. My city is very humid and people have the air conditioners in the bedrooms only, so I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it is to do the household chores in such an outfit.

At the school where I work, I have to deal with the teachers who are more than twenty years younger than I am. They are called the millenials generation who fully integrate computers into their everyday communication (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012). It is indeed true, because I find the way they communicate is different from what I usually do when I communicate with my old friends from colleagues or relatives. They are the ‘gadget’ people who seem to be available 24 hours on their cell phones through BBM or WhatsApp. They can even communicate through these to a person that they can just walk and find to talk with when they are in the same building and on the same floor.   

I cannot and should not just consider those people uncommon and ignore the difference. Like or dislike, I have to face with people who are different from me when I communicate. To make sure that my goal of communication is achieved, I have to try to make my communication effective. In dealing with those people who are different from me as a result of diverse religion and age, there are three strategies that I think will be useful:

1.       Accept my neighbor’s unusual principle to show respect. It is their right to set their outfit standard. As long as they do not tell me to do the same, I should not be bothered. I should put myself in their shoes to understand the reason they do that is to respect what their religion tells them to do which could be certainly different from my religion or belief.

2.       I should not stereotype my neighbor by thinking all Moslem people dress up illogically or have a prejudice against them by judging them to be weird or making a rigid description.

3.       I do not have to be a millenials generation or a person to be reachable anytime on my Wasap, but I have to be capable of using BBM or WhatsApp to be ‘in’ their link. For some reasons, BBM or WhatsApp is very useful. By doing so, I will minimize the gap and at the same time show an effort to adapt.

 

Reference

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

Belford/St. Martin’s, Chapter 3, “Communication and Culture” (p. 80)

 

 

The Analysis of Nonverbal Behaviors

 

 

To observe a nonverbal behavior in a communication, I choose a serial TV show from HBO. The title is Serangoon Road. The first time I watched it, it was turned off. I assumed there were a husband and wife having a conversation before going to bed about what they had done the whole day and what they were going to do about it for the next day. It seemed that the husband was proposing something good that made the wife looked so happy from the way she smiled. The following scene was the next day in the morning, both of them left the house, and there came a conversation of two women and the man or the husband from the previous scene having tea in the living room and one of them read a newspaper. Then a man wearing a very formal suit came and seemed to tell about bad news that caused the two women looked surprised.  

The second time I watched it with the sound turned on, I found that the man and the woman were not husband and wife. They were just friends talking about another person that I was not sure who he was. The next scene he went to his neighbors and brought a newspaper. He was talking with two women about the news on the newspaper when a man wearing a suit came and they were talking about the political conspiracy related to the news.

From both different ways of watching the same brief scene, it is very obvious that facial expression and body language only is difficult to guess and cannot tell the correct message. They create many assumptions. Having the possibility to listen to the verbal communication in the conversation makes a TV scene much easier to understand. The nonverbal communication during the conversation helps viewers to get the message correctly, and the music which was played during the scene helps us to be more involved in the story. Thus, it is perfect to hear clearly and see carefully to understand a message in a communication.  

Professional Hopes and Goals

When I think about working with children and families who come from diverse background, I hope I will always be able to respect each party’s diversity. Realizing how possible I will unconsciously and with no intention at all do the microaggressions towards others, I really have to be aware of it. Sue (2011) states that we are not immune from inheriting the racial bias of our forebears. It means each human inherits his or her own cultures that may affect our way to see others, and this may lead us to have a feeling of prejudice to others different from us. The very obvious diversity in my community is the poverty that may lead me or others to act classism. Learning through this course reminds me of the microaggressions, and to think of ways or solutions should I see an act of microaggression towards the children and their families. I may also think of programs or activities which will avoid microaggressions.

Poverty is the biggest issue in my country. Learning about diversity, equity and social justice, I realize how important it is to understand children and their families' diversities and fight for their just world. They are poor, but their children deserve better education. People here do not see early childhood programs that important, but more as a place to make their children busy, and this is only done by the wealthy families who can afford EC programs, while middle class families prefer to save the budget for elementary school, and the poor families cannot even think about it. The government has been trying to support the growth of playgroups and kindergartens in small cities and towns, but it is still a long way to go. Since I cannot change the nation, I have a goal to change my community’s mindset about the importance of sending their children to playgroups and kindergartens so the children will have a better future.

We have come to the end of this course about diversity, equity and social justice. I have indeed learned a lot from all colleagues. Through our blogs and discussions, we share our childhood stories and experiences which have been a support to the theories we are learning. Although microaggressions are not serious issues in my country, your thoughts have given me new insights about treating others fairly. Thank you, and may your passion in early childhood field remains forever, and never give up!!

Laureate Media (2011). “Microaggressions in Everyday Life”. 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_3397499_1%26url%3D

 

Welcoming Families from Around the World

Pretending that I am working at a daycare, and there will be a new child coming from Bangladesh, a place or country that I only know the name or I have heard the name, but I even have no idea where its location in the globe, and moreover the child and his or her families’ culture and tradition.

As a professional in early childhood field, I really have to know each of my child’s culture and respect it in the way the school try to adapt the class activities with each child’s uniqueness and needs. For a successful plan to welcome and include this new child into the class environment, I will do five kinds of preparation:

1. I will first try to find where Bangladesh’s location is in the globe. Where it is close from or how far it is from my country. From this location, I will get to know about its seasons and weather.

2. I will study from some resources about the religion(s) exist in the country, because to some religions, they have rules or restrictions, for example the Moslem people cannot eat pork or the Hindus  cannot eat beef, etc.

3. I will learn about the celebrations or feast they usually celebrate annually. Celebrations are very close related to culture. From the characteristic of a celebration a race or country has, we can learn about what they like, and what we should or should not do.

4. Not least important is to learn about the family system whether they often have extended family or just a nuclear family. Understanding this aspect will help me decide how to involve the child’s family.

5. After getting deeper understanding about Bangladesh and its people’s characteristics, I will implicitly introduce about this place to the other children during lesson before the new child comes, for example show pictures of a girl or boy from Bangladesh wearing their traditional clothes or dancing their traditional dance, etc. I will then repeat or review on it after the new child comes. The first one to have all students get familiar with Bangladesh, and the second discussion is to have the new child feel comfortable, welcome and included. If possible, I challenge the other children to know the information from the new child directly.

6. I will put some decoration related to Bangladesh so that the child will feel more at home in the classroom. 

7. Once the child arrives, I will prepare some questions that I want to know about the child’s habits at home from his/her mother and/or things that the parents expect from me and the school. I will file the information for my reference.

Coming to a new place and adjusting with its surroundings will not be an easy thing for some people and especially children, because they have to struggle to become part of the new host culture while retaining their self-identity (Smidt, 2006). Therefore, it is going to be helpful for the host to prepare to welcome in order to help the child and family experience a smooth and pleasant adjustment. Preparation will not only make things look better, and may avoid mistakes, but it will also make the teacher feel more confident when he/she knows what and how to do so. 

Reference

Smidt, S. (2006). The developing child in the 21^st century. Chapter 6, “The Child in Culture” (p. 79).

The Personal Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

 

A couple of months ago, there was an accident at the school I work at when seven children students were playing. It was just a normal common game children usually play during a recess, but this time it was quite fatal that caused one student named Ruben (not his real name) fell down and got a concussion. The school directly brought the child to the hospital. Among these seven students, there was one named Randy (not his real name). He was a very big and fat boy, around tripled in size compared to other boys at his age. Within a couple of days, rumor spread through bbm (blackberry broadcast messenger) among parents of the students that blamed Randy to be the person who caused this incident. It went worse by days because parents of other students of the same grade who were not in the incident put comments and it became a serious issue. The funny thing, the parents of the child who was hospitalized did not feel bad about this and understood this incident as childlike game. I knew this because I met them at the hospital. The situation was getting ‘hotter’ and those parents wanted to have a meeting with me. At the meeting attended by eleven mothers, they intentionally accused Randy, and wanted the school to take the responsibility for letting such fat boy existed in the school which they believed had harmed other students. They mentioned some other day-to-day incidents at school which were not significant to make their statements stronger.  Worse, Randy was bullied by his classmates to be the person who caused their friend hospitalized.

It indeed diminished equity. All children have the same right to play and study no matter how big or small, weak or strong, smart or not smart he/she is. The way those parents blamed Randy was not reasonable, and was just based on their bias, prejudice and dislikes. They arrogantly accused Randy without witnessing, but by asking the children who were playing at the time and witnessed the incident.  Their act of gathering inputs or comments among each other and put these as the reasons to make the school think it was not right to let Randy study in the school together with their kids, I think, was really a cruel action. They judged and tried to not only diminish but eliminate Randy’s right as any child deserves to have.

My heart cried. I could not believe how those parents dared to do such thing to a child. They made a collusion to make others and their own children believe that Randy was a real ‘trouble maker’ in the school.  I just could not understand and imagine if Randy had been my son. I l could not understand why those parents did not even think of how Randy and his parents felt about it. Randy and his parents visited Ruben in hospital and met Ruben’s parents. The other parents did not even consider this, but had too much prejudice against Randy and illogically assume that what had happened to Ruben may also happen to their kids someday.

Those parents should have been more sympathetic by not spreading assumption and asking for a clarification only from the children, but also involving the school. The school in this case, should put their position to bridge the communication among the parents and children. That was what we did. We asked the children to do the reconstruction of the incident, and helped those children to analyze how and why it happened. This reconstruction helped a lot. They just followed the way each child re-played what they did during the game, and finally they realized that it was just an accident, no one to blame, and we asked all of those seven children and Randy’s classmates to forgive each other.  Since then, they stopped bullying Randy, the parents did not have other words to say, and they go to play again as common children usually do. This incident has taught all parties to be open, not to have prejudice against someone’s identity, but to treat everybody equally.

 

 

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

   

Practicing Awareness of Aggressions

There are so many ethnics in my country, but we are not immigrants; we are one coming from the same country. Thus, racial diversity is not a serious issue here. Although fights happen among tribes or ethnics, but we commonly live harmoniously from day to day. The unique one is the Chinese people whose ancestor migrated to Indonesia hundred of years ago, and they have become Indonesian Chinese now. They do not speak Chinese nor do they seriously or obviously follow their heritage. What sometimes happens is that these Indonesian Chinese people tend to socialize close from each other. That is why we have housing complex, offices or schools dominated by the Indonesian Chinese, and it is just common and accepted. Since they consider themselves Indonesian, they do not feel insulted when people say about Chinese. Ethnics often become jokes here such as Bataknese people talk funny things about Chinese or Chinese people talk about Sundanese, etc. So it is kind of hard to observe microaggressions. There is no such hard feeling about racism because we are all Indonesians, and although we do have people from other nationalities like the Americans, Indian, Australian, etc, but they live and socialize exclusively among themselves. One rumour but cannot be proven is that some Indonesian Chinese people reject applicants from other ethnics in their business, but I cannot put this as a microaggression because the truth cannot be professionally observed.

However, I have examples more on acts of "-isms"especially the ones related to religion-ism. It just happened in my school this week that an applicant for Indonesian language teacher came for an interview. She is wearing a veil, and it is certainly not permitted in a Catholic school. We have Budhist  and Moslem teachers, but not the one wearing a veil. So, in order to reject her, we created reasons. I would certainly feel humiliated, unwanted or unfair if I were the teacher and knew the reason was just because of my veil. It is indeed unfair to judge people based on their religion or the attribute they wear. I know what the school has done is so bias. Margles and Margles (2010) describe about institutional oppression. I think this is an example of oppression in the form of religion-ism”.

From this week reading and the observation I see and experience, I conclude that reactions towards discrimination, stereotype, prejudice are much influenced by the community’s cultural characteristic at the place where they happen. From the readings and colleagues’ discussion, I find what is considered to be an act of microaggressions or “-isms” in America, it is just fine in Indonesia. This means, any professional in early childhood has to first understand the rules of culture applied in the place. The theories about microaggressions or “-isms” in diversity should be treated as a guideline to professionally decide when or where to and not to say or judge about someone, especially a child.

Margles, S., & Margles, R. M. (2010). Inverting racism's distortions. Our Schools/Our

Selves, 19(3), 137--149. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database: http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I interviewed my friend Cindy, a Chinese who migrated to Indonesia and married an Indonesian 12 years ago. She said culture is what people wear, say and do which may be different from other people. The difference is the culture diversity which is based on where the people come from. She notices the significant difference is in the language because not many people can speak Mandarin. It is kind of hard for her to learn Indonesian, but luckily, her husband speaks Mandarin and Indonesian, so she has been learning to speak Indonesian from her husband, and both of her children become bilingual.

Another friend is Joe, an Indonesian with Bataknese ethnic (one tribe out of more than 300 tribes). He grew up in the family where parents speak both Indonesian and Bataknese, and he followed so many Bataknese traditional routines through their family’s weddings, funerals and other gatherings when he was a child. He cannot speak Bataknese but understands some. According to Joe, culture is the actions that people do, and diversity is the different way of thinking that people have which results in different actions. Different routines from what other neighbors or friends did with his family that he experienced in his childhood were the results of different way of thinking that his parents had.

The third person is my daughter, a teenager who thinks a culture is a routine that people do influenced by their environment, family and nationality. She notices and experiences the difference, but cannot define what diversity is.

One similarity from those three people and the aspects I have learned about culture and diversity is the actions or things that people do. This confirms that when people have to think of what a culture is, they tend to name the surface culture, the actions that people do or can be seen. They do not seem to include religion, family relationships, ideas, emotion, etc. as part of culture. My Chinese friend included language, the deep culture because it is the most significant diversity she is facing, but she did not include her Chinese values that I believe must be very much different from what the Indonesians believe.

From what they have in mind about culture and diversity, I become more certain that people in general have similar perspectives on culture and diversity, but for those who want to better understand other people, their perspectives on culture and diversity should be broader and deeper. Culture includes someone’s values, emotion, and other unseen aspects. We have to deepen our perspectives on culture in order to better understand about diversity. 

 

Visitor must wear a 'sarung' (white piece of clothes like a skirt) when visiting Prambana temple to respect the Hindust culture 

 

I am wearing a 'kebaya', a traditional gown often worn by women when attending a traditional wedding party

 

My Family Culture

My Family Culture

Basically, My family or I do not really have objects to hold as a remembrance of our culture. We do certainly have things represent our culture, but it is more in a form of memory. Since I have to think of representing it, there are 3 items that I would keep with me if I had to be moved to another place which its culture and tradition was totally different from mine.

First, it is a photo album in which I keep the family photos that I think are historical or will always remind me of my family unity or togetherness. It has a photo of our first house, my children first day when they were born, and some photos of our very unforgettable trips to Brisbane and Beijing.  

                               1st House, 1st Child and 1st Dog

Second, I loved to listen to my mom’s bed story when I was a little kid. Many times she told me about her stay in Paris when she was just 23 years old, and the unforgettable moments she experienced when she went to the top of Eiffel Tower alone, and how it was nice and a must for me to go there. So, when I for the 1^st time went to Paris, I was obsessed to do it, as well. To keep it in memory, I bought 3 souvenirs of miniatures of the Eiffel Tower. Every time I looked at those souvenirs, I remember our beautiful bed time story.

 

The third is a wrist watch. There is an agreement in our family, especially between my husband and me to never be apart for more than a month. So, when once my husband had to stay in Australia for 3 months, my children and I once went to visit him to spend the time together. When I arrived, he gave me a wrist watch. To me, this object reminds me of how hard for us to be apart for a long time and how getting together once a day even at a short time means a lot for each member of the family.   

 

 

 

           

 

 The third is a wrist watch. There is an agreement in our family, especially between my husband and me to never be apart for more than a month. So, when once my husband had to stay in Australia for 3 months, my children and I once went to visit him to spend the time together. When I arrived, he gave me a wrist watch. To me, this object reminds me of how hard for us to be apart for a long time and how getting together once a day even at a short time means a lot for each member of the family.   

When I Think of Research...

Doing research must be important in any discipline. However, after taking this research course, I find that research findings is not only important for the professionals in early childhood to find best ways for children, improve early childhood theories, system and services; but moreover, it is highly recommended that anybody works in early childhood or deals with the children, such as the teachers, caretakers, and school directors to at least read the research studies for them to know and give their best for the children.

I first understood the nature of doing research as the opportunity for lecturers to find or test a theory for further study, but through this course I found a research as a friendly tool for professionals to work in the field better, to know whether what people are doing for the children is correct and or to find ways what and how to improve, if needed. This course has also step-by-step taught me a lot of how to plan, design and conduct a research in early childhood. Specifically, I learned deeper about the basic principles of designing a research, and how to make a research effective, valid and reliable. If, let say, I will never make one, but at least I know how a good research should be.

Frankly speaking, a research was not an interest of mine, and I had some challenges in understanding the course materials, especially the terminologies that took me many times to re-read before I could get the meaning. Fortunately, the additional readings, and the colleagues’ opinions from the discussion helped me a lot to get clearer and better understanding about them. Thank you, to all of you and, especially to Dr. Shephard who always provided additional links to the topics I had in the discussion, and to share this valuable piece of knowledge.

It is a must for the early childhood professionals to be familiar and put a keen interest in research. As a ‘professional’ in early childhood, he or she must have the eagerness, a calling, and a big interest for always improving the early childhood field. There are many inputs, insights, findings a research study may provide, and it all depends on how important we think working for the children is.

Research Around the World

I choose to explore the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) link. Their current topics are related to praxeological, such as praxeological case study on toddlers, the contribution of praxeological research towards a social science, or developing praxeology as a participatory paradigm for EC research. I do not really get the meaning of praxeology, and they mention about social science which I find it interesting to know and learn about.

EECERA conducts annual conference, the largest and most significant early years’ research conference in Europe which is amazingly attended by more than 600 researchers each year. They also have what they call Special Interest Groups (SIGs). They appoint local officers, the Country Coordinator to establish a network of EECERA members in their countries. They support EECERA activities, promote and disseminate information and others to support and encourage EC researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to become active in EECERA and also through publication of their work in the journal.

I think this research organization is very good and interesting. They facilitate researchers to share and learn each other. Through this organization, researchers will get information and insights from other researchers from other countries but still in similar atmosphere or circumstances (European countries). I wish there was one in Asia.

The link of European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) is http://www.eecera.org/

Research that Benefits Childrenand Families-Uplifting Stories

If I could just conduct a research in which I am not restricted by the reality of the present, I would choose “Outcomes Comparison of children Age 1 to 5 Attending and not Attending a Daycare” as the topic. I am very concerned with the fact here in my country, especially my community where most infants of working mothers are taken care by a nanny who only passes junior high school at the highest, gets a-week training or none at all, and has not even reached 25 years old. Some families hire a babysitter that is a bit more expensive, but they just finish senior high school and get a quick training on how to handle babies or toddlers technically. They are not prepared for other psychosocial matters, for instance.

Conducting such research would provide convincing facts of advantages and disadvantages of sending or not sending infants to a daycare, and help parents realize the importance of having their young children taken care by someone who is well-trained and professional in early childhood. Moreover, it might open the community’s mind to consider of establishing a daycare and/or subsidizing it. Daycare is very rare here. There is one in my community which is extremely expensive, besides, most parents do not fully trust a daycare, yet.

My Personal Research Journey

 

My very main concern related to early childhood is the child and caregiver relationship.  It may sound so broad, but that is why I am interested in finding more accountable reasons why and how their relationship affects a child’s life. The fact is that early childhood in my community has not been considered that ‘important’ by most people even educators like teachers. They agree that education is important for someone’s life, but they do not know or realize how vital a child’s first 5 years of life which relies a lot on the caregivers. When I first learned about biological model of development, I learned about microsystem or the immediate setting in which a child lives. It has given me insights about how the relationship between a child and her parents or caregivers will have a stable and enduring effect on a child’s development (Keenan and Evans, 2009).

As most people agree, I also think research is a difficult to study and conduct. However, the article “A Practical Guide to Reading Research Articles” has helped me to feel less difficult about reading and doing research, and having to fill in the chart this week brings me to a more detailed, step-by-step ways of understanding research. I believe this course will finally help me to understand research better and able to read and do research to get more reliable answers why child and caregiver relationship is so important.

Keenan, T., & Evans, S. (2009). An introduction to child development (pp.35-43). Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/81238/CRS-CW-6488738/Keenan_Evans.pdf