Sharing Web Resources

The section that has much relevance to my professional development this week is the article on education for sustainable development. This got my attention because we know that children are the future and it is necessary that we invest in them in a sustainable way, for example making quality early childhood education accessible to all of the world’s children. This is in harmony with the organization’s banner “Bright futures for every child, every nation” (ACEI, 2014). Therefore as early childhood professionals, we are called upon to teach children resilience, and how to become responsible contributing citizens to the society they will grow up to be a part of.

There is a large number of children in the world who are living in poverty, and have no opportunity for education. If these families are given the opportunity to receive quality education, it would turn their lives around for good. ACEI (2014) states that “sadly, sixty-one million children of primary age are out of school, suffering the acute and long-term effects of poverty and ill-health.  Increasing the number of in-school children with the capacity to learn is necessary to reduce poverty and ensure that all children can partake in education and learning opportunities that secure a sustainable future for our world”.(p.1).  

The idea that I found controversial, came from The Global gateway section of the ACEI website. The highlight was International comparisons and scenarios in which a number of studies that were designed to provide information about the education system of different nations around the world, were examined. Some competitiveness came into play because of the results of these studies. Countries began to show interest in using them, desperate for improvement in their education systems. However, there must be caution taken in ensuring that the data is not used to generalize sweeping outcomes. There are some important factors that have to be taken into account, based on the origin of the studies and the context in which the research was done.  ACEI (2014) explains that “Despite the common goal of providing equal access to quality education to all students, national and regional contexts and instructional situations can differ dramatically depending on a country's resources, culture, demographics, and education philosophies. Even though studies are very valuable to the improvement of quality, the results do not dictate that education for all children across the globe is a one size fits all.

The Childhood Explorer is an online publication of ACEI, it is very informative and shares experiences of children in various parts of the world. It also tells about the different projects that are being sponsored and what is being done in an effort to improve the lives children globally. This week there was an article “Hope in the mountains heights” about the life of children living in Haiti’s, their resilience even in the heart of poverty. I look forward to reading this article and increasing my knowledge of how children survive in the clutches of poverty and what I can do to help.

Reference

http://www.acei.org/