Research Around the World

This week I was tasked with reading about international research topics.  I chose to review the topics addressed on the website Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php .  I was delighted to find so many informative articles written to highlight the needs and interests of many African Nations.  So many of the articles focused on issues that are common in the united states.  For example, in Ghana they are researching supervision of Early childhood environments and in Eritrea they are concerned with the quality of childcare through training and involving parents.  Here we also research how parent involvement improves the quality of the childcare experience for the children. The research paper that stood out to me is the study in Malawi that discussed the development and implementation of the National Action plan for the children in Malawi.  The objective of the project was to facilitate implementation of national policies designed to ensure efficient and effective care, protection, development and participation of the young and the vulnerable children in Malawi. The project involved the identification of strategies for coordinating the development and implementation of a
2003-2013 National Action Plan (NAP) for the Survival, Protection and Development of Children in Malawi, facilitating the development of the NAP, including strategic activities that are aimed at providing care and development to all children without any discrimination.  This issue is very similar to the research I have done on the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) and its intended purpose. 

 What I found most surprising is that there are little to no differences in the approaches to the ones in the United States.  It behooves me how people can believe that we are so different because we reside in different countries. However, what is evident is that the overall intent is to produce methods and approaches in policies that best benefit the children.  The website allowed me to see how using the culture and the indigenous stories can be added as a benefit to influence the communities to participate and support early learning programs in the different countries.

Another great study that I found very intriguing is   Involving Fathers in Early Childhood Care and Development by Rosemary Hua.  This article explained how the perception of only women should rear the children and it is a woman's job. "In most Nigerian cultures, the responsibility of taking care of young children is seen as that of women rather than men. This indicates that bringing up children is regarded as a subordinate role, rather than a complementary one. During one of the training workshops in a community, one of the fathers made a statement that “caring for little children by men does not enhance the self-image of the man.” Furthermore, a caregiver in an ECD program in one of the communities reported that a lot of children who constantly absent themselves from the centre-based activities have been traced to  2 those with fathers who are less supportive of the program. This lack of support is also associated with lower developmental performance levels by the children" (Hua 1986).  What is expected of the men in this community is to provide, make decisions and protect their families, while women are nurturers. These roles are culturally assigned to them at birth. There was very low expectation from fathers in raising children. The terms of reference in this study did not permit us to find out whether the fathers actually provide for their families or otherwise.  After participating in this study some of the older fathers agreed that their presence in early learning environments was beneficial to the children.  They were able to provide the children with role models.  It is very similar to how many men in my life feel similarly.  Asking more men to interact in early childhood programs may change their perceptions of their roles in early childhood education or in parenting.  This could result in more male teachers and active fathers in the lives of the children each day.