Unfortunately, the eight weeks have ended and I have yet to hear from any international contacts. I am really a bit saddened about it because I was truly inspired and eager to learn of early childhood learning, teaching strategies, requirements, and techniques from any other country besides my own! I initially contacted TEN representatives because I wanted to heighten my chances of hearing from someone; but this did not help. I was also unsuccessful with finding any podcasts, so therefore I have had to resort to completing the 'alternative' assignment for many of my blog posts this past 7 weeks! For this week, the alternative assignment was a link to UNESCO. With this link the assignment was to find things that are of interest to me. Honestly, everything I read was of interest to me because this was an organization of which I had never heard. Listed below is my journey through the UNESCO website:
UNESCO's mission is to support early childhood policy development with the aim to build a solid foundation for a child's lifelong learning. They actively work with Member States to develop and strengthen their national capacity to meet the first goal of the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action. UNESCO was started back in the 1950's. The focus of the organization is on upstream policy work, supporting governments through policy review, publication activities, and capacity building. Their focus is on peace, poverty eradication, among other things. Education is one of the principles they use to achieve this eradication of those things listed. A few of the ways that they are able to do this through education, is by offering activities such as Literacy for All, Skills for Work and Life, and Women and Girls Education.....to name a few. UNESCO currently has 195 Members and 9 Associate Members and they service many countries around the world. I feel this organization is a very beneficial one for the field of early childhood education.
References
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/
Shawanza,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that it did not work out to have an international contact. You certainly put in your work in reaching out to 10 different contacts. Sometimes trying is all we can do, but you have had very informative posts that I have enjoyed! I appreciate your positive attitude and pressing on to research UNESCO. It sounds like an amazing program that is helping children and families all around the world.
Krista
Shawanza,
ReplyDeleteI also did not hear back from any of my contacts and was a little down but I explored UNICEF and learned so much and this week UNESCO website was very amazing. I actually enjoyed reading the creative ways UNESCO is empowering and educating all children. Thank you for all the wonderful and insightful posts!