Thanks and Goodbye. I Learned a lot

Hi Everybody,

I enjoyed getting to know everyone through their blogs. It has been great to know that all you, my blog mates, have been struggling through this course with me. Thanks for your interesting blogs and for just being there!

In this class, I have learned a lot of vocabulary about planning, designing, and conducting research, and I have learned that some research is partially designed after the research has started. I especially enjoyed the insights I gained this week about how participants can help create research designs. This ability of participants to collaborate with what a researcher is studying is what demonstrates that the nature of social research is so different than scientific research.

My challenge involved the difference between social and scientific research. Based on experience, I would have to say that it is much harder to control variables in social research. My solution to this challenge was to go with a mixed-methods design. 

I have a much greater respect for early childhood research professionals.

Bye Everyone!

Early Childhood Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Some current research topics in sub-Saharan Africa are testing tools to measure the quality of early childhood programs, training programs to train early child care staff, and keeping indigenous culture alive while implementing early childhood programs.

I enjoyed reading about how researchers are trying to keep alive traditional childrearing ideas in Tanzania. They are doing this by collecting childrearing proverbs and using these as a basis for part of their curriculum. They are looking at proverbs from several cultures, but are seeing similarities in the proverbs that would make them easier to use in programs with several cultures. Some elders are a little disappointed with the present education system.

In this study it was evident that the Sukuma elders still claim space for supporting

childhood care and upbringing but they feel a little forgotten and a little hurt by the gleaming of modernity. On factors contributing to changes in cultures, one elder said “Mbucha magala – n’hungwa ja hanze” that is, the causes of the moral decays in our country are foreign cultures that have invaded the country through the electric media. He likened the government to the sharpener for allowing the importation of uncensored entertainment materials. Many Sukuma elders blame school as a bad thing which has come to divide children and parents by blocking communication between them. “School or education in itself is not bad,” they said, “but we have misinterpreted the whole concept” (in Kuleana, 1998, p. 39). “Um’hayo unonu gukabyalaga ya bubi,” that is, “Even if something is good, if you misunderstand the purpose of it, it can result in something bad.

I also discovered that the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) is a little like Walden, but it also has added elements like residential seminars. I was impressed that the University was not in Africa but in Canada. The university has many types of education to take a person interested in early childhood at whatever stage of education the person is in. There are certificates, master’s degrees, and graduate diploma programs.