My Family Culture

When I thought about three items I would bring to a new country with a different culture, I didn’t feel like there was anything so essential that I had to bring. I have never been very sentimental about things. My daughter is currently working on a heritage project in her technology class. She asked me if I had something that has been handed down from generation to generation. I laughed because we have nothing like that except our Catholic faith. We have very few if any pictures or decorations in our home. My husband doesn’t like to put holes in the wall, and I not very concerned with visual things. I would bring a Bible so I could share the story of our faith. I would bring a computer, so I could be connected to the world and learn more. I hope they have internet there! I would bring a guitar because they might have a different type of music, and I would like to be able to share music with this culture. My daughters all love to sing, so I bet I could figure out how to play what they were singing.

            If I were told I could only keep one item, I would be disappointed that I couldn’t keep the computer. I wonder if they would have libraries with computers. If they didn’t have internet, however, I might enjoy going back to the simple things in life. I hope they let me keep my Bible at least!

            The main insight I had with this assignment is that the assignment might be more irrelevant to the culture of me, my children, and siblings than it would be to someone who had items that they hold dear and represent their family culture. The other insight is that I would be fearful that I would be persecuted for my beliefs, would lose some rights because I am a woman, and would lose my connection with the rest of the world. I also noticed that I might not mind so much being separated from technology because I crave a simpler life.

Hello everyone in EDUC 6164 - 1

Hi Classmates,

     I am looking forward to learning from everyone this term!

Liz

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.

Early Childhood Research has Saved Lives: Back to Sleep

      “Since the inception of the Back to Sleep Campaign, the number of infants being placed to sleep in a supine position has risen to 75.7% as of 2006, and overall SIDS rates have decreased over 50% since 1988 (NICHD, 2011)” (Meadow-Oliver & Hendrie, 2013).

This is very exciting and really gives a person motivation to go into research. The back to sleep recommendation was based on a study of how babies around the world slept and the fact that in one Asian country where it was standard to put babies on their backs to sleep, the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was very low.

References

Meadows-Oliver, M., & Hendrie, J. (2013). Expanded back to sleep guidelines. Pediatric Nursing, 39(1), 40-2, 49. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1317918928?accountid=458

Beginning Research Simulation: Choosing a Topic

My chosen topic for the simulation is parenting and infant sleep. The idea for this came to me from a conversation I had with the parents of a baby I care for. The parents were fairly content with putting their daughter in the crib after she fell asleep, but the father was not quite as sure as the mom. Around that time I was also reading a book by Magda Gerber. Gerber felt that it was “important for a child to fall asleep alone in her crib.” That same week I had also talked to a director of a day care about their infant curriculum. The curriculum was RIE, a curriculum based on Magda Gerber’s beliefs. This is one reason I was reading Gerber’s book. I liked many of Gerber’s ideas, but I had never had my own children fall asleep in a crib, and I had never had problems with my children going to sleep when they were older. This all made me curious.

This week for the simulation we are researching three articles. I am curious what a minimum amount of articles would be for a full literature review. When I looked at my articles, I realized that the studies I looked at were measuring how parenting behaviors surrounding infant sleep affected the infants sleep when the infant was 12 to 18 months old. I am much more interested in how these behaviors affect a child of six or older. I am much more interested in long range success. I decided that my research simulation would involve questioning parents again when their child was six years old.

In beginning my research chart and from reading the text, I have gathered the idea that there are many types of research and many views of the process and purpose of research. This is because there are many different types of people with many different ideas. I have also been glad to learn that past research can be a resource for my present simulation.

I would be glad to discuss any concerns that any of my colleagues has with their simulation, and I would love some feedback related to my research ideas!

The Magda Gerber book is Your Self Confident Baby, How to Encourage yourChild’s Natural Abilities—from the very Start

Hello to Everyone in Education 6163-1 at Walden

I just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to working with everyone in section one of EDUC 6163 at Walden. I look forward to reading your blogs!

Liz Thomas