When I Think of Research

     When I think of research, I envision professionals using valid, reliable, and ethical methods of answering questions in an effort to improve their practice and the lives of those they serve. I have been skeptical of university driven research because of my experiences with researchers who have not been early childhood professionals, and their eagerness to please funders over finding and reporting truthful answers. During this course, however, I have discovered that practitioners can be researchers, and I have come to believe that action research is very useful to early childhood professionals who want to better serve the children and families in their care. There is more on action research at the website listed below. I have also come to a sensitivity for the children's competence to give assent as participants, separate from the primary consent of their parents, an element of research I had not previously considered.
      Planning and designing the research is a common conversational activity with my colleagues and family in the course of discussing the world's problems and how to go about solving them. Putting the talk on paper seems to be the next logical step to take in this interesting and important pastime, and so writing and refining a research topic question, hypothesis and research design, with step-by-step instructions, made the process do-able for even a student. The most challenging part of this course for me was plowing through much language that was not conversational, using vocabulary and style perhaps common to academics, but certainly not in the daily interactions of most early childhood professionals. For these, I skipped to the Conclusion, as directed by Dr. Lepuschitz in the article, "A Practical Guide to Reading Research Articles" (Lepuschitz, 2011), and feel relieved to have such direction from a respected instructor.
Any Early Childhood Professional should be, and can be reading current research, (keeping Dr. Lepuschitz's guide handy), and even considering ways to act upon the questions that need answers in their professional environment with research. Even if the research is never published, the very act of proceeding results in professional growth. Described as a journey in The Research Journey: A Lonely Planet Approach, the research journey changed the "traveller" not just in what was learned, but also in what she became as a result (Mackenzie & Ling. 2009).

Thank you, fellow travellers, for your professional company along the path of Building Research Competencies.


References
Ferrance, E. (2000). Action Research. Retrieved from www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf

Lepuschitz, J.K. (2011). A practical guide to reading research articles.  Laureate Education Inc., Baltimore, MD.

Mackenzie, N. M., & Ling, L. M. (2009). The research journey: A Lonely Planet approach. Issues in Educational Research, 19(1), 48–60 Retrieved from the Walden Library using Education Research Complete database

Research Around the World

ECDVU Sub-Saharan Africa: Mission Statement


To further develop African ECD leadership capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family and community well-being and broader social and economic development.


http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php


As nervous as I become over learning new technology (I still don't get the point or hang of Facebook), this site is a wondrous model of technology reaching where infrastructure does not. The ECD Virtual University, Sub-Saharan Africa model can unite the African nations in a collective effort to improve the lives of children on the continent, and provide collaborative information about child development to all other global locations. The link above brings the reader to a list of research reports that inform Early Childhood professionals of the state of early childhood, families, policies, issues, and trends affecting children in a given African region. Reading through the report submitted by Samuel Ngaruiya from Kenya, I was surprised-but-not-really to read that Kenya has experienced "a breakdown in social-cultural values, civil strife, conflict and war, rapid socio-economic and political change, and urbanisation as well as inadequate legislation and policy (that) have adversely affected children (Ngaruiya, 2002, pp16-17). Despite cultural differences, the current social issues that have a negative impact on early childhood seem to be the same worldwide.


Other topics that appear at this site are


• Identification of leadership skills needed to support parents in Tanzania


• Assessments of the impact of single-mother, low-income family structure on interaction between mother and child in Malawi


• The influence of different early childhood program models on school readiness on Kenya






I believe that it is noteworthy that a Canadian University sponsors the ECDVU-SSA. What does this say about the responsibilities and motives of educational institutions?


References


Ngaruiya, S., (2002). A Report on the status of Early Childhood Development in Kenya. Retrieved from http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php