Early childhood educators and professionals carry out many functions to meet the objectives toward their mission and for meeting the goals of helping children and their families can be accomplished. In doing so, they often are faced with ethical dilemmas. Codes of ethics, therefore, helps to set the standards of practice expected of professional people, and in consequence they are sometimes known as Codes of Practice. Professionalizing early childhood requires that teachers be critical practitioners and ethical professionals; thus, “taking control of the professionalization agenda therefore requires practitioners to demonstrate a critical understanding of their practice'' (Taggart, 2011, p. 85).…
Anne Haas-Dyson’s (2003) The Brothers and Sisters Learn to Write, Popular Literacies in Childhood and School Cultures is the product of a yearlong ethnographic study in an urban first grade classroom, wherein she examined children’s appropriation of cultural material for participation in unofficial (e.g., social spaces) and official (e.g., academic spaces) ‘worlds’. Focusing on a small circle of friends (“the Brothers and Sisters”), she documented the range of media texts that were created, existed, and exchanged within their peer culture. Identifying the different ways in which these children and their peers recontextualized such media, she examined the nature of their incorporation of such “textual toys” in the children’s forays into school…
The DEC and NAEYC codes of ethics exposed some important reminders of why I truly want to be part of a profession that place important values when considering all children, all families investing in the early childhood (EC) field and individuals willing working within this field to increase the quality care that govern our profession. I have worked within this field in various capacities that made me question the individuals I worked for and how I viewed and valued the (EC) profession. The DEC codes in particular discuss the enhancement of children’s and families quality of life when investing in child care development. Under this code #2 we should be able to identify professionals that recognize the responsibility to improve the developmental…
What is the ethical dilemma here? The ethical dilemma here is the mother’s religious beliefs versus medical beliefs. A child’s life is currently in danger and requires immediate medical treatments; however, the child may not be treated due to religious beliefs of the mother. The mother is a religious scientist, who does not accept any medical treatments.…
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development was created by a man named Lawrence Kohlberg. He was a professor at Harvard, as well as a psychology. Subsequently, he decided to move into the moral education field. He believed that there are three levels of moral development; each level is divided into two individual stages. His theory was influenced by the thinking of the Swiss psychologist, Piaget; American philosopher, John Dewey; and American philosopher/ psychologist, James Mark Baldwin.…
Life is not black and white: It is a complex system made up of everything in between. Every day we face decisions, problems and dilemmas. Childcare in Australia is diverse, we are lucky to live in a society that embraces all aspects of children and the families we educate. Celebrating, supporting and accepting this melange of children, parents, educators and the wider community is rewarding and sometimes challenging. Our own views and experiences along with legal aspects shape the way we perceive things to be right and wrong.…
Michael is a male educator who recently joined child care center and completed his degree and began to work with babies. On the other hand, a family from an Islamic background joined child care center recently. The little girl from that family is in Michael’s care. Her father thinks that the men should be banned from changing nappies in the child care. The family believes that husbands and wives have their own priorities in regards to family.…
The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 aim to make sure that children are at the core of everything they do and that the children’s rights are respected and upheld in all childcare environments. This act also has measures that highlight any problems at the early stages rather than waiting until it’s too late when the child has reached breaking point. The act promotes children’s rights as it provides free school meals for children in Primary 1-3. It gives extra help to children in care so they receive the same treatment as any other child giving them an equal chance to succeed. The Scottish government believe that each child should have one consistent person in their lives that anyone can approach if they have any concerns about…
Pre-Birth to 3 The Pre-Birth to 3 document is a guideline put in place by Learning Teaching Scotland for children in the womb to age 3. This was previously Birth to 3 but was changed in 2010 to Pre-Birth to 3 as new research found that children learn in the womb before births, such as recognising sounds and smells. Many organisations were involved in this change, such as midwives, health visitors and the NHS as a whole. Also researchers such as Suzanne Zeedyke and Robin Balbernie were involved in the change from learning in the womb and language respectively.…
How to adapt communication to meet different communication needs of adults It is important that we remain sensitive to the needs of other adults, particularly if they have communication difficulties. It is possible that you will automatically adapt to the way you communicate with them without realising that you have done so. We often change the way we react to others, depending on the way to which they react to us. For example, if you are speaking to a parent or carer who is hearing impaired, you might want to make sure that you are facing them and making eye contact so that they can lip read.…
Every Child Matters 2005 1.2 Why is it important to support the rights of all children and young people to participation and equality of…
The Children’s Act (1989) (2004) The children’s act 1989 was amended in 2004. The children’s act has placed organisations to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children and young people. The children and young people are being protected because they are unable to protect themselves from harm and danger. The act is designed to guide principles that are in mind for the care and support of children. It allows children to: - Be Healthy - Remain safe in their environments - Enjoy life - Assist in their quest to succeed - Make a positive contribution - Achieve economic stability for the future…
My Personal Experiences I began my reflections by asking myself what is a ‘realistic’ image of a child and who is a child? I found my thoughts to be influenced by Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw (Personal communication, SCYC, 2016), who proposed many interesting ideas and point of views about young children and early childhood education. Like her, as I began to explore my view of a child, I realized that…
Early years of childhood have widely been recognised as the most important years of learning and development. “Research have shown the importance of these years to learn and acquire new skills” (DEECD, 2010), which have assigned a great responsibility to the educators working with the young children. As an early childhood educator, I feel that it is my responsibility to provide the high quality learning environment for the young children to learn, acquire and develop social, emotional, academic and technological skills. The following paper contains my philosophy statement, which includes my values and professional knowledge in relation to children, teaching and learning in early childhood education. Connor defines philosophy as “it can be used…
Vygotsky (1978) stresses the idea “that young children learn in a social context under the guidance of more skillful tutor” (Ac cited in McLeod, 2014). Besides the teacher can provide the fair access and participation in learning experiences for all the children. Thus, as advocates of social justice, the educators can create a difference by teaching the concept of equality to the young children. Besides, the educators can support inclusive child participation through arranging additional support staff for the centre, if the centre is unable to include children with disability because of financial problem. “Inclusion and early childhood opportunities are very crucial to provide children the social space to learn through play” (Inclusion Now, n.d.).…