Parents and Community Engagement in Early Childhood Setting

19th November 2019

Family and community engagement are essential to promote high quality services for all children in ECE settings. Parents know their children better than anyone in terms of temperaments, strength, vulnerabilities, talents and special needs. As such, early childhood providers should create authentic partnership with parents to share their expertise, culture and care. 

Family and Community Engagement Framework - Group 3

Our task is to create our own Family and Community Engagement (F&C) Framework by identify the important elements. Then, the group need to critically discuss the important of F&C engagement in child development. After that, devise constructive strategies to encourage F&C engagement in EC settings.

The above is the mapping of the framework we created after discussion.

The aim of the framework is to provide an environment that encourage quality interaction with family, society, peers, professionals and nature.  

i) Partnership with parents/guardians

- Teachers can prepare some take-home projects to be completed together by the parents and child

- Parents are invited to join the teaching and learning process in the classroom 

- Parents can take turns to prepare teaching materials to better understand the learning subject/theme

- Teachers and parents can work together in school beautification projects

- Ongoing research shows that parental involvement in school improves students' achievement in academic, social skills and behaviors.

ii) Society collaboration

- visitations to old folks home and orphanage can let the children see the other side of the community which are less fortunate to cultivate them to be more compassionate, kind and willing to offer helping hands to others

- children can learn the culture and experience the real setting of different ethnic and religion by visitations to friends' open house especially during festive season. Diversity need to be acknowledged and valued. Mutual respect is very important to extract the best of our cultural diversity. 

iii) Peer teamwork

- children need to expose to activities that encourage teamwork with peers such as Sports Day, Canteen Day, Exhibitions etc. Ability to work as a team is an essential life skill because it involved a significant amount of interaction. 

iv) Partnership with professionals (rescue team, health department, police force)

- for the sake of children safety, they need to know where and how to get help when in need. The ECE providers can invite the professionals to school or visit to their premises to let the children understand their job nature and provide correct information and guidance to children. 

v) Nature

- this is an important elements but always neglected - interaction with nature from leafy forest to home grown flowers. Besides human and technology, children need to learn to appreciate the nature and thus build the connection with nature for its sustainability. There are numerous empirical research evidenced that interacting with nature delivers a range of benefits to children physically, psychologically and cognitive performance. 

Children nowadays are digital native and collaboration is very important in early childhood. As such, when designing the framework we should also link all the above elements with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to promote the development of creativity and children's ICT capability. Their critical thinking skills must be encouraged through out the communication process.

This is the last blog of year 2019. Goodbye 2019!! Welcome 2020!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to dear Dr Kim and fellow course mates!!! 

Diversity and Equity

12th November 2019
The review for the following articles were presented:

1. Equity in Early Childhood Education
2. Challenges of developing pedagogy through diversity and equity within curriculum
3. Cultural diversity and early years ideology
4. New understanding of cultural diversity and the implications for early childhood policy, pedagogy and practice

The above picture was used to discussed equality and equity. Both strategies are used to promote fairness. However, equality and equity ARE NOT EQUAL. Equality is treating everyone the same as they start from the same point (quantity, value, rank, status) and everyone benefits from same support and receive equal treatment irregardless of their needs. Equality is justified by quantity. 

While equity is a need based approach where everyone get supported by what they need to be successful. Equity justified things on the basis of quality. 

In many parts of the world including Malaysia, the education data is incomplete for certain groups such as: 

• vulnerable group
• nomadic population
• informal school education
• person displaced by conflict
• children in labour
• school in remote region

The marginalised groups were made invisible. As such, it is difficult to identify their needs in promoting equity in education. 

Why inequity happen in education?

1. low awareness about the important of education
2. lack of quality teachers to handle special needs children
3. the pre-schools which target the low income groups were enrolled by others children who have better starting point

There is no single universally convincing answer to the debate on equity. The differences in learning outcome was due to many factors including a person's ability and motivation, background, resources etc. 

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The second article was the comparison of pedagogies and its challenges between a multicultural and mono-cultural school. Multicultural school children have realistic view about diversity in culture and the school has diverse settings and activities that support different culture. Mono-cultural school did value the diversity through theme teaching and are more creative in learning diversity. 

Diversity is not only about ethnic/race, but also background and culture. The concept of salad bowl vs melting pot was brought up for discussion. I personally prefer salad bowl because our cultural richness made Malaysia special and beautiful.

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The third article was about the parenting and learning style of an Anglo family and a Bangladeshi family. 

Anglo                             Bangladeshi

child-centeres                      teacher centered

able to speak and communicate            listen is more important than speaking

Issues and challenges:

• Children were sent to the school which cater their choice of language. This may cause serious implication for national integration. 
• Too many children speaking unknown language. So, national language is used as medium of instruction.
• pre-school should provide inclusive and multicultural education 

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The research question for the 4th article: How are cultural processes, values and tradition related to children's development?

Culture: 

- more to socialization of childhood

- way of being

- cultural variable is an unstable construct (more than language)

- own needs and preference (individualism)

- needs and wants of family and community (collectivism)

Role of teachers:

- understand the cultural variation

- different teaching style

- equal access to opportunity (participate/contribute)

- celebrate diversity

- include diverse learning materials

- adapting the education system - be adaptive

- acknowledge the unique ways a family raise their child

- deliberately create something within ZPD of a child

Digital Technology in Early Childhood Education

5th November 2019
4 articles were presented for review:

1. Digital Technology use by and with young children 
2. Trends in Early Childhood Education Practice and Professional Learning with Digital Technologies
3. Touch Screen Technology
4. Technology Access for Low-Income Preschoolers: Bridging the Digital Divide

Our children are growing up as the digital generation who are connected to the world around them by digital technology. Screen, information and speed are the way they learn and communicate with the world. As such, it is important for early childhood educators to understand how to adapt the teaching methodologies and learning environment to the needs of the generation who have been exposed to constant stimulation from digital technologies.

There are a few ideas I get from the presentations: 

Pace

- Technology enables children to learn at their own pace according to their abilities and needs

- Technology is an effective way to connect with all learning styles (audio, visual, kinesthetic)

Place

- With technology, there are no limitations. Technology can bring children to North Pole to check out on polar bear and igloo or Sahara desert to learn about Saharan flora and fauna and the lists go on. 

Co-constructor of knowledge

- Technology enables children to become independent learners. Children interact with teachers, peers and other part of the world to learn from them and expand their knowledge. 

Imagination and creativity 

With technology, children have more visual literacy than print literacy. One believes that reading develops imagination and creativity and these skills are being lost in technology era. Moreover. whenever people faced with a question, they "Google it" rather than brainstorming for an answer. Thus, stunted the imagination and creativity. 

Critical thinking

Psychology Today defines critical thinking as the "capacity to reflect, reason and draw conclusions based on our experiences, knowledge and insights." Real-time visual media do not allow for reflection, analysis and evaluation. Moreover, the "search and find" process eliminated the need for critical thinking.  

On contrary, digital technology do have positive impact on imagination and critical thinking skills. Look at the new apps and popular online games, I think this was done with great imagination. Further, children create their own video and coding for mobile applications too. I believe during the process, critical thinking do play an important role because they analyse, reflect and solve on-going problem in developing new technology.   

Trends

1. Our children are exposed to virtual learning and game-based learning. Hard copy books are replaced by digital technology. 

2. Teachers training need to include digital literacy. Emphasize on developing educators' competencies in digital pedagogies. 

3. Digital toy decreasing the quality and quantity of language 

4. Children are exposed to inappropriate and unwanted content 

21st Century children were shaped by technology. Learning through technology has became part of their lifestyle. However, by just providing the infrastructure to digital technology without properly train the teachers in diverse teaching approach, the investment may go to waste. In addition, any digital technology used by children have to be facilitated by an adult to make it meaningful and efficient.  

Dr Kim also shared that the next generation is VUCA generation:

V - volatile

U - uncertain

C - complicated

A - ambiguous

Educators'need to think of what kind of activities we can provide to the children in this era. 

The children do not live in the environment we used to lived in. And in future, they do not live in the environment they are living right now either. There is so much to learn on how to stay relevant in the fast paced digital world! 

Humanistic Perspective in Early Childhood Education

A Visit to Tzu Chi Kindergarten in Penang

Tzu Chi and Me

I have heard about good deeds of Tzu Chi many years ago through their charity events and recycle activities. The are well known for helping the poor and the needy. The first time I stepped into Tzu Chi Kindergarten (Bayan Lepas Branch) was to inquire about the enrolment of my child. I was turned away because the list has been filled up. I was told that to secure a place in Tzu Chi Kindergarten, I should fill up the name during pregnancy and there is a priority for their volunteers. Oh... well.... I felt the monthly fees and miscellaneous fees are relatively high for me. I decided to home-school my child at the end. 

Years later, I was still very impressed by Tzu Chi charity work to the community. So, I decided to enrol my child into their Humanity School in SJKC Chong Cheng so that we can learn and giving back to the society. I paid a relatively high miscellaneous fees for this. Unfortunately, we did not "survive" till the end. 

The fees made me think that Tzu Chi education is for rich people... 

I am glad that Dr Kim has arranged this visit for us to further understand the humanistic philosophy of Tzu Chi. To me, it is also a chance to change my perception on Tzu Chi education.

The Visit

It was a drizzling day. I was late and rushed. I missed the chance to admire the large green lawn and the beautiful building at the front because I entered directly through the basement carpark. I only managed to pay respect to the Buddha from the bottom of my heart. The teachers and the volunteers are very helpful and kind. From the arrangement of the photo session to tea break followed by the presentations and sharing, we can feel that they have put in effort in every little thing and do it diligently (用心). Everything is very well organised and the snacks and souvenirs were a surprise. 

Daily Routine

Daily Outdoor Activities (40 mins) 

- Physical exercise and recycling activity

- connectivity with nature

Thematic/Subject Teaching (120 mins) 

- 5-6 themes according to Jing Si Aphorism and English and Bahasa Malaysia subjects

Corner Exploration (60 mins) 

- development of Multiple Intelligence

- DIY, role play, cooking, blocks, craft and reading corners.

- Teachers will discuss with the children what will they do in the Corner Exploration classroom.

- Children have the freedom to choose on what to do and record down their exploration after the session. 

Corner Exploration Classroom

Humanistic lesson (40 mins)

- needle and thread

- tea serving

- flower arrangement

From the teachers' presentation, I believe all the aspects in KSPK are well taken care. This is certainly a holistic education. 

Triangular Relationship: Student, Teacher, Parent

I was totally agreed to the importance to work together with parents in children education to maximise the learning outcome. Tzu Chi encourage regular parent-child bonding in various activities such as Graduation ceremony, Sports day, Ex-graduate parent-child alumni, parent child reading record etc. 

What about parents who are suffering from financial hardship and every hour counts to earn a living? They need to make a choice.

Enrolment

According to Tzu Chi, the enrolment of children is at first come first serve basis and only families who register during the Open Day and stay back for the sharing session will be selected. 

We was informed that 20% of Tzu Chi's students were subsidized and the school intended to increase to 100%  and target the Bottom 40% (B40) community. This is a really good intention to promote equality in education for all. However, the school is located at the neighbourhood where the majority are from the medium 40%  (M40) and Top 20% (T20). To reach out to B40, more effort need to be done. The B40 is not aware of the open day, the subsidize and may feel inferior in front of this gorgeous building. 

Experiential Learning

There are three special activities for experiential learning: 

i) "Pregnancy" experience carried out by the 6 years old students. For example:
1st month pregnancy : the children have to take care of the "baby" like the drops of water hold in a banana leaf
2nd month pregnancy: the children have to take care of the "baby" like the biscuits in a bag

5th month pregnancy: the children have to carry a balloon in their stomach for daily activities to experience the inconvenience and difficulties
The list goes on until giving birth, take care of a crying baby, changing diapers etc

As filial piety is an important aspects in humanistic education, the above activity will teach the children to love and respect their parents. Besides, birthday was treated as "Mother 's Suffering Day". Children learnt to serve tea and washing mothers' feet to show gratitude and respect to their mother. This looks like a very eastern (Chinese) approach. Children who were brought up at the other end of the world (Western) at a very different way may found this awkward and unacceptable. 

ii) Vegetarian Passport Activity (one month free vegetarian lunches and dinners)
- children fly in a space ship to vegetarian planet where all the animals are happy

iii) Plantation area - the children plant, take care, cook and eat the vegetables

Health Screening

Tzu Chi has partnered with pediatricians, doctors, dentists and therapists in the Health Screening session for newly enrolled children. The early detection of health related problem will be treated. Currently, Tzu Chi accept special needs children with condition. They also have a special team trained (and still developing and expanding) for the special needs children. So, Tzu Chi is aiming at inclusive education too.

Sustainable Development Goal 4:

'To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". 

Tzu Chi has a very good ECE philosophy. Although it has yet to be termed as successful inclusive education,  they are on the right path in this matter.

However, on the part of "equitable right" to education, 

• If B40 is the target group, teachers' readiness is an important issue. 
• Besides, how to reach out to the B40 children in need? 
• Will there be an adjustment in the level of parental commitment?
• The diversity and differences in children's background will definitely challenge the present pedagogy and practices. 

Finally, thank you for the warmth hospitality!!

Presentation by Jordan Chan Wei Ern, 11 years old:
"Earthworm Hotel"

Tzu Chi Teachers in white shirts; Tzu Chi volunteers in brown vest

Education for Orang Asli

BACKGROUND

The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development has entrusted the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA), now the Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) to oversee the educational programs for OA. The OA education was formalized in 1952 (Edo, 2012). Since then, educating the community has been one of the Government’s priorities (MOE, 2013). After almost 50 years, in 2001, the Orang Asli literacy rate was only 51% (MOEM 2008) compared to the national rate of 93.9% (SHUAKAM 2006). Moreover, majority of the OA students will drop out of school after completed their studies in the primary school with only 2% have been successful in advancing their higher education (Ms Ita is one of them graduated from UUM).

Why is it so hard for the OA to access to education? Our group was assigned to find out the challenges and barriers to OA education. Let's have a quick look.

CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS

Health, Family and Culture

40% of OA children by age 2 are malnourished. The brain development for children is very important for their future development. When the basic need (food) is not met, education became irrelevant. 

The older generation are sceptical about sending their children to school because they already sufficient with their traditional way of life (hunting, fishing, live with the natural resources in the jungle). As such, the parents viewed their children's attendance to school and the academic result not as important as an helping hand at home. Extra expenses in school and communication barriers also hinder OA from continue study. Further, some OA children with no birth certificate are unable to enrol in national school. 

Location

Some OA village located in very remote area and the journey to school is too far and inaccessible. This was worsen during bad weather. Hence, the children unable to attend to school regularly and punctually. This will certainly affect their studies. Although some schools provide shuttle services, but a return trip takes 3-4 hours and the service is irregular with bad maintenance of the vehicles.

The Relevance of Education to OA

Younger generation OA learn through informal learning experiences (life skills in the jungle, spiritual ceremony) from older generation. The children are unable to apply the knowledge they learnt from school at home. As such, there is a discontinuity from the educational needs as expected in the school and what is expected at home. This made them felt lack of motivation to be in school.

School and Learning Environment

The government continually emphasizing ‘‘the need for integration and assimilation of the Orang Asli within the mainstream society’’. Thus, teachers work hard to ensure OA children able to "fit" into education system rather than exploring how the present education system can accommodate their needs.

There are about 78 hostels in the peninsula for school-going OA children who live in remote villages. There are unfortunate cases happened in hostel that worried the OA parent. Further, the young children who feel insecure being away from parent will rather dropout and go home. 

OA children experienced the sense of being different for the first time when they were in school. School activities are time-regulated, competitive, at a different language and in an enclosed classroom but the environment in the village or jungle is so different.

Peers, Teachers and Pedagogy 

OA often being called names or taunted at their behaviors for being "Orang Asli".

Some teachers have negative attitude towards OA children. The teaching method is inappropriate to the status, ability and way of thinking of OA children. 

The teaching approach in mainstream may not suitable for OA children in view of their background. 

"BE GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR" - Ms Ita (Semai) from Malaysian Care Corporation

Ms Ita, an Orang Asli from Semai tribe was invited by Dr Kim to share her work with the OA in Tapah, Perak. Despite all the above challenges and barriers to education for OA, she has completed her degree with UUM with perseverance and positive attitude. She told us that although her parents were illiterate, they are very supportive in her education. As such, she do believe education can help the OA community to have a better life but with appropriate method and curriculum.

Malaysian CARE is a non-profit Christian social work organisation registered in Malaysia since 1979. They are committed to serve the poor and needy irrespective of religion and ethnicity. Read more about their Rural & Urban Community Development here:

https://www.malaysiancare.org/about-us/our-services/rural-urban-community-development/

We was informed by Ms Ita that there are actually 18+1 OA tribe in Malaysia in which TEOQ tribe was not in the list. According to JAKOA, there are 178 thousand OA population in Malaysia but a statistic released by another NGO shown 270K population. Nevertheless, they are the minority group in Malaysia whose voice were not represented, right being neglected and their natural resource from the jungle was taken away by others. 

Besides the awareness program of land's right, Malaysian Care is focus on the empowerment and OA's rights in the following areas: 

• Education (both parents and children)
• Economic
• Social
• Political
• Environment
• Basic facilities
• Culture
• Religion

The education challenges and dropout issues discussed by Ms Ita were similar to our previous discussion. She added that, the top management of JAKOA are not staffed by OA people and only 5% of the staff are OA. Hence, the non-OA staff definitely cannot understand the needs and struggle better than OA. 

Ms Ita also reiterated that OA community is humble and peaceful. One of the reason a family move away from a place is because of conflict. They don't fight. 

The community learning centres were set up in the OA village. As such, there will be no problem in accessibility for the children. However, there is still no water supply and electricity in the village (after 62 years of independence and millions (maybe billions) of allocation... this is not from Ita, I just curious) and the villagers have to carried the water manually from a far away river! The schools were led by OA teachers which were trained by Malaysian Care so that they can deliver the knowledge in mother toungue and are more culturally sensitive. The name of the programs are in OA language i.e Deek Penanty (House of Knowledge), Si Nui Bor & Benaneq (Youth Camp) etc to create sense of belonging among them. 

Thank you Ms Ita for the insightful sharing and presentation. She is a brave and dedicated girl with a big heart to give back to her own community. The road to an equitable quality education is still a long way to go. All the best to Ms Ita and OA community!

Ms Ita (Front row: 5th from the right)

Guest Speaker: Teacher Stella, A Rohingya Refugee School Teacher

Background

The Rohingya people are a Muslim minority group residing in the Western State of Rakhine, Myanmar. They were denied citizenship from the new Citizenship Law (135 ethnic group in the list) passed in 1982. Since then, Rohingya have faced systemic persecution and discrimination for decades. The 2015 refugee crisis has caused mass migration of Rohingya to many parts of the world include Penang. 

Teacher Stella's Sharing

Looking at those helpless children and families, Teacher Stella decided to teach in the refugee school. Besides teaching them to read, write and count (3M), teacher Stella also teach the elder children practical skills such as filling in forms, calling ambulance, applying for UNHCR services/cards and basic computer skills. The children also exposed to art, poem and drama to express their feelings and emotions. They even form a choral speaking group and all the members can speak good English.

Teacher Stella said the parents were very happy with the children achievements in school and the enrolment is always over subscribe. As such, Teacher Stella imposed a requirement for the children to attend early childhood education with Good Start Pre-school before enrol in the primary school with her. She mentioned that Good Start provide the children a good foundation to start elementary school.

Teenagers who has finished elementary school has no place to further study. They may engaged themselves in gangsterism or become an extremist due to bad influence. In view of this problem, Teacher Stella decided to start a secondary school for these teenagers to continue study. The school will include vocational skills in their curriculum to prepare the young adults with proper living skill when they graduated. May she be blessed with good luck and good people in setting up the school.

Teacher Stella has a beautiful soul. She was not only teach the children, she also care for them and help their family whenever she were called for. She has been fought for a child in a child marriage case. She was frustrated when at the end the girl still get married at young age. However, she still loves her and continue doing what she think is right for other children.

It is very important to provide the refugee children with proper education. Besides 3M, the children were taught manners and discipline. Teachers helped them to get prepared and whenever there is an opportunity to settle down, those who are literate will be in advantage. In 5-10 years time, if this batch of grown adults has zero skills, no direction of what to do next but yet still have to survived in an unfavorable situation, what will be the first thing come to their mind? I cannot imagine the chaos in community and the insecurity among Malaysians at that time.

So, thank you teacher Stella and all the good Samaritans for your sacrifices and contributions!

Teacher Stella: third from the right