Looking Back...

The information collected in this course has opened my eyes to the reality of the importance of research to the field of early childhood education. My research topic focused on the effects of inequities on the development of young children. This type of research would be helpful to this field due to the fact that inequities such as poverty, homelessness, and immigration are becoming more and more prevalent in the lives of young children and families throughout the entire world. Because of their growing relevance new ideas, techniques, and comprehension of these issues would be vital to the continued growth and development of young children. If this research proposal were to be followed through, this could benefit the lives of so many families, educators, and public agencies fighting against inequities each day.

As a result of this course, my ideas of the importance of research have definitely changed. Research is critical to the growth and development of the entire world around us. Thus, ECE outlets must invest more time, energy, and funding into research in order to keep up with the constant change. I value all of the information that was offered to me in this course and can definitely see myself passing this knowledge along to other ECE professionals and families that I come into contact with along the way.

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA)

Upon exploration of the the EECERA website, I discovered that many of the same issues in early childhood education here in the US are prevalent all over the world. Professionalism, parent communication, transitions, and other prominent topics that I experience on an everyday basis were presented on the EECERA website.

I also stumbled upon an article entitled "Parents' Play Beliefs and Engagement in Young Children's Play at Home". I have always been interested in the role of play in the development of young children, so this article immediately struck my interest. The authors discussed their study of the effects of the level of parent engagement in play at home in the development of their young children. The study concluded that most parents participate in play with their children more so as teachers rather than playmates. I never really considered this to be true, so this was an eye opener for me when looking at play engagement from adults as a whole. 

You can access the article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1350293X.2018.1441979?journalCode=recr20