Commitment to Professionalism
CHAPTER 13
Contributing to the Profession
NAEYC Administrator Competencies Addressed in This Chapter:
Management Knowledge and Skills
1. Personal and Professional Self-Awareness
· The ability to evaluate ethical and moral dilemmas based on a professionalcode of ethics
8. Leadership and Advocacy
· Knowledge of the legislative process, social issues, and public policyaffecting young children and their families
· The ability to advocate on behalf of young children, their families and theprofession
Early Childhood Knowledge and Skills
1. Historical and Philosophical Foundations
· Knowledge of research methodologies
10. Professionalism
· Knowledge of different professional organizations, resources, and issuesimpacting the welfare of early childhood practitioners
· Ability to make professional judgments based on the NAEYC “Code ofEthical Conduct and Statement of Commitment”
· Ability to work as part of a professional team and supervise support staffor volunteers
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Describe how the field of early childhood education has made progressachieving two of the eight criteria of professional status.
2. Identify the advocacy tools that early childhood advocates should have attheir disposal.
3. Discuss opportunities that program administrators have to contribute tothe field’s future.
Grace’s Experience
Grace had found that working with children came naturally, and she consideredherself to be a gifted teacher after only a short time in the classroom. Shethought she would spend her entire career working directly with children. She isnow somewhat surprised how much she is enjoying the new responsibilities thatcome with being a program director. She is gaining confidence that she can workeffectively with all families, even when faced with difficult conversations; andher skills as a supervisor, coach, and mentor are increasing as well. She is nowcomfortable as a leader in her own center and is considering volunteering to filla leadership role in the local early childhood professional organization. Thatwould give her opportunities to refine her leadership skills while contributing tothe quality of care provided for children throughout her community.
Early childhood administrators are leaders. They contribute to the professionby making the public aware of the field’s emerging professionalism, includingits reliance on a code of ethics; engaging in informed advocacy; becominginvolved in research to increase what we know about how children learn,grow, and develop; and coaching and mentoring novices, experiencedpractitioners, and emerging leaders.
13.1 PROMOTING PROFESSIONALIZATION 1
Lilian Katz, one of the most influential voices in the field of early care andeducation, began discussions about the professionalism of the field in the mid-1980s. Her work extended a foundation that had been laid by sociologists,philosophers, and other scholars and continues to influence how earlychildhood educators think about their work and the contribution they make tosociety. These are some of the attributes that are commonly used todistinguish professionals from other workers and to determine whether anoccupation is, or is moving toward becoming, a profession:
1. Professionals possess specialized knowledge. They acquire this knowledgeand skill in its application by following a course of prolonged training.
2. Professions have rigorous requirements for entry into professionaltraining, and training is delivered in accredited institutions.
3. Members of a profession have agreed-upon standards of practice thatguide their efforts to meet their professional obligations.
4. A profession has a commitment to meet a significant social need.
5. Professionals are altruistic and service oriented rather than motivated byopportunities for personal gain. Their primary goal is to meet clients’needs.
6. Professionals provide an indispensable service and are recognized as theonly group in society that can perform its function.
7. A profession is characterized by autonomy—it has control over entry intothe field, oversees the quality of the services offered by its members, andregulates itself.
8. A profession has a code of ethics that spells out its obligations to society(Feeney, 1995; Katz, 1995; Feeney, 2012).
We will focus on two particular dimensions of professionalism in which thefield has made the most progress. The first is the acquisition of specializedknowledge attained through prolonged training (number 1 in the list above),and the second is reliance on a code of ethics (number 8). We will alsoacknowledge some of the areas where progress has been slow, or where earlychildhood educators’ approach to working with young children and theirfamilies means they will never compromise the field’s traditions to satisfy allcriteria that set professions apart from other occupations.
Moving Toward Professionalism: Professional Preparation andReliance on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct
Professional Preparation:
Many states’ licensing regulations continue to require child care teachers,caregivers, and directors to have only a high school diploma or GED; the CDACredential, which is generally considered to be equivalent to 9 to 12 credithours of professional education, is the most frequently required form ofspecialized training that an individual needs to be qualified to become acenter director (Child Care Aware® of America, 2013). Publically fundedprograms, however, have raised the bar for entry into the field. The ImprovingHead Start Act of 2007 required 50% of all center-based teachers to hold atleast a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field by2013 (Administration for Children and Families [ACF], 2007). States’ QRISsystems and publically funded 4K programs have followed suit. Most requireteachers to have specialized training to prepare them to teach young children,requiring them to hold at least a bachelor’s degree or to be making progresstoward attaining that degree (Barnett, Carolan, Squires, Brown, & Horowitz,2015).
The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC)Program Accreditation Standards also, over time, raise educationalrequirements across the board. They stipulate that by 2020, 75% of theteachers in accredited programs must have a minimum of a baccalaureatedegree in early childhood education or a related field. NAEYC Accreditationalso requires directors to hold at least a bachelor’s degree and requires themto have specialized coursework in administration, leadership, management,and child development and learning, or a plan to meet these requirementswithin 5 years (NAEYC, 2014).
The effects of these policy changes are being felt by the entire field of earlycare and education, raising expectations for educational attainment innonprofit and for-profit programs operated under a wide variety of auspices.These developments point to progress that the field has made in one criterionof professionalism: requiring early childhood practitioners to have specializedknowledge gained by following a course of prolonged training.
Reliance on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct:
Reliance on a code of professional ethics is a second criterion ofprofessionalism in which early childhood educators have made significantstrides. The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (NAEYC, 2011a) includesstatements of the profession’s core values and guides practitioners in theirefforts to meet their responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, andsociety. It articulates ideals (how we aspire to behave) and principles(standards of conduct describing what we must and must not do). A Statementof Commitment accompanies the Code. It is not a part of the Code but attests tomembers’ resolve to abide by the Code as they work with young children andtheir families.
NAEYC first adopted its Code of Ethical Conduct in 1989 (Feeney & Kipnis,1989), revised it in 1992, 1997, and 2005, and reaffirmed and updated it in2011. The field has also taken steps to enhance practitioners’ reliance on theCode and to make this reliance more apparent to those outside the profession.
One way that NAEYC has promoted the visibility and encouraged reliance onthe Code is by making it an important criterion in NAEYC AccreditationStandards that apply both to programs serving young children and topostsecondary programs preparing teachers for every rung along theprofessional ladder—beginning with the CDA and extending throughassociate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels (NAEYC, 2011c; NAEYC, 2012). These standards ensure that all practitioners in accreditedprograms are knowledgeable about the Code, and all who graduate fromaccredited postsecondary programs have demonstrated that they know it andknow how to apply it in their work. It is noteworthy, however, that the NAEYCCode is not enforced. That is because NAEYC is a membership organizationand is open to all, regardless of their professional preparation or the role theyplay in the field.
Two Supplements extend the reach of the Code beyond those working directlywith young children and their families. The first Supplement addressesprogram administrators (NAEYC, 2011b). It provides guidance as you facesituations with ethical dimensions unique to the director’s roles andresponsibilities, such as how to prioritize applicants when filling a much-sought-after opening in the infant room, how to proceed when you mustterminate a teacher because decreased enrollment is forcing you to downsize,and how to manage relationships with families in a way that lets you keep theneeds of children paramount in your decision making. This Supplement isfound as Appendix 3 in this text.
The second Supplement guides adult educators (NAEYC, 2004a). It extends theoriginal Code to meet the needs of those providing training and education,whether in credit-granting institutions such as colleges or universities or ininformal professional development activities. As a program director, you arelikely to provide professional development designed to meet the particularneeds of your staff. This Supplement reminds you, for example, to remain trueto the approved training plan and helps you have the courage to deny credit tothe caregiver who slept through the training activity instead of participatingand learning from it.
Several efforts have helped to make the Code widely accessible. The originalCode is now reprinted in many textbooks; the Code and both Supplements areposted on the NAEYC website, the original Code in both English and Spanish;and the Code is available from NAEYC in both English and Spanish asinexpensive brochures. NAEYC also offers an attractive laminated poster ofthe Statement of Commitment. Programs that display this poster attest to theirpledge to abide by the field’s ethical standards.
In addition to making the Code widely available, NAEYC has made efforts tosupport practitioners’ efforts to apply the Code to their work. NAEYC haspublished two books focusing on professional ethics: The first book, Ethics andthe Early Childhood Educator (Feeney, Freeman, & Pizzolongo, 2012), providesa comprehensive introduction to the Code. It includes discussions of the role ofmorality and ethics in early childhood education, makes a distinction betweenearly childhood educators’ responsibilities and the dilemmas they are likely toface, and offers guidance in addressing ethical situations involving earlychildhood educators’ responsibilities to young children, families, colleagues,and the community. This book is often a required text in 2-year and 4-yearinstitutions’ early childhood programs. The second book, Teaching the NAEYCCode of Ethical Conduct: A Resource Guide (Feeney, Freeman, & Moravcik,2016), includes advice for instructors planning to teach about the Code and itsapplication and describes many activities for teaching the Code, includingreproducible masters that can help you prepare for effective trainings.
NAEYC’s journal, Young Children, includes a regular column that might helpyou include discussions of ethics in your regular staff meetings. “Focus onEthics” alternates descriptions of commonly occurring dilemmas with ananalysis and resolution of a previously published dilemma. All past columnsare posted on the NAEYC website and can be used as the basis for staffdevelopment on professional ethics. This column is based on NAEYC members’submissions. You might decide to submit a dilemma that your center has beengrappling with to be considered for publication and analysis. Specifics abouthow to become involved are included with each article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=28&v=-R-gh3Z9BPY
You can help make the families you serve and others outside the professionaware of the field’s reliance on the Code of Ethical Conduct. Ways toaccomplish this goal are to include the Code (or a link to its location on theNAEYC website) in your program’s family handbook and to put families onnotice that they can expect your behavior, and that of all members of yourstaff, to reflect the program’s commitment to these ethical principles. You canalso prominently display the Statement of Commitment poster attesting toyour program’s reliance on the Code. You are likely to think of other ways tomake the Code more visible in your particular setting.
Other Criteria of Professionalism:
Early childhood education’s rich and unique history illustrates why it isappropriate for early childhood education to satisfy some criteria ofprofessionalism but not others. For example, the field would not want toabandon its commitment to its career ladder, which welcomes employees whowork with young children while they pursue their associate degree, often withthe support of the popular T.E.A.C.H.® scholarships.
Application Activity
Rely on the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (Appendix 2) and the Supplement for Early Childhood Program Administrators (Appendix 3) toresolve one of the following dilemmas. Analyze each dilemma byidentifying to whom you have responsibilities. Find guidance in the NAEYC Code and Supplement for Early Childhood Program Administrators(note item number[s]), brainstorm possible resolutions, then decidewhat the “good director” should do in each of these situations.
· An enrollment issue: The mother of the next child on your list foradmission has told you that she has had her child in 5 differentpreschools in the past 6 months. She tells you very emotional storiesabout what she found wrong with each of them.
· A personnel issue: Your enrollment is down. You must close a classroomand let a teacher go. Do you choose to terminate the last person hired,who is an excellent teacher, or the long-time employee, who has neverdone a very good job?
· A family issue: A parent who has been rude and abusive to staffwithdraws her child but then wants to come back to the center.
Other criteria of professionalism remain beyond our reach. For example, wewould like to achieve greater professional autonomy, but the fact remains thatregulations and standards that determine who is eligible and qualified toteach and care for young children are not likely to have been developed byearly childhood educators. Efforts to include experts in early childhoodeducation in the groups that create these regulations are the focus of advocacyefforts in some states.
For these reasons, it is now generally agreed that early childhood education isan “emerging” profession (Feeney, 2012). It is neither like the “paradigmprofessions” of law and medicine, nor are early childhood educators unskilledworkers, such as day laborers or short-order cooks, who enter the workplacewith little prior training or specialized knowledge, and whose employers arelikely to consider them to be interchangeable. Consider where early childhoodeducation falls on the professional continuum illustrated in Figure 13.1.
As the field moves toward increased professionalism, it is important thatprogram administrators, as leaders in the field, are active in organizationsthat support their efforts to remain informed and engaged professionals.Review the list of professional organizations found in Appendix 4. Werecommend that you join one or more that you find to be of particular interestand that you select one to become active in at the local, state, or national level.Doing so can enhance your knowledge and expertise and connect you with thelarger community of early childhood professionals.
Figure 13.1
A Professional Continuum
Application Activity
Our discussion focuses on efforts to increase the professionalism of thefield by setting higher expectations for professional preparation and bymaking our reliance on our Code of Ethical Conduct explicit, and wediscuss the issues created by the field’s lack of autonomy. Select one ofthe other five criteria of professionalism. Decide where the field of earlycare and education falls on the professionalism continuum that putsdoctors and lawyers at one end and unskilled workers at the other.Provide a rationale for your conclusion.
13.2 ENGAGING IN INFORMED ADVOCACY
Advocacy is speaking out for and taking action in support of causes that protect and support vulnerablepopulations. Early childhood educators have a long history of advocacy on behalf of young children,their families, and the field of early care and education (Feeney, 2012). Our commitment to advocacy isestablished by the Statement of Commitment that accompanies the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and isreiterated in several of the Code’s Ideals, including those that urge early childhood educators to advocatefor children who have special needs and to promote environments that are physically and emotionallyhealthy and support young children’s learning, growth, and development (NAEYC, 2011a).
Advocacy can involve everything from working on behalf of a particular child or family to speaking outat the national level. Your personality, your passion, your available time and energy, and your stage ofprofessional development are all likely to influence the kinds of advocacy that are right for you. Whenyou are a novice in the field, advocacy on behalf of a particular child or family will probably be the bestfit for your interests and abilities. As you become more experienced, and particularly when you moveinto an administrative role, it will be time to reevaluate your strengths and interests in light of theresponsibilities you have accepted by becoming a leader in the field. It may be time for you to assume aleadership role in your local community, and perhaps on an even larger stage. Consider the following listto identify the kinds of advocacy activities that are right for you:
· Individual advocacy involves professionals in working on behalf of children or families. Youengage in this form of advocacy when you help a particular child or family gain access to neededservices. An example of this kind of personal advocacy is pursuing speech therapy for the childwhose poor articulation is making it difficult for him to have positive interactions with his peers.Your individual advocacy efforts may also involve sharing your views with individuals or groups toraise their awareness about an issue. This kind of advocacy can be either spontaneous or planned(Robinson & Stark, 2002). Distributing information about the Campaign for a Commercial-FreeChildhood to the families of the children in your program and encouraging them to limit thenumber of commercial messages to which their children are exposed are examples of individualadvocacy. You are also engaged in individual advocacy when you write a letter to the editor orsubmit a guest editorial to your local paper.
· Collective advocacy involves professionals working together on behalf of a group of people, forexample, young children, families who need child care, or caregivers who are not earning aworking wage or receiving appropriate benefits. As an early childhood advocate, you are probablyfocused on securing a “greater societal commitment to improving programs for young children andmore support for early childhood educators” (Jacobson & Simpson, 2007, p. 92) and in speaking up“because all is not right for children in our country and the world” (Feeney, 2012, p. 71). Two kindsof collective advocacy target decision makers far removed from the daily lives of young childrenand their families:
· Public policy advocacy may involve you in efforts to influence public policies and practices tomake them more responsive to the needs of children and families. Public policy advocateschallenge those who develop laws, regulations, and policies to support young children, theirfamilies, and the caregivers with whom they spend their days (Robinson & Stark, 2002). When aprofessional organization such as your state NAEYC affiliate communicates its position on an issuerelated to children and families to the state legislature, the organization’s spokespersons areengaged in collective public policy advocacy.
· Private-sector advocacy is designed to influence business leaders’ practices and policies. Someprivate-sector advocates work to make the workplace more family friendly, while others focus oneliminating violence in toys and children’s media, or work to ensure that toys are made from safe,nontoxic materials. Successful private-sector advocacy efforts have increased the number ofcorporations that offer employees flexible schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and part-timeemployment. They also have increased the number of corporations that offer on-site employer-supported child care and have led to the removal of unsafe toys from store shelves.
We hope that you will continue the field’s tradition of advocacy by seizing opportunities to speak out forthose who are most vulnerable and unable to speak out for themselves.
Application Activity
Identify an issue facing your center, your community, or your state. Identify who might help youresolve this issue. Should the target of your advocacy be local policy makers, state-level legislators,or corporate leaders? Identify strategies likely to be most effective to bring attention andeventually action to remedy the problem or resolve the issue.
Becoming an Effective Advocate
Becoming an effective advocate is an important part of becoming a mature professional. However, manyearly childhood educators who enjoy their work with children find it difficult to speak with authority toadults, particularly to public-sector or business policy makers. That may be because working directlywith children requires a different skill set than speaking out in a public arena. Nevertheless, we knowthat if we are to attract the public support needed to create a robust, high-quality, and sustainable systemof early care and education, we must be effective advocates.
One strategy that helps ensure success is to create coalitions of support and to network with otherindividuals or groups who share your cause (Ellison & Barbour, 1992; Levine, 1992). That may meanlinking with providers of special services such as speech or occupational therapists, or working withsupport groups for mothers such as Mom’s Rising, a grassroots effort designed to support family-friendlypolicies and practices. Review Figure 13.2, Characteristics of Effective Advocates. It may inspire you totake action about an issue related to children, families, and child care personnel.
Figure 13.2
Characteristics of Effective Advocates
Sources: Based on Blank, 1997; Robinson & Stark, 2002; Teles & Schmitt, 2011.
Application Activity
Learn about the career of a successful early childhood advocate. Consider the list below ofadvocates who championed the causes important to early childhood educators. You can probablyidentify others who have been successful speaking out on behalf of children and families in a local,state, national, or international arena. Learn about the major accomplishments of the advocate youhave selected to research and identify how they contributed to the well-being of children andfamilies. Be prepared to share your findings with your class.
· Susan Blow opened the first public kindergarten in St. Louis in 1873. Her goal was to givechildren experiences that would make them love learning.
· Margaret McMillan and her sister Rachel opened the first nursery school in London in 1911 toprovide the children of factory workers with opportunities to play outdoors in a safeenvironment.
· James L. Hymes, Jr. was one of the founders of Head Start in 1963. He spent his entire careerteaching parents and caregivers how to support children’s learning, growth, and development.
· Marian Wright Edelman founded the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973 to address inequalitiescreated by poverty and other risks children face to their well-being.
· Susan Linn founded the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in 2000 in response toconcerns about marketing to children and the commercialization of childhood.
· J. Ronald Lally founded For Our Babies, an advocacy initiative focused on qualityprogramming for very young children in 2014.
An Advocate’s Toolbox
Effective advocates are good communicators. They know what they want to achieve. They express thefacts clearly, directly, and accurately, and are explicit about their goals (Jacobson & Simpson, 2007).Advocates sometimes need to be ready to act on short notice, such as when the legislature is preparing tovote on an issue affecting children and families. In other instances, advocates have time to set goals forwhat they want to accomplish in the future and can build coalitions around specific issues. In theseinstances, when time is not of the essence, they may become involved with political action campaignsand can take their time to identify candidates receptive to helping advance issues in support of childrenand families.
Effective advocates have many tools at their disposal. Every advocacy effort must be tailored to meet aparticular audience’s need for information about the problem you have identified and the role theycould play to help you reach the solution you propose. Consider how each of these advocacy tools mightcontribute to the success of your own efforts to advocate on behalf of children, families, and those whocare for them.
· Position statements are expressions of professional organizations’ official stance on issues related totheir mission. NAEYC, the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children(CEC), the Southern Early Childhood Association (SECA), and the Association for Childhood EducationInternational (ACEI) have developed position statements addressing controversial or critical issuesrelated to early childhood education practice, policy, and professional development. Sometimes two ormore professional organizations develop position statements together. For example, Early ChildhoodMathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings (NAEYC and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,2010) is a joint position statement of NAEYC and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics(NCTM). In other instances, allied organizations embrace each other’s position statements, as SECA didwhen they endorsed the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct.
Position statements include extensive reviews of the literature and are a valuable foundation uponwhich to base your advocacy efforts. They can be extremely helpful as you prepare to testify on behalf oflegislation or to meet with policy makers in other settings, but are not usually appropriate to share withlegislators or other decision makers because they are too in-depth and detailed for their purposes.
· White papers are reports developed by organizations to describe a problem and propose a solution.These advocacy documents often include many facts and figures that can be used to support the solutionyou propose.
· A briefing paper or issue brief typically describes one problem, describes the policy you propose, andgives an example of how the policy you propose is working in another locale. Legislators are particularlyinterested in policies in neighboring states, so provide close-to-home examples whenever possible(Robinson & Stark, 2002).
· Talking points are short and to the point. They include “‘sound bites’ telling why you support or opposea particular policy or decision” (Robinson & Stark, 2002, p. 82). Advocates find talking points very usefulthen they meet with policy makers or talk to the media.
· Key facts handouts are an advocacy tool intended for the public, policy makers, and the media. Theyare short (one- or two-page) to-the-point summaries of the basic facts surrounding your issue and clearlystate the steps that you recommend policy makers take based on these facts. Any statistics you referencemust be accurate and up to date (Robinson & Stark, 2002). See Figure 13.3 for an example of a Key FactsHandout that advocates for changes to South Carolina’s child care regulations.
Figure 13.3
Key Facts Handout
Sources: AAP/APHA/NRCHSCC, 2011; Child Care Aware® of America, 2013; NAEYC, 2014; NAEYC, 1993; South Carolina Departmentof Social Services, 2005.
This Key Facts Handout briefly highlights research that supports low ratios and class size, providesinformation about neighboring states’ child care regulations, and makes specific recommendations forSouth Carolina policy makers to consider.
· Concrete examples are compelling and often effective ways to demonstrate the importance of the policyor initiative you are recommending. If you are advocating for quality programs for 4-year-olds, forexample, you will want to give policy makers a glimpse into a classroom with many authentic hands-onexperiences, and you will need to identify what children learn when they build with blocks or dress upin the dramatic play center. You can do this by inviting policy makers to your center or by taking thecenter to them with photos, short videos, and real-life success stories (Jacobson & Simpson, 2007). Oryour advocacy efforts might focus on efforts to make quality care more accessible and affordable. In thatcase, you could give policy makers the opportunity to hear from a family struggling to gain access toquality care for their young children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRbfZr6Ty1k
· Action alerts mobilize advocates to take immediate action. They are typically emailed to supporters andurge them to contact their legislators immediately to ask them to support children and families whenthey cast their votes on specific legislation. You can expect action alerts to include the phone numbersand email addresses of targeted legislators and specific facts advocates can use in their message(Robinson & Stark, 2002).
Application Activity
Find examples of a variety of advocacy materials online. Position papers are typically linkeddirectly from organizations’ websites. Other advocacy materials can be found by searching on theInternet. Look, for example, for NAEYC’s current public policy talking points, the American LibraryAssociation’s white paper, “The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and MaterialsCollections for Children,” or the National Art Association’s series of white papers describing thevalue of arts education. Evaluate how successful you think the materials you find are likely to be.
Many organizations focused on young children and their families have become more active in theadvocacy arena in recent years. It is likely their stepped-up efforts have been prompted by their hopethat they can restore funding that was cut from bare-bones local, state, and federal budgets in theaftermath of the 2008 economic slowdown. As the economy has recovered, some initiatives have beensuccessful in increasing support for programs focused on children’s issue, but the competition for thesemonies is intense. We recommend that you rely on advocacy materials created by national organizationsthat support your own local- or state-level advocacy efforts, whether you are concerned with expandinginfant/toddler or 4K programs, or increasing services to young children with special needs and theirfamilies. Some organizations active in leading advocacy efforts are listed at the end of this chapter. Youmay know of other advocacy groups that address issues faced in your own community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNy0nYtrtvU
NAEYC sponsors an annual Week of the Young Child in mid-April. This might be an ideal advocacyopportunity when used as a platform for informing the public and elected officials about issues relatedto young children and their families; to spotlight a local champion for children; or to grow grassrootsadvocacy efforts by involving students, programs, and providers in high-profile activities (Advocates inAction, 2009). By coordinating advocacy efforts in your community, city, or state, you can increase thechances for presenting a unified message that is likely to have a greater impact than would be a single,isolated effort. The NAEYC website has many suggestions for how you might take Week of the YoungChild activities out into your community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ECFiAsqKc
Important Reminders!
We hope we have inspired you to become an effective advocate for young children and families on thelocal, state, or national level. It is important to remember, however, that some agencies or organizationsprohibit their employees from taking a public stand on controversial issues. Before you or members ofyour staff speak out publically, you need to be certain that you are following your employer’s policiesrelated to advocacy activities. You may not be permitted to participate in rallies or other demonstrationsduring work hours, and may be prohibited from identifying yourself as a public employee in a letter tothe editor or a guest editorial in your local paper. It is best to find out about any restrictions that mightlimit how you can speak out before your community is engaged in heated public debate. That way, youcan be assured that center personnel will appreciate that the limits you set are not intended to silencetheir weighing in on a particular issue but are, instead, designed to adhere to the agency’s establishedpolicies.
You also need to be aware of limitations that apply to 501(c)(3) affiliates of NAEYC and other nonprofitorganizations, and to your program if it has this nonprofit designation. It is not permissible, for example,for nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations to recognize elected officials who are candidates for reelection withan award during an election year. That means that it would not be possible for your local NAEYC affiliateto honor your local state senator as a Champion for Children after she has announced her candidacy forreelection (NAEYC, 2004b).
If the kinds of advocacy efforts described earlier are not permitted by your employer, we encourage youto share information with your friends and family. Maybe you will inspire them to advocate on behalf ofchildren and families.
A Better Way
Grace has become comfortable as a supervisor, mentor, and coach to the teachers in her center, and sheis beginning to see herself as a leader in the local early childhood community. She was not willing,however, to talk to the newspaper reporter who recently asked her to comment on proposed changes tothe state’s child care regulations. She does not consider herself an expert on that issue and did not wantto make a misstatement she would later regret.
After studying the guidelines describing tools of effective advocates, Grace decided that she needed tobecome better informed about how the proposed reduction in child–staff ratios for licensed centerscould improve child outcomes. She attended public hearings on the issue and networked with thedirectors of other high-quality programs in her community. After checking with her board of directorsto be certain public advocacy would not violate any established policies, she studied relevant positionstatements and prepared a key facts handout to summarize the points she wanted to make. She calledback the reporter and agreed to be interviewed on the topic. She knew she had done the right thingwhen the parents of the children in her program thanked her for speaking out publicly on behalf ofquality.
13.3 INVESTING IN THE PROFESSION’S FUTURE
Supporting Developing Professionals
When you help others find their place in the profession of early care and education,you are engaging in a particular form of leadership. Some of the ways programadministrators can help others find their place in the profession are by:
· being a resource for those who want to know more about career options forthose who specialize in early childhood education.
· welcoming students enrolled in internships or other courses that require themto observe or interact with young children or families.
· mentoring and coaching novices to enhance their skills and knowledge ofyoung children and early childhood education.
· encouraging emerging leaders to enhance their professional knowledge byenrolling in postsecondary degree programs; pursuing advanced professionaldevelopment opportunities; and participating in professional organizations,including attending and presenting at local, regional, and nationalconferences.
Supporting Research
One way your program can contribute to the profession is by serving as a practicum site forbeginning students.
David Kostelnik/Pearson Education
Another way you can contribute to the future of the field is by inviting researcherswith projects investigating topics related to children, families, teaching, or learningto consider conducting their research at your center. You will first want to becertain any research involving the children or teachers at your center is incompliance with NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct. That means no research thatcould jeopardize children’s well-being would be permitted; and that potentialparticipants in the study, both teachers and children’s families, are informed inadvance and have the opportunity, but are not required, to participate.
Then you will want to ask researchers if their project has been approved by theappropriate institutional review board (IRB). This review requires researchers tohave a plan to gain participants’ consent and to have procedures in place to protectthe privacy of participating children and adults. Once you are convinced thoserequirements have been met, we advise you, whenever possible, to grant researchrequests and invite researchers involved in expanding the field’s knowledge baseinto your program.
Teachers as Researchers
It is important to appreciate that research can be conducted not only by scholarssuch as university-based researchers, but also by teachers in their own classrooms(Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). Teachers involved in this kind of action research(which is sometimes called teacher research) explore practical questions withintheir own world of work “to better understand teaching and learning and toimprove practice in specific and concrete ways” (Stremmel, 2007, p. 4). Teacherresearch supports reflective teaching, and has the potential to become an everydayevent that informs practice (Paley, 1981; Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram, 2014).
When teachers become researchers in their own classrooms they move away fromthe view that they transmit knowledge to children and toward the view that theyconstruct knowledge and understandings with the children they teach (Moran,2007; Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram, 2014). Action research can also take teachers tothe cutting edge of best practices and can give them opportunities to collaboratewith colleagues, university researchers, and preservice teacher preparationprograms (Charlesworth & DeBoer, 2000; Cooney, Buchanan, & Parkinson, 2001; Moran, 2007).
Program administrators who are committed to action research often support theirteachers’ inquiry by making it part of the program’s culture. They can help to buildbeginners’ confidence by giving novices opportunities to conduct research projectswith a mentor or a partner. When two or more teachers work together, they bringbroader perspectives to their inquiry, and the analysis of their findings may bemore insightful (Dietze et al., 2014). Directors can also encourage teachers to createstudy groups where they work together to “intentionally and systematicallyresearch and answer their own questions” (Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram, 2014, p. 29).When teachers embark on teacher research, directors often find that it has becomea very powerful and effective form of professional development that makes roomfor in-depth, intellectual conversations during which teachers ask and answer theirown questions (Murphy, Bryant, & Ingram, 2014, p. 29).
SUMMARY
When you become a program administrator, you are taking the first steptoward becoming a leader in the field. You will have increased opportunitiesto contribute to efforts to enhance the quality of programming for youngchildren. We hope you are looking forward to the challenges andopportunities to come.
· Describe how the field of early childhood education has made progressachieving two of the eight criteria of professional status.
Professionals possess specialized knowledge, have rigorous requirements forentry, and have agreed-upon standards of practice. Practitioners meet asignificant societal need, are altruistic and service oriented, provide anindispensable service, and are recognized as the only group in society that canperform its function. Professions have autonomy and have a code of ethics thatspells out its obligations to society. The field clearly meets the code of ethicscriterion. NAYEC’s Code of Ethical Conduct was first adopted in 1989 and hasbeen revised regularly since that time. And publically funded programs have,in recent years, raised the bar for entry into the field. As a result, more arecoming into early childhood education with specialized training thatprepares them to teach young children.
· Identify the advocacy tools that early childhood advocates should have at theirdisposal.
Early childhood educators engage in both individual and collective forms ofadvocacy, which may address either those who shape public policy ordecision makers in the private sector. They rely on position statements andwhite papers to develop a comprehensive understanding of the issues, issuebriefs, talking points, key fact handouts, and concrete examples to take theirmessage to their audience; and action alerts to mobilize fellow advocates totake action.
· Discuss opportunities program administrators have to contribute to the field’sfuture.
Program administrators have opportunities to develop future leaders bybeing a resource to those considering a career in early childhood, bywelcoming students into their centers to complete assignments, by mentoringand coaching novices, and by encouraging emerging leaders to enhance theirknowledge and skills. They can also make their program available toqualified researchers and support their teachers’ implementation of actionresearch to promote reflective practice and to inform their teaching.
USEFUL WEBSITES
Websites for Professional Ethics Resources
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
· Follow the Position Statement link to the Code of Ethical Conduct and itsSupplements:
· NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (2011)
· El Código de Conducta Ética y Declaración de Compromiso (2011)
· Supplement for Adult Educators (2004)
· Supplement for Program Administrators (2011)
Websites for Advocacy Resources
Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood
This nonprofit is dedicated to raising families’ and caregivers’ awareness ofthe pervasive influence of commercial messages targeting children and tosupport their efforts to raise healthy families by ending the exploitive practiceof marketing directly to children.
Family and Work Institute
This nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization focuses on the changingworkforce, the changing family, and the communities in which they live.
Moms Rising
This grassroots advocacy organization strives to raise the public’s awarenessand build support for issues related to children and families. Its goal is to buildmore family-friendly communities.
NAEYC Advocacy Toolkit
This comprehensive resource addresses many facets of effective advocacy. Itincludes helpful information about the legislative process and effectivestrategies for creating relationships with legislators.
Zero to Three
The mission of this nonprofit organization is to promote the health anddevelopment of infants and toddlers through training of professionals, policymakers, and families.
Website for Reports of Teacher Research
Voices of Practitioners
The collection of teacher research reports found by following links from thiswebsite demonstrates how teachers conduct inquiry projects in their ownclassrooms to help them understand their children, teaching, and learning.They are inspiring examples that might encourage you to try similar projectsin your classroom or center.
TO REFLECT
1. Have you ever noticed that professional conference sessions focused onpublic policy or systems development are likely to have plenty of emptyseats, whereas sessions such as “Music for Monday Mornings” are standingroom only? What do you think this says about our profession? How couldthis situation be changed?
2. A class in administration is discussing collaboration. One studentcommented, “We always talk about all we can accomplish throughcollaboration, but doesn’t collaboration come at a cost?” What are the costsof collaboration?
1Versions of this discussion have been published in “The New Face of EarlyChildhood Education: Who Are We? Where Are We Going?” by N. K. Freemanand S. Feeney, 2006, Young Children, 61(5), pp. 10–16, and also in“Professionalism and Ethics in Early Care and Education,” by N. K. Freemanand S. Feeney, 2009, Continuing Issues in Early Childhood Education (3rd ed.,pp. 196–211), by S. Feeney, A. Galper, and C. Seefeldt (eds.), Upper Saddle River,NJ: Pearson.