Child Advocacy And Early Childhood Education Policies In The Caribbean

This volume explores early childhood education policies and practices in the Caribbean. Early childhood development has gained increasing importance as part of national agendas to achieve social and economic goals. Regional guidelines and action plans have been developed, but progress across nations varies. Chapters in the book analyze child policies and issues, critically examine progress on alignment between policies and practices, and propose recommendations for advocacy and implementation that may advance the early childhood development agenda throughout the Caribbean. The book includes the perspectives of early childhood practitioners, policymakers, caregivers, representatives from family agencies as well as other key stakeholders in the education of young children. Across these diverse viewpoints is a shared commitment to children’s well being and the necessity of an integrated response that captures the challenges and opportunities of early childhood development services and initiatives that are framed based on contextual relevance and cultural appropriateness. Part One includes chapters that advocate for national policies throughout the Caribbean to support young children. Chapters in Part Two call for quality early childhood programming that is based on the tenets of developmentally appropriate practice. Part Three considers the pedagogical dilemmas that arise in math and literacy when schools negate purposeful and engaging early childhood curriculum. Part Four presents various perspectives on child protection and the necessary infrastructure of policies and practices to ensure cognitive, social, and physical development of young children in the Caribbean. This important resource promotes critical discourse on the current status of children and efforts that have been developed to effectively advocate for the rights of the young.

Caribbean Childhoods: From Research to Action is an annual publication produced by the Children s Issues Coalition at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The series seeks to provide an avenue for the dissemination of research and experiences on children s health, development, behaviour and education, and to provide a forum for the discussion of these issues.

This edited book on Digital Technologies and Early Childhood in China: Policy and Practice is the eighth volume in the Research in Global Child Advocacy Series. This volume details the entanglement of digital technologies and early childhood ecologies, learning and pedagogies in China. It analyses how traditional Chinese values, Eastern and Western curricular approaches, and socio-political, economic, cultural, and demographic changes influence current policies, services, and practice. This book is the first research-based review of technology integration into early childhood education and the factors that affect it in China. It is particularly timely given China’s growing influence and the increased recognition of the importance of early childhood education for human capital development globally. Across international contexts, there is limited knowledge of China’s early childhood curricular reforms, and this book offers insight into the socio-cultural and political influences that have driven the nation’s tremendous investment in the technology infrastructure, the ambitious goals for implementation into the education of young children, and barriers to these integration efforts. Collectively, this rich collection of chapters offers a nuanced understanding of the entanglement of digital technologies and early childhood education in China. Each chapter sheds light on a distinct aspect of this complex landscape, providing valuable insights and opening new avenues for exploration. It sheds light on the socio-cultural and political influences that have shaped China's ambitious goals for technology integration in the education of young children. By addressing the barriers and challenges faced in these integration efforts, the book provides critical knowledge for policymakers, researchers, and educators seeking to enhance early childhood education practices in China and beyond. Furthermore, this volume contributes to the global understanding of China's early childhood curricular reforms and the significant investments made in technology infrastructure. As China continues to play an influential role in the global landscape, understanding its early childhood curricular reforms and technology integration efforts becomes increasingly important. This book contributes to the international knowledge base by offering insights into the socio-cultural and political influences driving China's investment in technology infrastructure and the challenges faced in its implementation. It serves as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and educators worldwide seeking to enhance early childhood education practices, promote digital literacy, and harness the potential of digital technologies in early learning environments.

Early childhood development outcomes play an important role throughout a person's life, affecting one's income-earning capacity and productivity, longevity, health, and cognitive ability. The deleterious effects of poor early childhood development outcomes can be long-lasting, affecting school attainment, employment, wages, criminality, and social integration of adults. The authors first take stock of early childhood development indicators in the region and explore access to early childhood development services for children of different backgrounds. They review recent evidence on the impact of early childhood development interventions in the region and investigate more deeply a selection of programs in Latin America and the Caribbean to distill lessons related to their design, implementation and institutionalization processes. The book concludes with a discussion of the challenges of scaling up and presents policy options to develop national early childhood development policies and programs that may be effective and sustained over time.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license. The Early Years analyzes the development of Latin American and Caribbean children and makes a compelling case for government intervention in what is instinctively a family affair. Spending on effective programs for young children is an investment that, if done well, will have very high returns, while failure to implement such programs will lower the returns on the hefty investments being made in primary, secondary, and higher education. Policies for young children belong at the core of a country's development agenda, alongside policies to develop infrastructure and strengthen institutions. However, if the services provided (or funded) by governments are to benefit children, they must be substantially better than what is currently being delivered in the region. This book offers suggestions for improving public policy in this critical area.

There is considerable evidence that young children in many developing countries suffer from profound deficits in nutrition, health, fine and gross motor skills, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development. Early childhood development (ECD) outcomes are important markers of the welfare of children. In addition, the deleterious effects of poor outcomes in early childhood can be long-lasting, affecting school attainment, employment, wages, criminality, and measures of social integration of adults. This paper considers the theoretical case to be made for investments in early childhood, selectively reviews the literature on the impact of ECD programs in the United States, discusses the evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean, and makes suggestions for future research. The focus is on the relation between outcomes in early childhood and measures of household socioeconomic status, child health, and parenting practices, as well as on the impact of specific policies and programs. The knowledge base on early childhood outcomes is still thin in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are therefore very high returns to comparative descriptive analysis in the region, as well as to careful evaluations of the impact of various programs.

This is a comprehensive manual on community based early childhood education centers in the Caribbean, including information on how to establish, staff, and run them as well as how to raise and manage funding. This book has application for anyone involved in establishing early childhood care in developing rural communities.