Positive Research Application

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to be a part of a medical mission trip to El Salvador. A large team of medical doctors, psychiatrists, dentists, nutritionists, pharmacists, and farmers visits 5 different villages over the course of a week, and a smaller team stays behind year-round to help on a smaller scale. Data is collected each day based on what the village specifically needed- dental needs, eye care, mental health, proper nutrition, etc. The data is later analyzed so that their needs may be better met in the future. 

For example, the year that I participated in the mission trip the village we visited on the 2nd day had very little dentistry needs but the village on the 5th day had very high needs. The problem was that valuable resources that the 5th village greatly needed were already mostly used by the 5th day. The next year, the team visited the 5th village on the 1st day so that their high needs could be met with full resources. Similar situations occur with all of the specialties, so detailed data is gathered at each village each year so that assessments can be completed and plans can be adjusted as needed. 

Parenting in the 21st Century

For my research simulation this semester I have chosen to focus on parenting styles in the 21st century. I would really like to find out if parents are fitting somewhat nicely into current parenting style categories or if new parenting styles have emerged. Our children have changed greatly over the past few generations, and I am interested in seeing if our parenting styles have been affected by these changes. 

This was a difficult decision for me to make; I think mostly because I was limiting myself. I am currently a stay-at-home-mom, so I was focusing on the fact that I do not have a large number of children to observe or to conduct a research study with. Once I actually began researching a few different topics though, as well as a helpful push from our professor Dr. Dartt, deciding on a topic was not as hard as I was making it.

Since I have only just decided on a topic to focus on I have not spent too much time researching it, yet. However, I have found that for every great article there are five not-so-great articles. I have also found that it is quite easy to search only for articles that fit my current understanding of the topic instead of finding articles that broaden my understanding. 

I would greatly appreciate anyone's insights or opinions regarding my topic. There is so much information available that I'm still having some difficulties focusing. Thank you in advance for everyone's support! 

Learning from International Sources

Consequences of Learning about the International Early Childhood Field

• I have learned that our situation in the U.S. is not unique. Other countries are facing the same problems, and have taken different approaches to fixing them. We can learn a lot from studying decisions other countries have made that are similar to our own, as well as completely opposite. We made find inspiration in how an indigenous culture has dealt with poverty or we may find that inspiration in the rigor that the Japanese have taken towards their studies.

• There are international systems that work better than our own; though they do have their own unintended, positive and negative, consequences. I think our job is to learn all we can about their systems and then see how they could influence our own system in the U.S.

• I also came to the realization that when we seek advice from outside our usual comfort zone we may find options that we were unaware of, but that prove to be exceptionally useful.

Goals for the Field

• Continue to learn about different international education systems. Explore intended and unintended consequences of these systems and how their approaches could improve our own education system.

• Implement aspects of various international systems to small areas to gauge their effectiveness in our country.