ECC student journey

When I was watching and listening to these CBC clips on the history of childcare I noticed that from the very beginning of childcare in Canada dating back to WWII there were not enough spaces for the families that were in need of childcare.  I don’t know why I thought that the current state of the childcare crisis was a new problem.  I find it hard to be positive about changes within the field of early childhood education when there seems to have been little to no acknowledgement of a need for change since child care began.  The first clip that we watched was aired in 1966 and now over fifty years later we seem to be in the same spot in terms of the importance of the early childcare field.  The new bursary being offered to early childhood educators in the province of BC is a sign of progress.  This will hopefully create more qualified ECEA’s, and ECE’s in the field which should be the first step in creating more available spaces in centres for families.  It is progress but still seems slow moving.  The fact that in the last sixty years the progress in solving the limited quality childcare spaces is only just in the very beginning stages is staggering.  It seems to be an ongoing fight to get government officials to acknowledge the early childcare educator as valued professionals.

I wonder if Quebec’s five dollar daycare plan, that was described in the CBC clip from 1997, has been improved.  The system that was described seemed like it had many flaws and was not improving the childcare experience on either side.  It did not seem to work for childcare providers because the five dollars a day even when subsidized was not enough to cover their running costs and most were running at a deficit.  Neither did it work for many, many families who were on very long waitlists to get a space within those subsidized centres.  How can we improve upon this model? What is a fair amount for families to pay for quality childcare? What is a fair wage for ECE providers to earn?

When meeting with my group to discuss this case study I think we were mostly all on the same page with a lot of what was being discussed.  Although there were some conflicting interpretations when reading the case study when we expressed how we were feeling about what we read we were able to come to a conclusion that suited all of us. Here are some things that me and my group discussed when answering the four questions about this case study:

1. Examples of ethical behaviour over the course of the morning?  When Gupal asked to talk to Dory at a later time in my mind I was thinking that she had arranged that so she could talk to Dory privately about her behaviour. I thought this was considerate of Dory’s feelings not to make a public example of her behaviour.  Within my group there was some discussion on the stress and anxiety that this impending discussion might have on Dory wondering “why does she want to talk to me?” “what have I done wrong?” and also will she even remember the initial incident when it comes time for the private discussion.  I completely agree with the points that were made by the group.  I think it all depends on the child you are speaking with and the connection you have with the child.  Those things would determine, for me, how this incident of sharing would be addressed.
2. Were there any instances of questionable practice?  All of us in the group thought that losing the attendance sheet was an example of questionable practice.  I think that things do go missing sometimes especially when working in a busy, fast paced environment, but the attendance sheet should be a priority to be found.  It seemed like from the reading of the case study that there was never an effort put in to locate the attendance sheet.  I think that when Gupal arrived at work it might have been a good opportunity for one of the employees to search for it while the other was supervising the children.  In case of an emergency the attendance sheet should always be on hand especially when going outside of the centre as they did.
3. How do you think practice could be improved?  There were two major topics that we thought could be improved one being a filing system for the attendance sheet and the other being communication with the children and between co workers.  If the attendance sheet has a “place” either in a binder or an envelope and it is always put back in that spot and it would be easier to keep track of.  When the mornings are busy it can be hard to keep track of things but if there is a place where it belongs and it becomes a habit to keep it there it is easier.  The group thought that if there was a more concrete schedule of when the children go outside it may have helped Dory to know that it was outside time now.   When I was reading the case study I really liked the fact that when the children were showing signs of wanting to go outside the educators picked up on that and decided to take them out rather then having a scheduled time.  After we discussed it as a group we decided that if there was more communication between the educators as well as educator to children it would not matter if there was a concrete schedule or not.  If there was a “five more minutes and we are going to clean up and get ready to go outside” announcement that may have helped Dory to understand what was expected of her and she may have not been left behind.
4. Do you think Dory’s parents should have been notified? There were lots of different opinions about this question in our group.  There was one opinion that although the incident could have been a serious situation Dory was safe the whole time and did not leave the premises so it was not a situation where her parents needed to be informed about.   Another opinion was the fact that Dory was visibly upset by the incident required a conversation with her parents at pick up.  While having the conversation with her parents it would be emphasized that she was completely save the whole time but she was pretty upset by what happened. Everyone agreed that it was not something that needed an immediate conversation.  I think as a parent I would agree with this second opinion because if I was not informed on what happened and then heard later that evening from Dory that she was upset about being left behind I would be very concerned.  I also think that it depends on the child and what her regular temperament is.  If she is an emotional child that has multiple times a day where she is crying maybe I would not bring it up with her family but if it was an obviously upsetting situation for that child and it was uncharacteristic for her to be upset during her day then I would definitely mention it at pick up.