Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://ecde.aau.edu.et/jspui/handle/123456789/226| Title: | Developmental Appropriateness and Cultural Relevance of Early Childhood Care and Education Program in Ethiopia: Reflection on Current Practices By: Girma Lemma |
| Authors: | Girma Lemma |
| Keywords: | Research Report individual child initiated activities in preschool centers. |
| Issue Date: | 2018 |
| Publisher: | Ethiopian Journal of Behavioral Studies, AAU |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this theoretical and empirical review was to reflect on the current practices of programs in delivering combination of age appropriate practices and freely chosen individual child initiated activities in preschool centers. |
| Description: | Research into the development of young children, and the process by which it is configured in early childhood care and education programs has transformed our knowledge and understanding of the importance of developmental and cultural appropriateness of services over recent years. This theoretical and experiential learning has helped to devise new policy initiatives and evaluate whether or not programs are age appropriate and responsive to individual child differences to effect holistic development. The landscape of this change ranges all the way from international child rights conventions and declarations to policy formulations in individual countries and further goes down to micro developmental niches promoting children’s developmental milestones. The purpose of this theoretical and empirical review was to reflect on the current practices of programs in delivering combination of age appropriate practices and freely chosen individual child initiated activities in preschool centers. It starts with a brief review of Early Childhood Care and Education landscape in the Ethiopian context with regard to features of access, quality, efficiency and policy initiatives since 1900 with the opening of the first kindergarten center in the country. The paper argues that over those years the sector has been crawling and at times deadly stagnating without making meaningful move despite recent policy developments ushering a glimmering opportunity for young children. The theoretical reflection begins with the conceptualization of developmentally and culturally appropriate early childhood development substantiated by empirical evidences documented from researches conducted locally and internationally. It goes on arguing that early childhood care and education teaching has dramatically changed as a result of new entitlements ascribed to teachers and discusses to what extent lack of to-the-standard professional development program impacted care givers pedagogical skill and the implementation of the developmental curriculum. The paper further attempted to reflect on the developmental appropriateness of the curriculum in enhancing children’s free exploration of their environment and their contribution in constructing meanings and understandings via well planned adult-initiated activities. Implications for program improvement in the lime light of developmental sciences and child rights conventions are stated. |
| URI: | http://ecde.aau.edu.et/jspui/handle/123456789/226 |
| Appears in Collections: | Research report/ journal article, book/ proceeding chapter, |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ejobs 04.pdf | 279.14 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.