Learning about the international early childhood field has been very eye opening. One consequence in terms of my professional and personal development is the awareness that as a nation we are doing a poor job in compensating our employees compared to our European counterparts. We have to work towards equitable pay and benefits for the faculty that bring quality to our schools and show that we value the contributions of our early childhood educators.

A second consequence and insight is that I have found we share many of the same dilemmas of the field. How do we support the families of our center during recession? How do they manage to pay high tuition in private centers when the economy is poor? How do we rectify that many children do not have access to quality care due to poverty or a lack of spots or quality early educational centers. We have a lot of work left to do in battling inequities.

                The third consequence towards my professional development is the recognition that it is very helpful to interact with colleagues in the field locally and internationally. It is beneficial to hear the perspective of those not directly involved with our own program and examine the differences and similarities. It is also helpful to have someone who can empathize with our professional dilemma and hare insights. Collaboration is very valuable.

                My goal in regards to international awareness and sharing of issues is to add to my international contacts and attempt to keep a dialogue going. I really enjoy hearing the unique perspectives and insights. I hope that I can impact my own nation’s policies with the information and insights I have gained from other areas and perhaps I can support them as well.

Inclusion, much like the US, has become a hot topic in Italian childcare. Specifically there is much discussion of the inclusion of Roma children, many of whom are migrant and impoverished. In Italy migrant children are guaranteed inclusion by law and Roma children are encouraged to attend school. While teachers’ salaries appear to be higher in general, $40,000.00 per year for preschool educators additional funding and stipends have been put into place to compensate teacher s who work in schools with a high number of disadvantaged children. There is an active movement to recruit more teachers as numbers in the profession are not as high as they should be. A majority of education in Italy is state funded and provided free of charge from nursery school and beyond but there are long waitlists, lottery systems and it is difficult to obtain spots at times. Teacher qualifications are high and education and professional credentials are required to teach even in preschool. Since 1998 a four year degree has been a requirement to teach nursery school. The requirement of education is one reason that teacher compensation is significantly higher then here in the US. There was a push for more privatization of schools to increase quality but poor economic conditions and high unemployment means that state schools are the primary employer and quality can vary greatly. Kirstin, my international contact plans to continue teaching preschool as she earns a good wage. She has no aspirations to administration or higher position, she enjoys working with the children. Her main challenge or concern is that she is teaching at a private school and as more families choose disenrollment as children are older to save money there is always the concern that it will lead to layoffs.

 On the zero to three website I took some time to explore the link to the Military Families Project. This link is of interest to me as I am a Military brat myself.  I would imagine quality child care and consistency of program can be a challenge with frequent moving. Our family typically move every one to two years up until I reached junior high. My mother did not work so we did not take part in an early childhood program.

                The military family project is funded and developed with the help of the zero to three organization.  Recently the project provided training to caregivers who worked with military families. The training looked at ways in which caregivers can help children who face challenges unique to military families such assisting families with a deployed parent, helping children through the transition in moving and providing the consistency they need. The project also assists in helping veterans who have young children. With many veterans facing tribulation and mental challenges after deployment the young children of veterans are at risk. The program seeks to offer aide in any way it can from assisting in obtaining medical care to giving families a template in which they can write about the unique experience of their family to share with caregivers. There are many links to ongoing training in this area and information on how we can take part.

                The military family is actually trending this month on the site as April is the month of the military child. Last month’s issues trended on prenatal influences on development. This is interesting as researchers are beginning to look at autism as possibly developing prenatally.

     In speaking with Kirsten I have learned al little bit more regarding how many early childhood centers work in Italy. While Kirsten’s school is private there are many public options for early childhood which have become more accessible overall. In fact she explained that from three years old and up regulation falls under the Minister of Education who is also head of primary schools. For children under three, regulation falls under the Ministry of health so they face the challenge of trying to align policy form two different departments. This seemed similar to what we studied here in regards to trying to align ECE goals and standards with Elementary and High schools. Like the US there is also a great amount of variance in pram quality. Low quality programs are certainly a concern. There are also issues of availability, many families who pay for early childhood services through payroll taxes cannot access preschool due to limited availability of spaces. Many programs are waitlisted in the hundreds and there is concern that while the schools are doing better in attending to the needs of the impoverished paying families may be pushed aside. Many of the paying families if they can afford it chose to pay higher tuition and attend private preschools such as the one Kirsten teaches at rather than chance a lottery type system. Generally these families will still choose public primary school over private as they are still feeling the recent economic recession.