Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/International Level

One organization that interests and appeals to me is the Council for Professional Recognition. This is the organization that provides varying levels of support to early childhood educators who are seeking to obtain a Child Development Certificate (CDA). I am interested in the organization because my current and future focus in the field is to provide adult education to early childhood professionals. This is my area of focus in this MSECS program. As I conducted research for one of our classmates this week it occurred to me that providing this adult education in non-conventional ways appeals to me. It mirrors what I am currently doing as a coach for the QRIS in Arizona- non-conventional adult education. Therefore, I am interested in the role of CDA Professional Development Specialist. This is a national council so it would be possible for me to engage in this role across the country or only in my local area.

The skills and experience required for this position include personal attributes, formal education, and experience in the field (as well as access to internet and email). Below are the requirements from the website. Additionally, one is required to complete an application to become a PD Specialist and once approved a specific training is required.

A second organization is the Global Partnership for Education. This international organization interests me because their work support the availability of education for children in developing countries and those affected by conflict and extreme poverty. If I was not focused on teacher education I would move toward a focus in international advocacy for early childhood education in impoverished areas of the world. A job which is currently available and interesting to me is the role of Consultant on the Global Advocacy Team.

The requirements for this role are as follows.

  

Third, the National Association of Early Childhood Trainers (NAECT) is appealing to me. My passion for providing high-quality adult education to ECE teachers and leaders attracts me to an organization which is focused on this aspect of the ECE field. Too often I recognize that training for ECE professionals is not rooted in adult learning theory. "The National Association of Early Childhood Trainers is committed to enhancing the professional growth and development of individuals that serve as trainers in the early care and education field for teachers who work with children from birth through age eight" (NAECT, n.d., para. 2). I would be interested in beginning my work as a train-the-trainer facilitator to provide support for those who work as adult educators in the early childhood field.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any information about how to become employed with this organization. For this reason I will explain what I believe should be the requirements and skills necessary. First, I would suggest that each of the requirements for the PD Specialist I have listed above would be necessary for this position. Additionally, I would need to have education in teaching adults and adult learning theory. Finally, experience in teaching adults in the early childhood field would be necessary. One would need to have experience in facilitating professional development based on adult learning theory if they are going to train others to do so.

Council for Professional Recognition- PD Specialist: http://www.cdacouncil.org/pd-specialists/eligibility-criteria

Global Partnership for Education: https://www.globalpartnership.org/jobs

National Association of  Early Childhood Trainers: http://www.naect.org/

Communities of Practice of Interest to Me

First, I want to highlight a group of communities of practice (CoPs) which are funded through the same initiative as the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) in Arizona. This group of CoPs is titled Great Expectations for Teachers, Children, and Families. There are CoPs related to many topics in the early childhood field. I am interested in this group of CoPs because I noticed that there are none related to leadership.

This relates to a job of interest to me. I would be interested in facilitating my capstone project, a CoP for early childhood leaders, within the group of CoPs. It would be a great opportunity for me to implement the project I am compiling and it would serve a great need in my community. In order to qualify for this position I would need experience and education in early childhood education (ECE), leadership development, and adult education.

https://www.getcf.org/communities-of-practice/

Another organization in my community is the Southern Arizona affiliate of NAEYC- SAzAEYC. This community of practice provides several opportunities for education, advocacy, and community building in the field of ECE in the Southern Arizona community. I have served as a board member for this organization and found the work we did to be inspiring and effective.

A job I would be interested in is the Executive Director of SAzAEYC. This role provides solid leadership for the board and other aspects of the association. Skills and experience for this position are knowledge about our local ECE community, ECE best practices, and grant writing and fundraising experience to ensure secure funding for the association.

https://sazaeyc.org/

Quality First Academy is a CoP for technical assistance providers of the QRIS in my state. This CoP interests me because I am a member of it and it has great potential for supporting collaboration and education of the TAPs who work with adults in the ECE field. In my experience, this CoP is missing components of high quality adult education practices.

For this reason, I would be interested in the position of coordinator for this CoP. I would like to infuse adult learning theory into the sessions for TAPs. In order to qualify for this position I would need extensive understanding of the challenges TAPs face in the field, adult learning theory, and the QRIS system structure.

https://pll.asu.edu/p/search?f%5B0%5D=type%3Acourse

A Passion Word Cloud

Below is the word cloud I have created to express my passion in the early childhood field. Providing high quality learning opportunities, for leaders in the field, focused on leadership development.

A note of gratitude...

This week I am pondering how fortunate I have been to engage with a group of bright and talented women. I feel empowered in my own journey, in adult education, when I have the opportunity to have reflective and engaging conversations with folks like you. All the best in your continued journey!

Wendy

Adjourning... Goodbyes are Necessary

I have had very little experience with adjourning as it is described by Abudi (2010). Most of the groups or teams I have been involved in continued on after I left. Or I continued on after another member left. I have served on governing boards; I worked at the same preschool for 12 years; and I gathered a cohort of directors from a school district to create a community of learners. In each of these cases when I left the greater part of the entity continued on without me. However, in each of these cases it was difficult for me to leave the few members of the group I had become close with, those who I worked well with, those whose passion and drive mirrored my own for the mission of the group.

This week I shared with you, in the discussion board, about a group I was involved in for a class during my bachelor's degree program. There was dysfunction and a lack of direction. This group was not hard to leave. Without meaning any offense to the individuals in the group I have to say it was a relief to be on my own again in my schoolwork. I think this is often true- when a group or team is dysfunctional and lacks cohesion leaving is a liberation.

As I have navigated through this degree program I have often wished that we had been a true cohort, a community of learners, which stayed together throughout the journey. I feel as though I have had a chance to get to know some of you along the way. However, with others this is our first class together and the journey is almost over. There have been students who have come in and out of classes with me throughout the past year or so. Many of them were also just passing through, so to speak. Because of this fractured group dynamic I feel that it is hard to know how I will feel when we disperse from this program. On the one hand, I will miss the chance for professional conversations with all of you. On the other hand, I will be so excited to be done and mastered (is that a thing?) that I feel the relief will come even without the dysfunction.

So, whether there is a big ceremony, as in the case of graduation, or there is little fanfare- such as when I left the directors' cohort group- adjourning is essential in almost all cases. I did not walk for my graduation when I earned my bachelor's degree and I am not sure if I will for this master's program either. However, just as with my previous graduation, there will be a HUGE party and many of you will be there with me in spirit.

References
Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Managing Conflict

It has been a very long time since I truly experienced a conflict in my personal or professional life. Of course there are times that I do not see eye to eye with someone about a specific idea but rarely do these devolve into conflicts. Or, perhaps they are more like productive conflicts which I manage effectively (O'Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015). However, I will do my best to describe a concern I am currently having in my work life and apply the strategies we have been learning about to help me process through a better approach to communicating about it.

I think one reason I rarely have conflict at work is because I tend to let things go if they bother me and seldom does that affect my day to day work. Partly this is because I regularly work on my own, in the field, and so my colleagues and I see each other infrequently. However, avoiding conflict is not always what is best for me.

Each year our team organizes a group meeting for directors in the month of December in order to help meet the hours we are required to provide each month. In December, this can be difficult because some sites close for a week or more and coaches schedule vacation time during the December holidays. However, when I say "our team" organizes this meeting what I mean is that I organize this meeting and it is like pulling teeth to get most of the other coaches to help, even though everyone benefits from it. So, rather than making a fuss about it I simply take on the extra work and show extreme appreciation for the couple of coaches who do help in the planning and implementation.

However, I never mention that it irritates me that others are unwilling to help and seem to take advantage of the work of the few. In my personal life I appreciate a good debate and will assert my point. However, in this particular work situation I use avoidance when I "do not express [my] own needs and goals" (O'Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015, p. 228). Their refusal to help triggers me. One strategy I think I will look into is to view all conflict as an opportunity for relationship building and will think about how I can turn this trigger into an opportunity for productive conflict.

A second strategy that I could use would be to "Shift from Either-Or to Both-And" (The Third Side, n.d., para. 5). When I begin asking the team about developing the meeting plan I often put out an idea that I think is going to be a successful topic for the meeting discussion or professional development. When others come up with additional ideas I often try to get the group to choose one of the topic. I do not care if it is my original idea but I want one focus for the meeting. Perhaps I need to think about how to incorporate all of the ideas so that other coaches have more "buy in." Maybe I am marginalizing them and creating an uncertain climate. By looking and speaking from the thirdside perhaps there will be more collaboration and I will feel less frustrated.

Thinking through my approach to this situation has helped me to consider how I can stop avoiding the conflict around it but to circumvent unproductive conflict, as well.

References

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J. (2015). Real communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

The Third Side. (n.d.). 3S skills- Speak from the thirdside. Retrieved from http://thirdside.williamury.com/skills-speak/

Communication Assessment Reflection

At first, I only planned to ask two people from my personal life to do the communication assessments for me this week. I was thinking that asking a colleague to do something like this on a holiday week was just, well... rude. However, in the end I did ask my supervisor to complete the assessments and she agreed. In the chart below you can see how I "rated" according to myself, Dean (my boyfriend), Jenn (my sister), and Andrea (my supervisor/colleague).

I think the one outcome that was the most surprising was how low the others believe my communication anxiety is. In fact, Andrea rated me the lowest and she sees me in my most anxiety provoking situations when it comes to communication. She has observed me in meetings and presenting professional development opportunities to groups. This is when, internally, I feel the most nervous and anxious. However, she apparently sees me as more cool, calm, and collected than I feel.

One thing that I learned about my communication this week is that I possibly morph myself into different listening styles based on whether it is a business situation (action oriented according to Andrea) or personal situation (people oriented according to my family). I think this is okay, but I also feel like I need to work more on focusing on a people oriented listening style in my coaching work. Being action oriented in my professional life is also something that is necessary if progress toward quality is going to be made. So, while I want to continue to be more sensitive/people oriented in my work I also know that this is not always the best approach to getting things done.

The second insight I gained this week is that I, and everyone who helped me this week, see me as moderate in the verbal aggressiveness scale. My sister was somewhat surprised about this saying "On the verbal one I was actually surprised you fell into the moderate range. Thought for sure you'd be more in the low. I mean, not that moderate was bad or anything but I just don't see you as a verbally aggressive person AT ALL." I went on to explain to her that I really wasn't surprised that I fell into the moderate range for verbal aggressiveness when I read the description. I do like to make my point and won't just agree with others because I don't want to get into a debate about something. I feel this is a good balance for me- not a person who insults others but also not a wallflower. I think this is exactly how I want to communicate with others in most situations.

I also feel that my continually reflective nature allowed me to understand most  of my communication styles in the same way that others see me. It felt good to know that how I view myself is mostly aligned with how others see me- both family and colleagues alike. This was a really fun and informative assignment. I hope you all enjoyed it too!