Research Competencies

Research - careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to discover or establish facts or principles. (Webster's New World Mobile Dictionary v3.2)

During the course of the last 8 weeks I have been asked to take a closer look at research practices as they relate to the field of early childhood.    As part of my professional work in the past, present and future I have been and will be a constant consumer of early childhood research.  I am grateful for the work I have done over the last 8 weeks which has forced me to hone my skills as a consumer of research and to take a closer look at how to Do research.   

My biggest take away from this course Building Research Competencies is my increased skill to determine what is "good" research.  In a world where anyone can act as an expert on anything and post it on the internet (even me)  it is vastly important to be able to examine the quality of online content and to determine if information that claims to be based on research is credible (week 2 Introduction retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2819265_1%26url%3D).

I have also gained a deep appreciation of what it takes to design, implement and write about ethical research that has benefit to our field.  I will stick to my original prediction... I do not see myself as a future researcher, but I must admit that going through the steps of my research simulations has been really informative and dare I say fun?  I applaud my colleagues who are and will be early childhood researchers and the work they do to support the evolution of our field.  

"Research should challenge habitual ways of doing things, and provide reasons to modify, refocus and change" (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010, p. 6).  As early childhood professionals let's use the knowledge gained through research to move our field forward so that all young children have the opportunity to have a solid foundation and reach their full potential in life.

Thank you to Dr. Joyce Myers for her thoughtful direction during this course.  Thank you to all my colleagues in the class for your thoughtful posts and questions, often it was your descriptions that helped me to understand the concepts.  And thank you to those of you how are out there supporting my work in so many ways!

Until the fall!

Betsy Carlin

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Research Around the World

For this blog assignment I reviewed the Early Childhood Australia website.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au

I found that as I reviewed the site there were two main areas to access research. 

The first was a link to information about Australia Journal of Early Childhood which focuses on

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/australian_journal_of_early_childhood.html

Early childhood research, innovation and development

The Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) is Australasia's foremost scholarly journal and the world's longest-running major journal within the early childhood field.

As I reviewed the abstracts of research article that have been published in this journal I ran across an approach I was not familiar with, the Mosaic Approach.  I found the abstract very interesting and am looking forward learning more about this intriguing topic related to research and young children.  The abstract is as follows:

Personal reflection on research process and tools: Effectiveness, highlights and challenges in using the Mosaic Approach

Personal reflection on research process and tools:
Effectiveness, highlights and challenges in using the Mosaic Approach

Cheryl Greenfield
Manukau Institute of Technology

THIS REFLECTION ON USING the Mosaic Approach as a framework for undertaking research with young children contributes to the dialogue around qualitative research methodology. The provocation of social constructivist theory challenges researchers to consider and explore innovative ways to position themselves so the multiple voices of children can be heard, valued, respected and listened to. Three underpinning principles are identified and each of the methodological tools used by Greenfield (2007a) is discussed. Trustworthiness or situated validity in research is vital. It is argued that the Mosaic Approach provides an effective, flexible and authentic methodology when undertaking research with young children.

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood – Volume 36 No 3 September 2011

The other link related to research was called Research in Practice.  This area of the website contained an index of a series books on research based early childhood practices.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/research_in_practice_series.html

Research in Practice Series

For practical, effective approaches from early childhood experts and practitioners ...

The Research in Practice Series provides practical, easy-to-read resources for those involved in the early childhood field.

The books are designed to assist with those challenging issues which arise in the care and education of young children, by offering effective, new approaches.

Both the Journal articles and books reflected many of the same topics you might find on a similar website in the US however this website was incredibly user friendly and it was difficult for me to break away.  I found research on... 

• Play
• Strength Based Teaching
• Reflection
• Leadership
• Diversity
• Individualization
• Policy Reform

To name just a few...

There were also many articles discussing the Australian National Quality Framework which seems to be a national early childhood system.  As someone who believes the US would benefit from such a system I look forward to reading more about the successes and challenges Australia has had with their system as I advocate for a comprehensive early childhood system in the US.  This chance to investigate a new resource was very worth my time.