When I Think of Research...

First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues for an enlightening eight weeks. I have enjoyed reading your blogs and discussion posts. From them, I have learned to ponder the novel elicited from profound questions, be uplifted by words of encouragement, and gain modern insight from fresh philosophies. Good luck to you all!

This course has taken me above my familiar world as a teacher to a next step of putting my values, beliefs, and philosophies to the test. It feels great to be on the path to formulating my viewpoints into something that can be proven or disproven.

My ideas about doing research have become a little more grounded. At this point, research does not seem so far distance nor unreachable.

The lessons learned are many. Where do I begin? I have learned that there are many decisions to make and that those decisions need to be well thought out and requisite to what we would like to see in the end result of our research. I have become clearer on terms that I have heard but never really understood within their context. I have learned that what I had envisioned for my project in the beginning is not what I now perceive, and I know that those ideas and designs may change as many times as need be to have a meaningful research path. I have learned to be even more flexible than I have ever been.

Beginning challenges were aligned with understanding quantitative, qualitative, mixed method, triangulation, and other important terms and the direction they claim for research. I loved the application part 1 papers, as they supported my understanding and helped me make changes to my simulation study so I could continue on a correct path.

My perceptions about being an early childhood professional have not really changed. I still believe that true professionals are committed to causes that they see as beneficial for children and families. However, I do realize that it takes even more dedication than I ever anticipated; grandiose studying from books, from scholarly articles, and continued listening and pondering from other early childhood professionals.

European Early Childhood Education Reserach Journal

I visited the EECERA (European Early Childhood Education Research Association) site.  I was able to easily navigate and find many and varied research topics.  Back research articles could be viewed via “Full Text” or “PDF Download”. 

A few of the topics I reviewed are listed below:

Balancing between Heritage and Host Languages in Bilingual Kindergarten: Viewpoints of Russian Speaking immigrant parents in Germany and Israel. 

Play, Drawing, and Writing:  A Case Study of Korean – Canadian children

Chinese and German Teacher’s Conceptions of Play and Learning and Children’s Play Behavior

Playing and Learning in Another Language:  Language Revitalisation Programme

Sharing Attention and Activities among Toddlers

All were very interesting.  However, I found one article in their 2011 journal that made reference to children participation in research.  The article was titled Children’s Perspectives and Participation in Research by Deborah Harcourt and Johanna Einarsdottir.  Since this issue deals with a particular area of research I took additional time to fully engage in what it had to say.  The article takes into account settings of children in Sweden, Iceland, Italy, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and Australia and the outcomes of involving and listening to children during research.  The conclusions showed that social context and primary caregivers and adults are key factors in the lives of children.  Also of importance to the research arena is the fact that children are competent to be part of research projects and that their opinions and understandings are vital to really knowing them as dynamic individuals.

The site outlined some dos and don’ts for getting published, how to get your research read along with other helpful research points.  Also listed were current and past conferences, how to become a member, the history, their “Aims”, and a current link to their partnership with, The Korea Institute of Child Care and Education. 

References

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA): This international early childhood organization publishes a well respected journal. All back issues are accessible from this site and are fully searchable without charge.http://www.eecera.org/journal/

Harcourt, D. & Einarsdottir, J. (2011). Special Issue: Children's perspectives and participation in reserach. European Early Childhood Education Reserach Journal, 19(3), 301-307. Retrieved from EECERA website, http://www.eecera.org/journal/