Nowadays, many organizations pay much attention to the role of professional standards for teaching (Tuinamuana, 2011) and improve the quality of education from different aspects. NAEYC is a well-known professional organization that promotes the quality of early childhood education employing the standards developed based on teachers’ and learners’ needs, expectations, and goals. In this paper, one of the NAEYC initial standards, building family and community relations, will be discussed to understand how beginners should prepare for their professional practices and find the practical application of the theoretical knowledge gained.
Summary of the Standard
There are seven standards for initial early childhood professional preparation, and each of them has its effects on the educating process. One of them is the necessity to build family and community relations. Teachers should be ready to work in different settings (Feeney, Galper, & Seefeldt, 2008) and develop relations with learners, their families, and communities. Colker (2008) says that one of the main characteristics of a successful teacher is the ability to take a personal interest in every student.
Therefore, the chosen standard seems to be appropriate for teachers to use it in their professional and personal life as well as to become a better advocate. Teachers should know and understand the characteristics of families and communities, support people, and involve them in the development and learning processes of their children (NAEYC, 2010). On the one hand, it teaches how to respect and interrelate with people. On the other hand, it helps to understand human needs and expectations.
Questions with Corresponding Rationales
The following list of questions is based on the standard chosen for the analysis. It should help to enhance personal abilities to cooperate with children and their families.
Why should teachers build family and community relations?
Rationale: The answer to this question helps to comprehend why the building of teacher-family relations is crucial in a particular situation.
How should candidates gather information about families and communities?
Rationale: This question provokes future professionals to think about the methods to be used to build relations.
When is it necessary to build family and community relations?
Rationale: This question helps to realize how to combine the standards, institutional expectations, and personal needs of teachers.
What may happen if candidates fail to develop appropriate relations?
Rationale: This question aims at advocating the need to build relations and comprehend what may happen in the case of failure.
Should teachers combine this standard with other standards mentioned in the list?
Rationale: This question makes the interviewer learn all standards and the ways of how to interrelate the information offered by NAEYC.
Explanation for the Request to Early Childhood Professional
Several teachers in the local community were asked to participate in the study. One of them agreed to participate in the investigation and left the contact information so that I could address him any time I need. The request I chose to invite professionals was as follows: “To be a good early childhood professional is not an easy task. Do you want to know what you know about education? You are welcome to spend a few minutes answering my questions and helping me to understand what it means to be a good teacher.”
Conclusion
In general, the evaluation of the initial standards and the possibility to use theoretical knowledge in practice should help teachers identify their weak and strong aspects. This project introduces one of the possible ways of how professional preparation may look like.
References
Colker, L.J. (2008). Twelve characteristics of early childhood teachers. Beyond the Journal: Young Children on the Web. Web.
Feeney, S., Galper, A., & Seefeldt, C. (2008). Continuing issues in early childhood education (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill/Pearson. Web.
NAEYC. (2010). 2010 Standards for initial early childhood professional preparation. Web.
Tuinamuana, K. (2011). Teacher professional standards, accountability and ideology: Alternative discourses. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(12), 72-82. Web.