Current Issues in Comparative Education

Three New Insights that I gained about early childhood around the globe...


1. Grand Challenges Canada, offers the Saving Brains program which offers interventions that nurture the brain of children living in poverty in the first few years of life.

Stress and adversity are apart of life, however if children are given support, love, and affection they can give a healthy response regardless of their situation or where they may reside in the world. However, children that suffer from toxic stress (stress from war, abuse etc.) may have a much weaker chance at becoming resilient and making a positive outcome of their situation.

2. Nucleo Ciencia Pela Infancia (NCPI) is a Brazilian organization where policy makers get together and form effective and fundamental policies that are going to empower the education of young children and their healthy development. This organization take the initiative to bridge the gap between what policies makers know and understand versus what they actually implement and do. Brazil has always been a place with a desire to seek equity within early childhood and hopefully these policy makers can spread knowledge, ideas and investments globally for all children.

3. iLab Primeria Infancia is an innovative cluster group that works with many children and families in rural areas around Mexico and Brazil. They use science and technology to create interventions to assist families going through adversity and poverty, as well as to positively shape the cognitive, socio-emotional and holistic development of children.


Additional Information I acquired about issues of equity and excellence...

Some children are born into families of low socioeconomic status and poverty, as a result they are NOT granted the same opportunities as their higher class counterparts. Children born into families where poverty exist tend to suffer academically, socially and lack an extensive vocabulary. However, quality preschool programs can reverse these cognitive and academic gaps within the early childhood community by affording poorer families access to them. Most children are born into disadvantaged situations that affect how they learn and attain new ideas from their experiences and environment.  The idea that some children are disadvantaged before they even start preschool.