“It Takes a GLOBAL village to raise a child”
Highlights from the
World Forum on Early Care and Education

Montréal, Québec, Canada
May 17-20, 2005

Sometimes referred to as "one of the best kept secrets" of the early childhood field, the World Forum on Early Care and Education, is hardly a secret any more. Since it was launched by ChildCareExchange Magazine in 1999, five World Forums were held in different parts of the world before the recent World Forum in Montreal, Canada, in May 17 - 20, 2005.

The purpose of the World Forum is to bring together early childhood professionals from all over the world to promote a global ongoing exchange of ideas and information on the delivery of educational programs and services for young children and their families.

The Forum is based on the assumption that sharing of viewpoints would enhance understanding across cultures and improve the lives and futures of children around the world. The World Forum in Montreal had 700 participants from 81 countries, from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Oceana, and North America.

Global Projects of the World Forum

Conflict Resolution Begins with Children

In 2004, early childhood leaders from organizations involved in reconciliation efforts in North Ireland, Croatia, Albania, Rwanda, Mali, South Africa, Israel, the Philippines, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, and the United States gathered in Belfast to learn from each other's experiences and to focus on the power of ECE services and special programs to bring communities together after a conflict.

Hope was raised in the face of hatred, poverty, death, and violence, by sharing of strategies and solutions. In Northen Ireland, media, in the form of short animation films, is used to reverse young children's stereotypical conceptions about either Catholic or Protestant people. In Columbia, early childhood programs in communities ravaged by conflict are empowering children and families by providing education and support.

HIV/AIDS and Young Children: An assessment of services in Namibia

Over 4 million children are infected by HIV/AIDS worldwide, and over 12 million children have been orphaned by this disease. The epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is in Sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers, supported by the World Forum Networking Project, investigated the impact of the HIV/AIDS on children aged 0-8 in Namibia. Their findings, summarized in a publication, HIV/AIDS and the Young Child (2004), give voices to the children who are too often silenced by discrimination and stigma. Apart from being victims to the HIV/AIDS virus, young children often become caregivers to ailing parents, while aging grandparents become the main caregivers to orphaned children.

For a fuller story on the impact of AIDS on African young children, see the World Forum presentation, "The Power of Early Childhood as a Healing Force in the AIDS Crisis," by Michael Kelly.

Distance EC eLearning Initiative

In 2002, The World Forum Foundation launched a project to teach early childhood professionals through distance education. For example, Wayne Eastman, from the College of the North Atlantic, Newfoundland, Canada, which offers a diploma and training in early childhood education through distance learning mode, collaborated with Kishor Shrestha from the Tribhuvan University, Nepal, in launching a pilot distance learning course in early childhood development in Nepal.

New Zealand Tertiary College (NZTC) also offers ECE training on-line

Threads and Trends in Early Childhood – a global perspective

Languages, Story telling, and early childhood

Language and literacy relate to every aspect of early childhood education. The tradition of story telling is universal. In different cultures, educators use stories to teach about tradition, history, morality, and customs, as well as for teaching specific skills.

English is becoming a global language. Many countries around the world are teaching English as children's first or second language in an early childhood settings. In a session about Preserving Indigenous Culture, Carol Beaulieu, from Canada, described local programs in Aboriginal communities which aim to preserve indigenous languages and aboriginal culture. Martha Llanos from Peru postulated that, "More than any other debate in education, the language domain brings up questions about power and identity. In the learning scenario how adults, teachers, children and students view their home, their mother tongue, and traditions, contributes directly to their roles, expectations and perceptions." Canada's Aboriginal people provided leadership in sharing strategies for language preservation, and also in creating and distributing resources, such as videos and books about their programs.

Equally important are stories that are created through authentic conversations with children. Through conversations children narrate their life experiences. They are able to relate to and organize reality in an imaginative and positive ways. Authentic conversations with children occur when teachers practice S.O.U.L., or (be) Silent, Observe, Understand, and Listen before you join in the conversation.

Childhood Experiences Impact Parenthood

It is very difficult to become a parent without experiencing a childhood with caring parents or loving caregivers. In places around the world where conflict, war, or devastation have been prevalent for many years, and where children lacked having a safe and happy childhood, there is a greater need today for early childhood programs with a strong parent involvement component.

Brain Based Learning

Finding from neuroscience research are recognized as having many practical applications for early childhood education. Pam Schiller, from the USA, reiterated the importance of trusting relationships as the foundation for learning in the early years.

She explained that the brain functions best when children feel calm and safe. The brain receives thousands of bits of information every second, most of which the brain blocks out because it cannot process so many. If a child does not feel safe, or if a child feels over stimulated, the brain will attend primarily to the feelings of threat and chaos, and consequently would filter out any other information. Therefore, a sense of well-being and reduced stimuli is crucial for children to be able to concentrate and acquire new information. One implication for early childhood programs is to decrease turnover of child care staff and to declutter classrooms.

Emotions play a critical part in learning. Memory – a key cognitive tool – is enhanced through the use of teaching strategies that create positive emotions, such as singing, dancing, puppetry, and humor.

It is important to give children time for reflection. Reflective process – thinking about experiences again and again – allows the brain to organize experiences, find patterns and meanings in daily occurrences, and make connections with past events.

Connect Children with Nature

Children of all cultures are losing contact with nature. Biophilia is a new science that shows that humans are programmed to have contact with nature and can become uncomfortable in nature if there is no contact. Early childhood educators around the world are struggling to find ways to include nature as part of the daily play element.

Concern for the environment is based on relationships that children develop with the natural world through long term, hands-on contact with plants, earth, rocks, and animals. Connection with nature will ensure that children develop empathy with the natural world. "It is only by intimately knowing the wonder of nature's complexity in a particular place that leads to a full appreciation of the immense beauty of the planet as a whole."

Toni and Robin Christie from New Zealand use natural materials inside the classroom to create beautifully arranged nature collections (shells, twigs, dried leaves, rocks, etc.), textured mosaic and other artistic designs which offer children a rich exploratory environment. They incorporate natural materials in their outdoor space. They used pebbles to create water fountains, logs, and herbs to create pathways and borders.

Read this on-line article to gain more information about children and nature: Children’s Outdoor Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature by Randy White & Vicki Stoecklin.

Further Information on the World Forum

For more information about the World Forum on Early Care and Education This site includes description and content of some of the sessions from the World Forum in Montreal.

Contact Us

For more information on faculty members working with family involvement in the early years please contact The Institute for Early Childhood Education & Research
or 604 822 6593