Getting Ready-Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources 


When I started my journey to establish professional contacts in other countries, I was very excited knowing I was going into a different "world" of early childhood education. I sent emails to Germany, Italy, South Africa, Singapore, Canada, Spain, and many other countries. I received quite of few messages stating that a particular email was no longer valid. I was thrilled to receive a response from Germany, in German, saying they could not read my email. Fortunately my son speaks German and helped to translate the message. I also received messages from Italy and  South Africa. For Italy I wrote to the UNICEF Office of Research and received a reply stating that early childhood education was not one of their main topics of interest and suggested Pakistan and South Africa. This organization suggested other websites that could help with my research:

http:www.unicef-irc.org/publications/700 which is for a children's publication 

http://www. unicef-irc.org/publications/search/?Title=early+childhood&CatagoryID=O&AuthorID=O&SeriesId=O&Year=O&LangID=O&GeogID=O&Themeld=O&ISBN=

Eric Atmore, Associate Professor in South Africa, responded that his organization was closed until January 19th for summer break and that he would respond to me when he got back into the office. All I could think about was the warm sun and wearing shorts as I looked down at my snow boots! A few days later, Mr. Atmore sent an article titled "Challenges Facing the Early Childhood Development Sector in South Africa" of which he was the principal researcher, and he also stated that he would be sending more information in the coming weeks. I may have to utilize the alternative to part one if I do not hear from anyone else, but I am continuing to request information from other counties. 

I have decided to purse information from The Division for Early Childhood and Zero To Threes: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families for part two in Expanding Resources.