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Facts In Action
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In
Brief:
Colleges
and Universities Face New Challenges to Preparing the Early Childhood
Workforce
Web-only Article
A survey
conducted by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at
the University of North Carolina asked the chairs and/or directors
of early education teacher preparation programs at 2- and 4- year
colleges what challenges they face in educating the child care workforce.
The study findings give advocates useful information about what
policy changes are needed to make improvements in the field.
Researchers
identified several problems facing these colleges and universities,
including difficulties attracting ethnically and linguistically
diverse faculty, students' competing work and family responsibilities,
and attracting and keeping students due to poor working conditions
and wages in the field of early childhood education. The study
also found that, on average, there are more than 61 students per
full-time faculty member in early childhood programs, compared to
38.7 students per full-time faculty across the entire institution.
To
address these problems, the authors suggest that:
- Resources
should be targeted to increase the number of full-time faculty
positions. Educators in these positions are much more likely
to have the time to advocate for program improvements.
- Pathways
toward obtaining a degree should be unobstructed (see the
August 2001 issue of Facts in Action for more information
on degree articulation).
- State
and/or federal funds should be directed to support community-campus
partnerships to promote diversity, which is particularly important
in light of the nation's changing ethnic landscape.
- A
public investment in higher salaries and better working conditions
for early childhood teachers is needed to create a better-educated
workforce. Without this change, the field will continue to
lose qualified educators to the better-paid elementary education
workforce and other occupations.
Source:
"Preparing the Workforce: Early Childhood Teacher Preparation
at 2- and 4- Year Institutions of Higher Education," D. Early
and P. Winton, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Volume
16, Number 3, 2001.
For
more information:
contact Diane Early, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center,
300 Bank of America Plaza, Campus Box #8040, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8040, call (919) 966-9721, or email
diane_early@unc.edu.
Facts in Action, December 2001
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