international research

Research in early childhood education is prevalent everywhere.  I decided to explore the international website of Africa.  I found it interesting that this organization, Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) of the Sub-Saharan Africa, deals with non-traditional ways to research and educate other about early childhood education.  The main focus is on using the strengths of the region and incorporating those strengths with technology and networking in order to reach people in rural areas as well as the urban communities.  Some of the topics I found was quality care and assessments.  I was a major issue that was being researched throughout the continent.    

One country that I was interested in was Zambia.  I found that there was study done to assess the quality of child services in orphanages. This sparked an interest because I am use to assess quality services in preschools and daycares but sadly I must admit that quality in orphanages never entered my mind.  The article I read,  Pilot Study of the Adaptation of an Established Measure to Assess the Quality of Child Services in a Selected Orphanage in Zambia: The Inclusive Quality Assessment (IQA) Tool, focused on quality assurance tools used in British Columbia in 1998 to see if they  would work in non-Western cultures and also determine if they are appropriate for different cultures.  Happily the conclusion was is that the tools used in British Columbia worked in Zambia, however, as expected some areas didn't work because of cultural differences and relate ability.