Throughout this course and my experiences as an Early Childhood Education professional, I have learned that to make a difference in this field one needs to be an advocate. This means being a voice for what you believe. According to Kadzielawski (2015), advocacy consists of being comfortable discussing the issues that are passionate to you with anybody who will pay attention. It is challenging to discuss the issues with people that don't want to listen. Whatever the issue is that makes you passionate, be sure that you share your passions to get others people involved.
An early childhood education degree plays a big part in teacher efficiency, but teacher competency is not guaranteed to come with a degree. A factor that could be more serious in the ability of a teacher than a degree is the quality of the degree program. Quality of a higher education program consists of the preparedness of new teachers that includes educating them on the understanding of the development of a child and areas of content and giving them the chances to exercise innovative instructional skills and implement new strategies. According to Mcentire (2011), whatever the existing quality of early childhood education degree programs, there is always the possibility for improvement, with the objective of building the capability of all degree programs to create competent early childhood teachers. If a teacher's training is strong, positive, and profound, then it offers a significant basis that could positively affect a child's understanding.
The thought that a degree will add considerably to a teacher's ability to impact the learning and development of a child in crucial, constructive, permanent ways should not be eliminated. The quality and measure of early childhood education degree programs need looked at more thoroughly. According to Mcentire (2011) when important factors are removed, putting the blame on programs that are operating in a situation that has completely inhibited their capability to employ decent staff, support useful professional development of staff, and remain up-to-date in developmental and educational research should be avoided.
