DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINING FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS IN HAITI
By
Barbara Eileen Blazek
Submitted to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences
of American University
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
m
Intemationajraraining an$
Chair: Dr. Flavia Ramos
ichael Gibbons
Dean of College of Arts and Sciences
Date
2003
American University
Washington, D.C., 20016
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
in cfi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1417391
Copyright 2003 by Blazek, Barbara Eileen
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2003
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINING FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS IN HAITI
By
Barbara Eileen Blazek
ABSTRACT
This case study examines thedesign and facilitation of a training ofcaregivers in early childhood
care and development for a newly-established orphanage community in Haiti. The overarching goal of this
organization is to provide the best inputs possible to enrich the physical, cognitive, social and emotional
development of the children while instilling them with a purpose dedicated to the betterment ofHaiti.
This study addresses the effectiveness of an early childhoodcaregivers’ five-day training as based
upon the transference of knowledge, skills and attitudes to the home situation with the children.
Determining the best practices in early childhood care and education, adult education while respecting
Haitian culture informed the design of the training. Playing the role of participant observer served as the
principal data collection and analysis method used to develop the case study.
ii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
At this time I would like to acknowledge my professors, Dr. Flavia Ramos and Dr. Michael
Gibbons. Their continued support and guidance provided me with the necessary skills and confidence to
see my project from training design, to the facilitation of the training and finally to the writing of the thesis.
I am appreciative of the Orphans International Board for inviting me with them to Haiti,
welcoming mywork for the training ofthe house parents and supplying mewith the resources necessary to
carry out the training and my research.
Finally, I am grateful to my family whose limitless encouragement and love hassupported me
through various projects regardless of where in the world they have taken me.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...... is
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... iii
LIST OF TABLES...... vi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS...... vii
GLOSSARY...... viii
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION...... 1
Purpose of Study
Problem Statement
Description of Research Site and Population
PrimaryResearch and Implementing Questions
Research Methodology
Methods and Tools
Data Analysis
Limitations and Delimitations
Chapter Summaries
2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON HAITIAN CULTURE...... 9
Proverbial Insight
Questionnaires and Evaluation
Unstructured Interviews
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Text Analysis
Demographic Analysis
Summary
3. INFLUENCES ON TRAINING DESIGN. .23
Support for Attentionto Early Childhood Care and Development
Connections between Early Childhood and Adult Education
Programs in Early ChildhoodEducation
Theories in Adult Education
Training Design
Summary
4. Training and Discussion...... 37
Orphans International - The Organization
The Location and Participants
Summary
5. Analysis and Conclusions...... 63
Lessons Learned
Primary Research Questions Answered
Challenges I Faced
Conclusions
Recommendations
APPENDICES 73
REFERENCES 109
v
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Table Page
1. Life Expectancy in Haiti andthe Dominican Republic...... 19
2. Multivariate Statistics...... 21
vi
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Figure Page
1. Points of Comparison in Early Childhood Care and Adult Learning...... 25
2. Our Role at Orphans International...... 43
3. Interactionbetween the Child in Orphans International, Haiti with his/her Global and Home Communities...... 44
4. Positiveand Negative Forms of Discipline...... 46
vii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GLOSSARY
Andragogy: adult education practices focusingon active participation from the learners with a respect for
previous experience; and focus on real life problems (Ramos, 2002 and Srinivasan, 1992).
Conscientization: refers to the process in which people, in control of their own thinking; becomes aware of
their own sociocultural context andthe factors influencing it and strive to make changes (Freire,
1985).
Constructivism: Cognitive development based upon continuous mental manipulation of structuring and
restructuring pieces of learning into ideas (Morrison, 2003).
Formal Education: institutionalized structure - clearly defined roles of teacher and student; typically a set
curriculum (Ramos, 2002).
Non Formal Education: cooperative approach to purposeful learning with a focus on learning from
colleagues and from own experiences; may occur in a variety of settings. (Ramos, 2002).
Pedagogy: education of children at times connected with the negative connotationof learners as passive
recipients of knowledge; in reality many experts in child education advocate for children being
actively engaged in their own learning process (Ramos, 2002).
Praxis: the reflection on action; used with adult education theories(Vella, 2002).
viii
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INTRODUCTION
It is never too early to become involved But it can easily be too late.
Message relayed at the first Early Childhood Conference held by the World Bank.(Young,2002)
Purpose ofStudy
This study isa literature-based evaluation ofa training program in early childhood care and
education for house parents of an orphanage in Haiti. Thefindings, conclusions and recommendations of
this study have implications for subsequent training of orphanage staff in Haiti and other countries where
internationally-recognized good practices need to be integrated with non-Westem cultural norms. The
intent of this first training was to prepare the newly-hired house parents with the tools necessary to
positively impactHaiti’s most valuable resource - its children.
The participants at the Jomtien Conference in Thailand in 1990 examined the Rights of the
Child and agreed that all children deserve a right to an education. As more funding goes into improving the
child mortality rates, it is found that 12 in 13 children will survive infancy, so now the question is not so
much that of infant survival but of enabling the child with the best quality of life (Myers, 1993). This can
only be accomplished by giving childrena fair and equal start to education. Orphans International seeks to
do this through the education of house parents on the methodologies and implementation strategies of early
childhood care and education.
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Jim Luce, the founder of Orphans International, has goals for the orphanage communities echoing
the basic rights of the child as delineated in The Convention on the Rights of the Child which 1
.. .spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere - without discrimination - have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate folly in Family, cultural and social life,” (Unicef, Convention on the Rights of theChild, 2003).
Everychild -regardless of birthplace, race, ethnicity, gender or socio-economic status must have a foil
opportunity to become a productive member of society and must have the right to speak up and be heard.
Additionally, every child must have the right to develop to his or her fall potential. A prime target for
accomplishing this goal is by providing access to quality education for all children but also paying special
attention to early childhood education.
Based upon current literature, there is great demand to reach children through early childhood
programs which emphasize the development of the whole child. The mission of Orphans International is to
provide the best education possible to the orphans so that as adults, they have a strong desire andcapability
to give back to their home countries. The foundations for human development are best established early in
life. More than simplycustodial care, the house parents required training inbest practices for early
childhood development and education.
Up until age eight, children learn best through exploratoryand learner-centered activities. They
need to have the opportunity to manipulate objects, learn by trial and error within a safe environment and
internalize learning through hands-on experiences (Evans, Myers, and Ilfeld, 2000). The interaction with
both peers and adults is important in development of language and other interpersonal skills (Young, 1996).
Training house parents to incorporate experiential learning activities within the home will aid in the
development of the children to their fall potential.
There are several frameworks used for early childhood education but research shows that
addressing the four components: physical, social, cognitive and emotional prove most beneficial to the
1 A UNICEF sponsored project drafted over a period of 10 years. From 1979, The Year of the Child, until 1989 non-governmental organizations and United Nations’ members prepared this plan containing 41 articles representing the rights of the child.
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child. The four components do not simply complement each other but rather enhance the development of
each. Similarly, if one area is neglected all areas suffer (Evans, Myers & Ilfeld, 2000).
The benefits of early childhood education are validated by research on brain development over
the past decade. Brain development does not begin when a child enters school but the most rapid growth
and development occur before age four. Unless certain areas of the brain are programmed with the tools
and experiences within certain developmental periods of time, the windows of opportunity may be
jeopardized and may never develop to their foil potential. Continuing with the theory that education begins
at infancy and major brain growth and development are to take place in the pre-primary stages of life, to
achieve a fair start in education, all children must have access to optimal early childhood care. Many
factors work symbiotically to enhance or inhibitoptimal brain development including health, stimulating
environment and interactions with others (Evans, Myers and Ilfeld, 2000).
Problem Statement
Orphanages throughout the developing world areplagued by impoverished conditions.
Malnutrition, disease, lack of emotional attachmentsare factors usually found in these situations that hinder
the full development of children and thus makes it impossible for them to surmount their circumstances
forcing them to spend their lives in poverty. However, Orphans International hasset outto provide for
biological orphans2 who are unduly disadvantaged. Their goal is to develop orphanage communities
fostering a sense of loyalty totheir country while providing them withbest learning experiences for optimal
cognitive, emotional and physical development. In doing this, Orphans International will build human
capacity within Haiti while improving the conditions of individual children.
The research problem is to assess the effectiveness of the training provided in this unique
context of an “international” orphanage in Haitiand to draw conclusions, lessons and recommendations
regarding training of early childhood caregivers in and beyond this context.
2 Biological orphans refer to orphans in which at least the mother is deceased. The orphanage is requesting death certificates as proof of this status and informal discussions with community members for verification.
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Description of Research Site and Population
The context of this study is the orphanage communityCyvadier, in Haiti. The focus of the
organization is to create small homes with Haitian house parents overseeing the needs of up to four children
each, while providing the optimal learning experiences to thechildren. Using the current knowledge of
early childhood developmentand best practices considered in the realms of parent education, child as
caregivers’ education and early childhood development centers, I have designed and implemented a
training program for the first house parents. This site and population are described in much more detail in
chapters two and four following.
PrimaryResearch and Implementing Questions
When designing and implementing the training for the house parents many questions reshaped
the original plan. Within the context of Orphans International, Haiti what areas will be considered most
appropriate to include in the content of training program? What training methods could be utilizedthat
would take into account the needs, interests, cultural perspectives, and existing knowledge and experiences
of the trainees (house parents)? To what extent could a short-term training program provide caregivers with
skills, knowledge, and attitudes to enable optimum early childhood care and development? Due to the
physical, emotional, and psychological needs of childrenfrom an early age to develop into capable learners
at later stages in life; to what extent could caregivers provide inputs conducive to learning anddevelopment
in an orphanage? What implications does this training experience have for other caregiver training efforts
in orphanages in Haiti and beyond?
Research Methodology
My role with this case study project was to serve as a participant observer. I had the task of not
only designing thetraining, co-facilitating it but also acted as a participant in several of the sessions. The
training design for this case study is based upon a strong literature study and my visit to Haiti in July 2002.
As an outsider, unfamiliar with the culture ofHaiti, I felt it necessary to thoroughly study the
background ofHaiti through various sources. Through the initial planning stages of the training design, I
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consulted literature and spoke with project stakeholders. Based upon the needs assessment and research on
best practices of early childhood programs, a training seminar was designed and implemented.
Consideration of the culture, values, history ofHaiti was important before attempting to design an
appropriate training. It would be wrong to believe that the needs of the house parents in their training would
appropriately match those used elsewhere for a different purpose and a different culture. In order to
successfully carry out the case study using qualitative research methods, a couple of key resources were
consulted: Merriam Sharan’s, Case StudyResearch and Education and Lyda Beardsley’s, Good Dav. Bad
Dav: The Child’s Experience ofDav Care.
Careful consideration of the awareness of a group’s attitudes shaped by culture and my own
cultural biases, I planned the training. In an effort to Seam and appreciate the Haitian culture and
childrearing beliefs to preserve positive traditions while training them in best practices, I used
questionnaires, unstructured interviews, textanalysis and participant observation. Factors investigated
included educational background and experience with young children; attitudes towards childrearing and
child development; attitudes towards orphans in Haiti; the beliefs for the roles ofthe child in the home and
the similarities and differences between what we are asking the house parents to do in Cyvadier with how
they were raised. Further investigation through theuse of evaluations would address the following factors:
the appropriateness of the training manual for equipping the parents with transferable tools within the
homes; the influence of the training on lesson design; the transference of best practices in early childhood
development: parent training, child-to-child care and early childhood development centers to the Orphans
International community.
Methods and Tools
1. Literature Review: background studies on early childhood development centers, methodologies,
new findings in child development, Haitian childrearing practices, children’s literature and social
factors affecting the people ofHaiti.
2. Needs Assessment: viewpoints of the Haitian and United States Board Members, and educators
for the design of a meaningful training program.
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3. Questionnaires: Daily evaluations completed by the participants to assess the program and aid the
Education Coordinator, and I to make any necessary changesfor the remaining sessions.
Questionnaires were also distributed early on in the training to learn more about the backgrounds
of the participants.
4. Informal Dialogue: informal discussions that occurred outside of the training day, as well as,
conversationsI had during myweek in Haiti.
5. Observation: during the training I observed the participants andEducation Coordinator interact. It
was conducted in Haitian Creole, so I was assisted bya translator.
. 6. Interviews: various project stakeholders including the participants, Education Coordinator, Haitian
Board members and others met while visiting.
Data Analysis
Informal conversations and interviews with participants, advisors, educators and community
members contributed to my knowledge base as I continuedto add to and revise the training program. The
evaluations were gathered daily and with the assistance of a translator, I adjusted and monitored the
program according to the responses of the participants. Participants provided information througha
ranking scale on daily evaluations in addition to answering questions.
After the training, I continued working with the Education Coordinator to respond togaps between
the outcomes of the training and the goals of the organization. Gaps are to be addressed in development of
the follow-up training and the topics for weekly meetings of the house parents and Education Coordinator.
Limitations and Delimitations
This study only takes into considerationa small group of house parents within the context of
Haiti. The house parents come from a variety ofbackgrounds. With this said, it would not be a true
representation of dialogue that could be expected when working withearly childhood caregivers within any
other context - developing or developed country. The time frame that I had in-country was limited to a
week during the training and one visit eight months prior, so much of the information formulating my
views on Haitian culture was taken from secondary sources versus actual observation and dialogue. I also
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had the difficult role of being the training designer, the facilitator anda participant observer. Being
responsible for several components may have disadvantaged me frommaintaining a critical eye on theway
in which the training occurred.
There are many other nonprofit organizations working in Haiti. This piece does not speak to
any other organization’s work outside of Orphans International.Nor does this paper address the issues of
education as faced by the Ministry of Education in Haiti or delve intowork being done to address early
childhood education in the country. There was not an opportunity for me to do a follow-up training with
the house parents because of a delay in the project timeline, so this paper does not provide information
regarding the transference of the skills and knowledge acquired fromthe March training within the context
of the orphanage and the children.
Chapter Summaries
Chapter two describes the background information ofHaiti which has been instrumental in
developing a culturally appropriatetraining and working with my colleagues in Haiti. Asa trainer and
educator from an outside culture in respect for the training participants, it was crucial that this background
information was taken into account and used in the development of the training. This information was
obtained through primary and secondary sources.
Chapter three includes research supporting the formation of the training program based upon
andragogical practices and current practices in early childhood education. Throughout the initial stages of
the training design, I consulted literature and spoke with project stakeholders. Based upon feedback from
the two boards and research on best practices ofearly childhood programs, a training seminarusing
participatory methodswas designed and implemented.
Chapter four focuses on the details of the training. It provides informationabout the
participants, location and materials used. It also gives examples from discussions we had and work
completed together. Any alterations made from the original training is analyzed. The responses to each
activity are also shared in this chapter. The training in its entirety is available in theappendix of this paper.
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Finally, Chapter five is the analysis of the training program. Research findings, the conclusions of
the training week and recommendations for fature trainings will be discussed during this concluding
chapter.
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON HAITIAN CULTURE
Pm dan file pa ni pen di For sharp teeth there is no hard bread Creole Proverb (Ovide, 1996).
Proverbial Insight
To gain insight into a culture, one can study the proverbs. As stated above in the optimistic
Haitian proverb; for someone with courage, nothing is impossible. The proverb reminds us that there are
opportunities to improve one’s situation and to rise out of poverty. However, in contrastto this optimism
are several proverbs that contradict this optimism and advise Haitians to accept their fate. A few include:
Lappenn Profile: misfortune abuses us (Ovide, 1996); and Deyi mon, gen mom behind the mountains
more mountains (Project Teach, 2003). These proverbs in contrastto popular sayings in the United States
demonstrate the clash of cultural values. For instance our proverbs such as:nothing ventured, nothing
gained and a penny saved is a penny earned exemplifies society’s value forcapitalism and individualism.
Expecting to write a training program for house parents undoubtedly influenced by my own cultural values
could have had a deleterious impact on the project. Therefore, a study of the country, history and people
was crucial.
Questionnaires and Interviews
Oftentimes childrearing practices become part of the tradition and regardless of the changes in
the social fabric of a community, many people remain committed to raising their children in the manner in
which they themselves had been raised. Traditionally Early Childhood programs have solely focused on
scientific evidence in program development rather than also accounting for the cultural practices (Evans
and Myers, 1995).
9
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In order to assess common beliefs and practices in childrearing, I devised a questionnaire (see
Appendix A forInstitutional Research Board acceptance of study) to be completed by theparticipants and
Haitian Board Members (see Appendix B for questionnaire). I tested the questionnaire on two employees
ofmy apartment buildingcomplex. One was a woman from Ethiopia and another was a woman originally
from St. Lucia. Based on confusions regarding some ofthe questions, I revised the questionnaires. The
questionnaires were then translated for me by one of the Haitian Board Members and the responses were
later translated and discussed with a French-speaking friend.
A cross-cultural perspective of childrearing practices can assist the organizationin later
adapting the training to their other orphanage communitiesin Indonesia, Guayana and elsewhere. The
intention of the interviews was to learn more about why house parents may have certain opinions regarding
child rearing and early childhood education. The questionnaires were to serveas a guide so that we could
adapt the training as necessary, develop the curriculum, organize discussions around certain topics and
simply clarify expectations. Itis very difficult to step outside of one’s culture and examine it. Learning
about something as natural to a group as raising children proved difficult despite the questionnaires and
personal discussions with Haitians. For the orphanage community, it would be worthwhile to learn other
commonly held beliefs in the areas of nutrition, health and medicine.
I had a difficult time getting other stakeholders to complete these questionnaires. I had
originally passed them along to theHaitian Board and asked them to complete them and asked Haitian
expatriates in Washington D C. to assist me but to no avail. It would have made an interesting comparison
between more privileged Haitians such as those on the Board and living in the United States with those
selected as our house parents who are well educated by Haitian standards but struggle economically.
Ideally, the questionnaires would have been arranged asan interview but lack of time during my stay made
it impossible, so we simply passed it along to them to take home. I had noticed a huge difference in the
richness of responses between the St. Lucian woman who took the questionnaire home to complete and the
Ethiopian woman who I sat with and discussed the questions with as an unstructured interview. In the
future, time set aside with a translator to have more directed conversations with the house parents would be
ideal.
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Daily evaluations, translated forthe participants bya Haitian Board Member, were given to the
participants in order to assess the programand allow the Education Coordinator and I to make any
necessary changes for the remaining sessions (see Appendix C for the Training Outline). The daily
evaluations also gave the house parents the opportunity to raise questions anonymously (see AppendixD
for Daily Evaluation Form).
Unstructured Interviews
While keeping the original survey questions in mind, I chose to take advantage of my time with
Haitians and ask such questions in conversations. Understanding the importance of flexibility in qualitative
research is critical when only working within a limited time and when opportunities, due to language
barriers, may be limited.
The first person I spoke with was the driver, who picked me up from the airport. He has become
a reliable friend and driver for the project. He has recently purchased a leep thus replacing a well-worn
mini station wagon. The Jeep maneuvers the roads and is a much more comfortable ride. Paying for the
Jeep was a challenge he told me as tourism is nonexistent and therehas been fewer foreign workers coming
to Haiti. He shared with me that for a month he had been driving a CBS news correspondent around every
day at $100 a day but that was a while back.
The driver has two children. The boy is the oldest and the girl is eight years old. He has paid for
the boy to attend a private Catholic School from the beginning of his schooling and says that it is very
expensive but very important. The girl attends the public school. I asked how his children’s lives differ
from when he was a child and he confided in me that he is much more careful than his parents were. He felt
that he was a “victim”. I asked if his parents punished him severely and he said that it wasn’t thatas much
as they didn’t care for the children. He was second oldest of eight children and because of the family’s
poverty, he and his older brother were forced on their own by age 16. He blames his parents for his eldest
brother’s death from AIDS. He believes that if his parents had taken care of all of the children they had
had and not turned any out then his brother would not have gotten AIDS. He also believes that had his
parents been more involved in his life that he would have finished high school. His mother now lives in
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Cap Haitien and his father is in Jacmel. The rest of his siblings are in Port-au-Prince, some are hoping to go
to university, but the costs are holding them back.
The driver admits that he places a lot of pressure on Ms own children, especially the son who is
beginning secondary school, to earn good grades. Thechildren complain about school but he firmly
believes education is the keyto achievement. He and his wife onlywant two children so they can keep
them “under control” (driver,personal communication, March 26, 2003).
Simply by chance, the original Education Coordinator,a Montessori-trained educator and
administrator met Jim Luce. He was first brought into Orphans International as the Director of Education,
after a few months the title changed to Education Coordinator. For various reasons, he decided to resign
from Orphans International in early March. He promised to stay through the trainingand completed some
of the work previously agreed upon by the group.
The Education Coordinator is sixth in the line of nine children. According to him, hewas really
the one in charge of his younger siblings. In fact, within his family it wasunderstood that if a child
misbehaved in anyway it would be the responsibility of the next oldest child to take care ofthis child. The
parent would therefore punish the older sibling for not keeping the younger child in control.
His mother was a teacher and his father a lawyer. His father died when he was only 15 years old.
All of the nine children went through high school. The Education Coordinator feels fortunate because he
was able to attend university, become Montessori-trained and then find a job immediately. He knows of
several young people who were not able to find employment even after their college education.
He mentioned the effect of the cosmos on who we are and who we become. He knows that he was
bom a Haitian and is therefore responsible for giving back to Haiti. The Education Coordinator believes
that educators are unique because what you give to students through education comes back tenfold. He
calls himself a “humanist”. He is here to help all of humankind not just one type of race, religion etc.
He believes that early childhood educationis very important now too because of thechange in the
family structure within Haiti. Many people migrate to the cities from the rural areas. Theplots of land have
been so stripped of nutrients that farming is not a viable option anymore. With the urban migration falls the
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difficulty of separating tightly bonded extended families. This has drastically impacted the caregiversa of
child’s life.
Ever since high school, the Education Coordinator has wanted to run his ownorphanage. He spent
10 yearsworking at an orphanage “Little Brothers and Sisters” whichis an orphanage for about600
children and is also a hospital. He worked with children who were disabled for one year and was the
Director for one year. He also has 8 years experience as the Early Childhood Principal (Education
Coordinator, personal communication, March 26, 2003).
I also had the opportunity to speak with one of the Haitian Board Members. He offered his
home/office as our training facility for the week. He comes froma privileged familybackground. His
Maternal Grandfather was a Mulatto which offers substantial privileges in this nation so entwined by race
and slavery. As a young boy, his family traveled a lot through Haiti inspiring him to give back to the
country. Many of his cousins left Haiti and are now in the States. He wants to focus on ways to educate the
children but make sure they have the opportunities and desire to stay and become instrumental citizens of
Haiti.
He recognizes the needs for not only educating the children but seeing them through and finding
jobs for them. As written in Haiti in Focus (Arthur, 2002), there are many educated people without jobs so
his goal is to find ways to encourage entrepreneurship and help fund it. He invites high school students to
his office after school to build their technology skills by using his own equipment. The board member
believes technology skills will pay off for the young adults as they enter the work force. (Haitian Board
Member, personal communication, March 27,2003).
Similar to the Education Coordinator, both men worked for Larche and both have a strong view
that spirituality mustbe addressed in the orphanage. Through informal conversations during my visit both
during the training sessions and outside, I continued to learn agreat deal about its culture and the people’s
belief systems.
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Observation
In July 2002,1 accompanied three Orphans International Board Members on their trip to Haiti. I
was interested in learning about Haiti and also to see first-hand the process of establishing a non-profit,
U.S. based group in a foreign country. I was impressed by the Haitian Board Members which they had
enlisted after Interviewing over 100 candidates on their December 2001 trip. The selected Board Members
are all college educated people with the motivation to strengthen Haiti and its people. They already have
experience with community projects emphasizing empowerment over disadvantaged situations; whether it
is an agricultural endeavor, a boy’sor girl’s sponsored club or development of a YMCA. We also had the
opportunity to speak with workers at the UNICEFoffice in Port-au-Prince and learn about major issues
surrounding their work in Haiti.3 In addition to UNICEF, we spoke with smaller non-governmental
organizations to learn about their experiences when working with the Haitian bureaucracy. A defining
moment for the group was the visit to one of the poorest slums in the Western Hemisphere, CiteSoleil. We
were accompanied by education advisors from the Ministry of Education. Seeing the deplorable conditions
only secured the desire forthe organization to accomplish its goals by increasing human capacity and
providing for orphans.
Another important visit was made to the location of the future orphanage village in Cyvadier.We
spent a few days investigating the property and visiting with the main builder of thefirst home; as well as
visiting with other key education and government leaders in the area such as a womanwho started her own
Montessori-style School in Cyvadier and the Deputy Content for the region of Jacmel. Enlarging the
community andengaging all stakeholders in the process of development is crucial to the sustainability ofa
project. Spending more time in the community to research the resources of thecommunity and neighboring
town of Jacmel would have been beneficial in developing a community map of which we could have used
in drawing upon existingresources.
During this first trip, I had little involvement but the opportunity to observe the meetings and
interactions of the Board Members greatly added to my understanding of the goals of the organization and
3 For the current moment, UNICEF’s focus is on homeless children and protecting them from unjust incarceration in unsanitary prisons.
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the culture of working with people in Haitiwhich then affected my ability to cany out the training
development and education projects for the group.
■During the training in March, I observed the participants and Education Coordinator interact.
It was conducted in Haitian Creole, so the assistance of a translator was needed. I co-facilitated the
sessions so many notes were taken in the eveningafter the training. Comments pertaining to the individual
sessions can be found in conjunction with Chapter 4 which describes the training as it occurred.
Text Analysis
A study of culture through literature and the words of the people served as a valuable source in the
training plan. While incorporating knowledge ofHaiti through visits and secondary sources, I also
analyzed two Haitianchildren’s books. It is not uncommon for children’s books to educate the reader
while entertaining him or her. Through the review of two children’s books, a great deal of background
information can be gained of Haiti’s social, geographic and economic situations. The children’s books
analyzed are Tap-Tap bv Karen Lynn Williams (1994) and Running the Road to ABC by Denize Lauture
(1996).
Tap-Tap by Williams tells the story of an eight year old girl named Sasifa who is off to the
market with her mother to sell oranges. The walk to the market is long and arduousfor Sasifa and she
constantlyasks her mother if they can hail a covered truck, Tap-Tap, to the market. The Mother never
relents and so they walk the whole way to the market. By the end of the day, Mother is thrilled that she and
Sasifa have sold all of the oranges and rewards Sasifa with money to spend any way she wishes. Sasifa
immediately decides to spend the money on a ride home in the Tap-Tap for herself and her mother. The
author explains through the actions of the characters that the name of this popular form of transportation
refers to the passengers tapping on the roof of theTap-Tap from the bed of the truck in order to get the
driver’s attention to stop. Eventually, Sasifa has the opportunity to tap on the roof ofTap-Tap the as she
and her mother near their home.
Running the Road to ABC by Denize Lauture is a beautiful picture book depicting the travel
that six children must do daily to get to and from school. The story relays the journey of the children from
home in the pre-dawn hours, through various fields, passing people with their wares to sell at market,
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through small villages with birds and animals until reaching their final destination - school. The story is a
visual experience following a small group ofchildren through the Haitian countryside.
According to Save the Children’s website, “Haiti is considered the poorest country in the Western
Hemisphere. Roughly 50 percent of children lack educational opportunities,” (October 2003). Even though
Haitian law states that education is free and compulsory for all students ages seven thru thirteen, the reality
is that it is not nearly as accessible. Books and uniforms prove too costly for many families and there is a
scarcity of facilities for children in rural areas(Doggett and Gordon, 1999). Due to deteriorating facilities,
students are forced to attend private schools. The tuition in addition to supplies can range up to $40 per
year when, on average, Haitian family income is $250 a year (Arthur, 2002). This said I believe that
Williams, when writing Tap-Tap, was on target with her heroine,Sasifa going to the market with her
mother. Educational opportunities for girls are low coupled with the fact there is no mention of a husband
or other siblings, it is reasonable to assume that the mother and daughter are left alone to survive as fruit
sellers. On the other hand, the book written by Lauture, portrays the children as eager to go to school and
portrays schoolas a natural occurrence for all children. In truth, it is not.
Another disheartening truth about Haiti’s education system is the meager amount of teacher
training available or required of the educators. In many cases, teachers need only the equivalentof a sixth
grade education in order to become primary school teachers. On a test administered to 12,000 educators in
1996, more than half failed. A shocking number ofteachers couldn’t alphabetize words or order fractions
by size (Project Teach, 2003). Bearing this in mind when developing the training program, itwas
reasonable to assume that the level of teacher training would be limited and their views on teaching would
be consistent with the didactic form commonly seen in Haitian public schools today.
A point consistent with the Haitian education system made by Lauture in the book, Running
the Road to ABC, reveals the great distance covered by the children to reach school. In many rural areas,
children who want to attend school must travel long distances on foot. The poemitself is the adventure
from home to school and depicts the effort to travel the distance every day. This display of perseverance is
appropriate within the context of Haitian society which struggles daily to survive not to mention receive
basic rights such as education.
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Lauture’s book flows melodically from one scene to another with repetition used throughout.
This style is characteristic of theKriklKrak! repetitive verses used in Haitian storytelling. These
traditional stories would be shared nightly between family and neighbors and storytelling became a large
source of education for the people. This tradition continues through radio programming which keep
Haitians abreast of the news around the world. The rich oral history of the Haitian people informed some
of the training and was incorporated into some of the training whereas in other cultures storytelling and
other role playing exercises may be less appropriate.
There are two newspapers in Haiti that originate in Port-au-Prince. But these are only
published four times a week. Another publication, written in French and sent over by the United States is
published a couple of times a week too. Between the years 1990 - 1998, there was a Haitian newspaper
geared towards the majorityof people and was written in the common Creole language. However, it went
out of business in 1998 (Arthur, 2002). The uses of radio has grownto incorporate basic education
lessons, health and agriculture skills.
Tap-Taps are a way of life for Haitians. They are brightly decorated vehicles and usually have
a positive phrase written across the top. In this story, “Hope” was written across the top, It is not unusual
to see many people walk rather thantake a ride because even though the Tap-Taps cost the equivalent of a
nickel; they are too costly for many Haitians. Williams accurately describes howTap-Tap a will fill up
completely before the driver will agree to depart. The goal is to fit as many peopleas possible into the
Tap-Tap allowing the driver to maximize his profit. Tap-Taps have set routes that they follow but they do
not have set schedules. Instead of knowing when the next Tap-Tap will leave, you depend on luckthat the
next Tap-Tap will have enough space for you and your goods.Tap-Taps will stop along the side of the
road to pick up more passengers if there is space available (Doggett and Gordon,1999).
As informative as these picture books are in terms of description of nature and everyday events,
there are some gaps in both books. There is little said about the family structure. In Tap-Tap, the mother
takes Sasifa to the market. There is no mention of siblings or other relatives. In Running the Roadto ABC.
the child hugs his mother as he leaves in the early morning for school. Again, there is no reference to other
family members. In addition to women being the traditional caregivers, knowledge from health statistics
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and readings pertaining to the AIDS epidemic, many women are leftas the sole caregivers fortheir
children. Issues of health are not mentioned in either storybut diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis
are common and treatment of such diseases is not accessible to the majority (Farmer, 1999). Finally, the
poor economy is accurately depicted as the author describes the market. We can assume that most shopping
is carried out in such venues but there is no direct mention of the Haitians’ hardships and reliance upon
selling goods at market for survival. Despite these omissions, both books capture the beauty of Haiti
through their storytellingand demonstrate the importance of hope and perseverance in everyday life.
In the case of Orphans International, the two books would serve as good examples of Haitian
reality tothe children. The authenticity of the markets and the riding inTap-Taps will be experiences for
them and they will encounter children who must deal with the rigor of working in the market rather than
attend school; or, if given the opportunity, traveling long distances to school on foot each day. Analysis of
children’s books are important tools in teaching emerging literacy. For instance, teaching children common
words or searching for repetition in writing is consistent with development of basic reading skills.
Demographic Analysis
History has not beenkind to Haiti. It shares the same island with the Dominican Republic and up
until 1844; they were joined under the Haitian flag. As the yearspassed, both countries suffered under
dictators. The Dominican Republic was able to improve its situation while Haiti continues to suffer.
The island ofHispanola was happened upon by Columbus on December 23, 1492. Hewas
welcomed by the native Taino people who livedin villages of 1,000 to 2,000 people governed bya Chief.
They lived in wood - thatch homes which encircled a community area. By 1508, slaughter and disease had
diminished the population of Tainos from 400,000 to 60,000. Colonization was in the blood of the Spanish,
French and English as they all tried to gain control over the islandofHispanola. Eventually, Hispanola was
inhabited by the French on one half and the Spanish on the other half. In an unprecedented uprising ofa
black slave nation, believed to have been invoked by the assistance of a voudou ceremony in Bois Caiman,
the slaves rose against the French and took their country to become the first black free nation in 1804. The
Spanish side ofHispanola declared their independence in December of 1844 and became the Dominican
Republic.
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As individual as the two countries are in their languages and culture, their society’s health and
economic situations are drastically different. The hand fate dealt Haiti with international relations,
oppressive regimes and ultimately destruction of the citizens’ skill capacity has directly impacted the status
of Haitians today and contrasts sharply against indicators of the Dominican Republic’s society (Daggett
and Gordan, 1999). Statistics from the CIA Factbook (August I, 2003) show that independent variables
compound and affect the citizens’ life expectancy. The three independent domains affecting Life
Expectancy are: Social Concerns, Economy and Standards of Living. Table 2.2 examines the data of each.
TABLE 2.1: Life Expectancy in Haiti andDomincan Republic
HAITI DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Male: 47.88 years Male: 71.57 years
Female: 51.29 years Female: 75.91 years
The differences in life expectancy ratesare shocking. Males and femalesin the Dominican
Republic, on average, live 24 years longer than those in Haiti. In addition to this grim statistic, there are
other indicators that directly correlate with and help explain the life expectancy discrepancy between the
Haitians and their island mates, the Dominicans.
• The lower the HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rate, the higher the life expectancy.
• The lower the infant mortality rate, the higher the life expectancy.
• The lower the inflation rate, the higher the life expectancy.
Considering that lower HIV/AIDS rates correlates with a healthier adult population. A healthier,
educated adult population will work and add to the economic growth of the nation therefore lowering the
need for international aid and lowering the debt to foreign interests. In addition, a healthier population
means higher life expectancy. A lower infant mortality rate is also connected with health care and
education of the populace which in turn positively impacts the life expectancy. Finally, a lower inflation
rate per year is more manageable for individuals to survive.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, the difference is twice as great in the prevalence of infected adults.
This figure is comparable with the difference in life expectancy. Dominicans survive almost 33% longer
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than Haitians. The Infant MortalityRates, International Aid and Inflation Rates are almost three times
greater for Haiti than those of the Dominican Republic.
In all of these instances, there was a high correlation between the variables and life
expectancy. The literacy rates almost match the life expectancy rates. Literacy is used as a measure of
education. The more literate, or educated a populace, the more capable they will be to care for themselves
and children through health, nutrition and to provide for their families economically. The electricity output
for a nationtells us the amount of electricity which influences the standardof living and is an indicator of
the advancement in technology fora country.
This Demographic Analysis proves that there is a huge disparity between Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. With this in mind, it is even more essential that avenues for empowering the Haitians
with skills and knowledge are explored in order to breaktheir cycle of poverty. Orphans International
seeks to do that by providing the best education possible to its children starting with early childhood
opportunities for the child with social, physical and emotional support throughout childhood and into
adulthood.
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Table 2.2 Multivariate Statistics
1. Social Concerns Haiti Dominican Republic HIV/AIDS Adult Prevalence Rate 5.17% 2.8% (1999) Infant Mortality Rate (2002) 93.35/1,000 33.41/1,000 Literacy Rate (1995) M=48%, F=42.2% Total:45% M=82%, F=82.2%, Total: 82.2% 2. Economy Gross Domestic Product (2001) $12 billion $50 billion International Aid (1995) $730.6 million $239.6 million 3. Standards of Living Electricity measured KW (2000) 522 million Kwh 9.475 billion Kwh Inflation Rates (2001) 14% 5%
Operational Definitions (as defined in the CIA Factbook). HIV/AIDS: An estimate of the number of adults (15-49 years) living with AIDS or HIVeach year.
Infant Mortality Rate: The number of deaths per 1,000 children under the age of 1 year.
Literacy Rate: Based upon the number of people over the age of 15 years who can read and write. This
measure is questionable as it is not standardized throughout the world. Low literacy rates are known to
impede economic development in the technologically-driven world.
Gross Domestic Product. The number is based upon the purchasing power parity (PPP).
Price is adjusted to include final goods and services produced in an economy.
International Aid: Included in the figure is aid given by international organizations (IMF and
World Bank), as well as, private organizations. Commitments for loan agreement are also factored into the
number.
Electricity Measured: The total amount of electricity generated.
Inflation Rates: The annual percentage change in consumer prices compared with previousyear.
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Summary
Understanding the history and current situation of people is crucial when developing any program.
Taking care to learn about the history, politics, economics and culture can assist the trainer or program
developers to appreciate the belief systems, values and fears of the people. In my situation, I used
knowledge gained through both primary and secondary sources for the development of the house parent
training.
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INFLUENCES on TRAINING DESIGN
Go with the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have.
But of the best leaders When the job is done, the task accomplished The people will all say, We have done this ourselves. Lao Tse circa 700 BC
Support for the Attention to Early ChildhoodCare and Education
Throughout the world more attention is being placed upon preschool programs because of the
solid foundation it provides children prior beginning primary school. The transition to primary school is
smoother and children have also been introduced to basic literacy and numeracy skills. The benefits of
early childhoodeducation are revealed during the primary school education. Access to early childhood
education has proven to increase enrollment rates and decrease retention rates. So, more children are being
promoted to the next grade levels rather than being retained a second time at the same grade level.
Increasing promotion rates is important for securing the child’s self-esteem and for lowering costs to the
government. If a child repeats a grade, then the government views that extra year as a waste of money in
which the child cost the the government double. In regards to the child, retention negatively impacts the
child’s self-esteem and becomes a critical factor in the child’s desire to remain in school. Early childhood
education programs have been successful in decreasing socioeconomic and gender inequalities. The
presence of early childhood centers alsofrees up the responsibility of the older children, allowing them to
remain in school (Young, 1996).
23
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In terms of physical benefits, healthy brain development through stimulating interactions and
environment has shown to positively impact the cognitive attainments. Recent research has shown that
early stimulation is necessary in reaching the ultimate potential of the brain. Neurons are working to build
synapses between regions of the brain and unless these are stimulated certain windows will be blocked
from reaching their potential. “This emerging paradigm suggests that there are "critical periods" in
development when the environment can influence how an individual's brain is "wired" for functions such as
math, language, music andphysical activity”(World Bank, BrainDevelopment, 2003). If these critical
periods are ignored, it is very difficult to later return to the area and develop it to its frill potential.
The training content for early childhood care givers must be organized around a child-centered
approach to learning that recognizes children at various levels of development. The development of the
child must be understood within the context of family, community and culture. Caregivers should be able to
transfer concepts of developmental appropriateness into specific learning activities. The schedule of
planned activities should provide opportunities for independent problem solving, meaningful child-initiated
conversations with peers and adults, and ample time for exploration of the environment. Opportunities for
problem-solving, dialogue and reflection arealso recommended components for training adults; as is
recognizing the culture of the community.
Connections Between Early Childhoodand Adult Education
Incorporating experiential learning principles of early childhood education with those of
training adults complement each other well. Building upon the strengths of the individuals and their
communities, while empowering them with knowledge ultimatelybuilds the community members’
confidence in controlling their own life. Similarly, in early childhood education, children need the
autonomy to take control of their own learning and build upon experiences in order to gain confidence.
Organizations such as the Bernard van Leer Foundation and education theorists agree that
early childhood education program development should center on experience. Kolb defines learning as “the
process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.. .knowledge is a
transformation process, being continuously created and recreated, not an independent entity to be acquired
and transmitted” (Irvine, 1999). Adult and children education theorists; John Dewey, Paulo Freire,
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Knowles and lean Piaget also support the use of experiential learning - through experience, people are
actively involved in their own education enabling them to process experiences and transfer those
experiences to other areas of life.Andragogical principles of adult education focusing on learner-centered
techniques is applicable in the context of pedagogical practices. Children should be given the opportunity
to learn through experience and through interactions with one another versus remaining married to the
didactic, teacher-centered methodologies once accepted.
The Bernard van Leer Foundation has worked extensively with early childhood education since
1949. Its mission is to help children between the ages of 0-8 years develop to their potential in areas of
education, health and nutrition. Similar to non-formal education principles are those of experiential
learning.
FIGURE 3.1: Points of Comparison in Early Childhood Care and Adult Learning (Irvine, 1999) In, 1,11 -In.MLIi - 1 Empowerment of people and communities Greater control over own learning
Building on the strengths of individual communities Build upon their own experience
The development of confidence and greater control Develop their own self-confidence and thus
over their own lives of people and communities empower themselves.
living in disadvantaged circumstances.
The training of early childhood and primary education practitioners needs to be a target for
change. By encouraging children to take ownership of their learning; the teachers have the capability of
lowering the drop-out rates, the retention rates and increasing the learning levels (World Bank,Early Child
Development:Benefits and Costs, 2003).
Drawing upon Paulo Freire’s findings in adult education as a way of achievingconscientization
and liberation from poverty, early childhood development is a critical avenue to explore. Children,
regardless of socio-economic status, race, or ethnicity - are effected by their experiences as a young child.
The educational success and health of these children directly impacts the human capacity of the nation,
while equipping the children with the tools necessary to becoming leaders in society.
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Implementing successful early childhood education programs incorporates many existing
beliefs of the non-formal education paradigm. A component ofnon-formal education is a cooperative
approach to learning emphasizing group dialogue and praxis.This is an appropriate approach to the
development of early childhood programs because the sustainability of an effective program hinges upon
the community support and the participatory methods implemented. The implementation and maintenance
of early childhood programs should also follow the best practices of non-formal education. These practices
include: a felt need in the community, improvement In the lives of those involved, the community
involvement in the control of the entire process and taking into account people and their own abilities and
resources (Ramos, class lecture, October 9, 2002).
In comparison, the High Scope curriculum recommends that children are actively engagedin
the planning oftheir activities. A part of the daily routine involves each child planningand devising
personal goals, workingwith the teacher to see the goals to fruition and then reflecting on the activity with
classmates at the end of the class time (Hohmann and Weikart, 2002). In the case of Orphans
International, there is a firm commitment to keeping the house parents involved in the development of the
curriculum, evaluation of the program and children all which will enable them to become more competent
providers to the children.
Programs in Earlv Childhood Education
Depending on the situation, different types of non-formal, early childhood education structures can
be successfully implemented. Three techniques that may be used in early childhood development programs
include Parent Education, Child-to-Child Care and Early Childhood Centers. Depending on the culture and
the situation, some are more appropriate than others.
Parent Education
Regardless of the types of early childhood development care offered in the community, a
majority of a child’s life is spent with familyas the primary caregivers. The families are the primary
socializing and educating forces in the children’s lives. They have a dramatic impact on the language,
cognitive and physical development of the child (Landers and Myers, 1988).
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There are different opportunities for educating parents. Home visits focus on the individual
care occurring in the home and assume that the potential for the child’s development can be increased
through additional stimulus in the home environment. A second method of parent education iscommunity
group programs. Parents are grouped according to the ages of their children and dialogue is encouraged
between the participants and the facilitator. This method enables the participants to learn from others who
are in similar situations about practices that are working for them and may be transferable. A final approach
to parent education is through mass media. Unfortunately, mass media has the tendency of becoming
“background noise” unless processed through group discussions (Landers and Myers, 1988).
While it is important to understand and build upon beneficial childrearing practices, many of
the previous practices in childrearing do need alterations. There has been distortion of practices over time
as families have migrated to different regions of the world or simply from rural to urban life; leaving
behind large nuclear families which had once provided additional child care support (Landers and Myers,
1988).
In the case of Orphans International, the house parents will be provided with educational
opportunities through trainings. But more frequently and more importantly, they will be involved in group
discussions between themselves and the Education Coordinator in order to develop activities that will
stimulate the learning of the children while also discussing issues that arise at the orphanage. Since it is a
small community, it will be expected that the Education Coordinator makes frequent home visits in order to
help the house parent directly by using available resources and responding to the individual children’s
needs.
Child-to-Child
Child-to-Child programs are easiest to implement because there is alreadygreat acceptance of
and use of child caring by children in many cultures throughout the world. From birth, older siblings are
expected to care for the younger children in varying capacities. Children are often asked to care for a
younger sibling while the mother is busy completing a chore. This might involve changing or bathing the
baby, or holding and carrying the child. However, in certain cultures, the demands for caring for the baby
are much greater on the older sibling.
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As long as the educational opportunities of the eldest child are not limited due to the additional
responsibilities of watching the younger siblings, this type of care benefits both the providers and recipients
of the care. The older child gains mastery at certain motor skills and practices the role of caregiver through
assisting the younger child. The younger child benefits from the individual attention which typically
improves the child’s language acquisition (Evans and Myers, 1995).
A trait of Child-to-Child programs is their flexibility in location. In keeping with the goals of
non-formaleducation, the location changes according to the needs of the community. In the case of
Botswana, Little Teachers, the community wanteda program more formalized that would enhance the
preschool program and would prepare the youngerchildren for entrance to the primary school. The
program was implemented so that part of the instruction was spent at the primaryschool and part was done
during home-visits by the mentorchild. Other programs mayoccur in community or health centers
(Landers, 1998).
The small family homes within the Orphans International community are ideal for child-to-
child programs. The goal of the program is to select children who willbe young enough to benefit from
early childhood education opportunities, yet to eventually - as the first orphans grow, havea scattering of
age groups within the home to mimic the setting of a true family. Within the family, it will be possible to
observe older children reading to the youngerchildren or assisting with homework. Both children end up
making substantial gains. The young are given attention, tutoring and language development while the
older children have the experience ofbecoming a valued mentor to a child in turn building confidence and
instilling positive values.
Early ChildhoodDevelopment Centers
In many societies, both parentsare forced to work and therefore must find outside care for
their children. Due to the changes in the social structure: urbanization, migration, industrialization, disease,
war, population growth and increased longevity,the childcare support once provided by the families has
also changed. Many families have migrated and are unable to draw upon the childcare support once
provided bytheir extended family (Myers, 1993).
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The location of an earlychildhood center is not as critical as the opportunity for children to
explore and become actively engaged in the learningprocess. A quality early childhood curriculum will
provide for the development of social, cognitive, emotional and physical areas equally through child-
centered, participative curriculum. The children should have ample opportunity to work with materials that
are relevant to the lesson. The teacher is present and is engaged through direct interaction with children but
the children are expected to explore their environment and to learn from itand their classmates as much as
from their teacher (Morrison, 2003). The best option is dependent upon the community and the culture.
Orphans International seeks to utilize a combination of approaches in developing a curriculum
to be implemented within the small homes which will stimulate the children and provide best opportunities
for cognitive, social, emotional and physical development. The works of Maria Montessori, Reggio Emilia
and High Scope have been researched in order to pull the most appropriate theories and practices from each
while developing an evolving curriculum. A curriculum should be flexible to the needs of the children,
resources of the orphanage and current research in early childhood pedagogy.
Theories in Adult Education
My role as a trainerwas to consider the effective strategies in adult education relative to
Haitian culture. My work involved merging Orphans International’s goals with best practices found in
Early Childhood Education and Adult Education while working within the realms of the culture. Wherever
possible, I incorporated existing, positive childrearing beliefs as discovered through conversations and
secondary sources.
Malcolm Knowles’ differentiated andragogical methods, educating adults, from the traditional
rote and didactic, pedagogical theories often associated with teaching (Leki, class lecture, February 9,
2003). Despite my best intentions, using discussion-based sessions and soliciting ideas from the
participants was a difficult feat to overcome. As is the case in many areaswith inadequate education
opportunities, “learners in developing countries have been taught how to learn. They believe that
formality, distance and passivity are essential elements in learning. Experiential learning is nottrusted
precisely because it lacks these elements” (Irvine, 1999). These beliefs inpassive, formal education are
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difficult to alter but due to a smaller group size and positive feel of camaraderie, the Education Coordinator
and I used participatory methods to demonstrate that learning does occur through experience and that each
person has valuable experiences from which we can all benefit.
Adhering to Jane Velia’s views on holistic learning, I sought ways to make the lessons:
affective, behavioral and cognitive. In order to have a lasting impact, the participants should feel connected
to the topic emotionally. This is affective. For instance, in one session the participants are asked to
remember the ‘likes and dislikes’ of childhood. By drawing on emotions, participants connect existing
knowledge with new content. Choice of controversial topics may also evoke strong emotions. The greater
the personal relationship with a concept through emotion, the more likely the concept will be internalized.
The behavioral aspect of the training incorporates specific skills learned and the teaching of these skills
through participatory manners. Unfortunately, learning a skill or new behavior does not guarantee that it
will be transferred outside of the training sessions. Finally cognitive skills refer to the content that will be
gained. Preparing sessions in which all three aspects are addressed insures the internalization and
transference of knowledge.
Recognizing various learning styles is important when teaching children and adults.
Combining the learning styles identified by Kolb and being aware of your personal learning style as a
trainer is importantin meeting the needs of the learners while addressing personal biases. According to
Kolb there are four types of learners:
1. Concrete Experiencers: rely on involvement and discussion
2. Reflective Observers: rely on careful observation
3. Abstract Conceptualizes: rely on logical thinking and evaluation
4. Active Experimenters: rely on experimenting and applying
Similar to the four types of learners, Kolb developed a learning cyclethat complements the
learning styles. According to the cycle, the process of learning goesthrough experiencing an activity,
reacting to the experience, discussing andanalyzing the experience and then applying what was learned
fromthe experienceto anew situation. As is evident, much learning is placed upon the past experiences
and the analyses following such experiences (Leki, class lecture, February 9, 2003).
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Paulo Freire also believed adults learn through experience and reflection. He stated that
education is never neutral. It is always meant to continue to oppress and maintain status quo or to liberate.
Through the work of an animator, one who facilitates dialogue of the learners, the people will have the
opportunity to discuss, learnfrom each other and act. Freire’s process ofpraxis involved dialogue amongst
the participants, their action and ultimately reflection. Freire believed in empowering the people to change
from recipients of information to critical thinkers (Freire, 2002). As mentioned before, in the case of the
house parent training, soliciting the opinions of the trainees and even the Board Members was at times
difficult. Rather than seeing me as an “animator”, they viewed me as anexpert and were not accustomed to
taking responsibility for theirown learning.
Vygotsky, coined the term:the Zone of Proximal Development(ZPD), This is defined as
“independent problem solving and the level ofpotential as determined through interaction.”(Shepel, 1995).
More clearly, it is the ability of the learners to reach their potential through interaction with otherswho
have more knowledge of the subject which may include teachers or peers in the classroom. Vgotsky’s
theories are useful in the case of Orphans International because of the desire to have thehouse parents and
Education Coordinator work together for the sake of the children’s overall development. The ZPD
assumes that the house parents are capable of learning from each other’s experiences. Piaget is one of the
most famous child educators whose theories on a constructivist approach to education still stand today.
Vygotsky claimed to be different than Piaget because he proposed the importance of humaninteraction in
reaching ZPD, whereas Piaget believes that cognitive development occurs through interactions with the
environment.
Many trainerswould agree that how you train is of equal if not greater importance than the
content. The stress should not only be on the quantity of contentthat is disseminated during training but
rather the methods used. By focusing on quality over quantity of content, onecan expect greater ability of
the participants to transfer new skills to their own setting. Keeping the need for experiential learning in
mind, I developed activities for the sessions that would mesh experiences with theories; whilealso building
a lasting community of support between the participants, the Education Coordinator and boards.
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Training Design
I created the training based upon the needs of the organization, work of current practitioners,
as well as, literature surrounding training adult learners, early childhood education and Haiti. Awareness of
the participants’ needs, experiences and belief systems is crucial in the development of a training program.
A didactic approach to instruction is common and is often viewed as the best wayof educating people, but
as refuted by Freire and other adult educators, is not as effective as education based on personal
experiences, discussion and reflection.
The first step recommended by trainers is that a needs assessment of both the organization and
the participants is done. The Seven Steps of Design as described by Dr. lane Vella, asks the trainers to
answer the following questions: Who? Why? When? Where? What? What for? (Vella, 2002). These
questions should be addressed when developing the training so the needs of the participants and funding
organization are taken into account.
Understanding the background information of the participants and the organization’s purpose
for holding the seminar assists in tailoring the workshop to the interests of the participants. All participants
come to the training with different needs and experiences so it can be expected that they will alsohave
different expectations for the seminar and different perspectives to share. The participants need to have
their experiences validated and references to the needs assessment throughout the training can become
important in relating the training with the trainees own objectives.
When assessing the needs of the organization, initially one must addresswhether training is in
fact necessary. In some cases, structural changes or collaboration between colleagues could take the place
of a formal training. A second consideration is whether or not the timing is good for the organization. In
the case of Orphans International, the timing of the training was constantly pushed back becausethe house
was not ready to be opened. Eventually, pressure from the International Board and my own eagerness to do
the training led me to Haiti prior to the house completion forcing us to change the training location to Port-
au-Prince from Cyvadier, the location of the orphanage. As it was nearly six months before the house
parents were needed again for the orphanage community, forcing the training may have been a mistake as
the enthusiasm for the project lost momentum during the hiatus.
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As this became attaining based upon an assignment for a course, I solicited feedback at the
same time that I was doing the formal needs assessment. The Haitian and International Board Members
received the training for their approval after I had completed it for a course. As it was only a class
assignment at the time, I wrote it with the intent of someday using it but preferred to wait for feedback from
my professor before passing it along to the organization. Taking the feedback from thetwo boards, I made
the suggested adjustments - although few, and prepared for the training.
An important component in the sustainability of a project is making certain the materials used
in the training can easily be procured in the home country. Focusing closer on the objectives of the training
activities and determining their transferability to the Cyvadiercommunity determined whether or not
alterations were made to an activity. Ideally all materials would be bought onsite but since time was
limited, I brought the materials for the training from the United States. I was careful to select items that
could be replaced in any location: buttons, cloth, and drawing materials. ( See Appendix F for a list of
materials brought to the training.)
Assessing the different learning styles of the participants and their expectations for the training
is beneficial in constructing a training program. However, time constraints and the timeline of the house
parent hiring made it difficult to do that. Yet, I was given the basic biographies of the hired house parents
who would be participating and I knew the requirements for applicants based on the standards written by
Orphans International.
In an effort to create a culturally appropriate training, I used bothprimary and secondary
sources. An influence on the training design was the traditionof story-telling in Haiti. Unfortunately,
illiteracy is a national problem in Haiti. Therefore maintainingoral traditions are not onlypart of the
culture but also a great necessity. Haitians oftentimes exchange riddles, jokes and storiesas a main form of
entertainment but it is also a main source for learning (Arthur, 2001). With this cultural form of
expression, even though the house parents are literate, they almost inherently possessed an enthusiasmfor
role-plays andstorytelling which became evident with some of the activities. In international training
settings, a trainer should have an understanding of the culture of the people in addition to afirm
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understanding of one’s own culture to adapt training activities to match the comfort of the participants’
own culture.
Having had the opportunity to be a part of the organization since the beginning of its
implementation in Haiti, I was familiar with the program objectives. The International Board determined
that the importance of the house parent’s responsibilities included maintaining an intellectually stimulating,
as well as nurturing environment, for the children. Through research on best practices in early childhood
education in the context of both disadvantaged areas of the world and wealthy nations, open-leaming
environments was proven the most beneficial educational situation for children. Research on early
childhood education programs helped me tailor some of the sessions to demonstrate the need and benefits
of experiential learning.
Based upon conversations with a Haitian-Canadian organizer ofa group called, Project Teach,
I learned that corporal discipline within the home and school setting was still prevalent in Haiti. His
organization brings North American teacher volunteers to Haiti yearly and provides in-service training for
Haitian educators on learner-centered methodologies to incorporate into classroom practices. He dedicates
much of his own training sessions to providing alternatives to corporal punishment and focuses on the
respect for the individual. This cultural need came up again when developing the training for Orphans
International. One of the Haitian Board Members reminded us that Haiti is a nation founded on slavery and
with that, the mistreatment and abuse of human life has perpetuated through the generations despite the end
of slavery.
In developing the training, it is imperative to be organized and to follow a logical sequence of
sessions yet to remain flexible to allowsufficient time to topics of interest ascertained through needs
assessment, evaluation and dialogue. The daily evaluation helped us in adapting activities and discussions
to their interests and questions. Through the engagement of the participants in the sessions and the general
progression from simpler, to more challenging concepts, the foundations of cooperation and securityare
set.
Acquiring knowledge can be accomplished through dialogue; learning from each other’s
experiences, and also through continual reflection, evaluation and application ofnew knowledge. The
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initial goal when creating the training involved reflectionjournals but those were not used during the
training. Reflection,praxis, will become more applicable when the house parents are working with their
children and then meet consistently with the Education Coordinator.
In order to maintain interest in the five day trainingprogram, a mixture of activities aided in
breaking up the monotony of a single-method approach while also fostering cooperative relationships
within the environment. The sessions must address the overall objectives of the training while providing
participants with theoretical knowledge and transferable skills. Successful sessions occur when participants
are able to articulate the purpose of each activity and the use in his/her personal situation.
Another component ofa strong training program is ongoing discussions with staff regarding
the sessions and design. Fortunately, the Education Coordinator and I took close to an hour daily to review
daily evaluations and modify the next day’s program. The Education Coordinator’s replacement will be
living on campus with the house parents and children and will be readily able to continue dialogue with the
house parents.
Once the actual training has begun, group normsshould be established and maintained through
frequent meetings and dialogue pertaining to the program itself. Group norms will ensure thatall members
of the training program feel on level with peers. A trainee, if not felt valued, will be more likely to tune out
the trainer or may leave the seminar altogether. There should be a general progression from simpler, to
more emotive sessions rather than beginning too strong with topics thatmay be sensitive to the participants.
Finally, an evaluation should be done throughout the training and at thevery end. The
evaluation will serve to keep the trainees cognizant of the participants’ abilities while immediately
addressing their concerns and reactions to the training experiences. The final evaluation can be useful in
setting project goals, developing follow-up training or “next steps” for the organization.
Summary
Using current theories of androgogy, early childhood education and best practices, I designed a
training. The five day training for future house parents was developed with the intent of meshing theory on
early childhood education with practical, transferable skills and activities while complementing Orphans
International’s goals. Chapter Four details the training as it occurred.
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Through teamwork between all stakeholders, clear goals should be revisited throughout the
planning and execution of the program. Flexibility in redesigning the training when necessary is important
as the needs of the community change over time and certain factors emerge which may not have been
accounted for at the onset. Praxis, reflection based upon experiences, invites stakeholdersto constantly:
evaluate their personal experiences, the needs of the organization, needs of the children, and assists in
determining necessary changes for the orphanage community. Meshing continuous dialogue, evaluation
with participatorystrategies are crucial elements in the design and adjustments of programs
(Srinivasatt,1992). In the end, the engagement of the community and the accountability of the community
in designing and implementing its own early childhood centers will contribute to project sustainability
(Vella, 2002).
In terms of Orphans International, the house parents and Education Coordinator will have
increasing responsibility in the design of the curriculum to match the needs and abilities of the children. As
a result the Education Coordinator and the house parents will become major project decision makers for the
good of the children as they report directly to both the Haitian and International Boards on changing needs
of the community and their charges. The more responsibility the house parents are given, the more
committed they will be to the community.
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TRAINING AND DISCUSSION
Our mission is tohelp orphaned or abandoned children grow into solid citizens of the world through a sound structure that is simultaneously INTERFAITH, because there are many paths up the Mountain; INTERRACIAL, because there is but one race - the human race; INTERNATIONAL, because our neighbors are our family; INTERNET-CONNECTED, because the world today is at our fingertips.
Jim Luce, Founder of Orphans International, 1999
Orphans International - The Organization
Orphans International was founded in 1998 by Jim Luce,a man whose experience with his
own adopted child from Indonesia spurred him into action for orphaned and disadvantaged childrenof the
world. ■ Orphans International supports -thebelief that with a healthy beginningand. support throughout
childhood, all children have the potential of becoming their best. It became officiallyregistered as a non
profit organization in the state ofNew York in the fall of 2002.
Luce, refers to the well-known saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” when describing his
goals for Orphans International (Luce, 1999). Each Orphans International community throughout the
globe will adhere to the vision of small family homes made up of four to six children, raised under the
guidance and support of one or two house parents representinga family unit. The uniqueness of a “family”
structure within an orphanage supports a basic tenant of optimal development for young children.
“Children live in a context -family, community, culture - and their needs are most effectively addressed in
relation to that context.”(Evans, Myers and Ilfeld, 2000). The ultimate goal is foreach community to have
religious centers representative of all religions of the nation, a school, sports facilities, elder-care facilities,
libraries, cultural centers, and gardens to aid in the integration of the children of the orphanage withthe
community.
37
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This community vision is consistent withBronfenbrenner’s framework of concentric systems.
The child is first affected by his/her own nuclear family ormicrosystem. The next ring represents themeso-
system which is the child’s community. And the final layer would be influenced by the policies imposed on
the community and the individual nation; the macro-system (Myers, 1996). Similar tothis framework,
Orphans International considers the overall welfare of the child to be directly impacted by the afore
mentioned factors.
The environment of the orphanage community seeks to address the health, education and social
development of the children. With this said, the house parents’ role within the community is focused on
Early Childhood Care and Development. Care for the children not only refers to the attention to the health
and physical development needs of the children but also to the secure environment (Young, 1996).
Children will be recommended by government sponsored social service agencies. These groups will verify
that the children are indeed biological, and not economic, orphans. The difference being that economic
orphans have been abandoned by their families until the children were capable of working and bringing in
extra money for the family. Orphans International is committed to seeing thechildren through their entire
development into adulthood.
The children will be expected to be in good health;referring to treatable illness and health
improvements possible through good nutrition and provisions of a safeand stable environment. Each child
will be screened for HIV, Tuberculosis and other health issues which the organization is not able to address
at this time. Eventually health services forall children on-site will be provided but until the organization
has grown, it cannot meet its mission of educating children to reach their fullest potential unless first
focusing on children who are only disadvantaged due to poverty. (See Appendix E for child intake form.)
The housing arrangement of family units provides an optimal environment for social
interaction and the development of such values as respect and generosity towards others. The house parents
have the demanding tasks of providing a cognitively enriching environment for the children,comfortable
and loving home while tending to the individual children’s needs of health and nutrition. (See Appendix F
for house parent advertisement flyer.)
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As of date, there are four Orphans International Projects throughout the world. Sulawesi,
Indonesia was the first project but is in the midst of restructuring and is due to open again in fall 2003.
Guyana was to be the second location of an Orphans International but basedon need as recognized in
Luce’s research on health, education and economic indicators; as well as connections established with
Haitian citizens and the ease of transportation between Haiti and New York City, Orphans International
Haiti became the second location. Guyana, and Bali, Indonesia are also expected to open within the next
year while more sites are being explored in Central America and Togo (Luce,personal communication,
October 4, 2003).
Orphans International Haiti is early in the development process and it is just completing the
house and procuring orphaned children from the country. The expectation is that the houseparents, trained
in early childhood education methodologies inMarch 2003, will make a long term commitment to the
children and the orphanage andtreat the children with the attention that they would provide their own.
When the orphans are school-aged, they will have the opportunity to attend a neighboring community
school until the campus has its own school built.
The house parents will also serve as teachers to the children through enrichment, interactive
and hands-on learning activities within the home. Orphans International is founded on the belief that
education does not happen solely in the formal setting. In addition to attending the community school, the
house parents will be expected to provide opportunities to experiment, play, manipulate and observe
materials within their home environments. The family setting will allow children of varied ages,
resembling a true family, opportunities to work with and learn from one another.
The premise of Orphans International is to enable the children of the community to develop to
their fullest cognitively, emotionally, socially and physically. Another unique feature of these communities
is the goal for the children to be reared through the system and not to be adopted out. As childrenare
adopted out to foreign cultures, they lose a sense of loyalty and connection to their home culture. Despite
excellent opportunitiesthat may be provided outside of the home country, the goal is to provide such
opportunities within the community. The development of outstanding citizens loyal to Haiti will become
extremely powerful tools to building its human capacity.
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In keeping with the goal of raising children to the fullest potential and as supported by recent
research in the area of brain development; the organization has instituted requirements of accepting
children between the ages of two and four years old. Dr.Brazelton of the Children's Hospital Medical
Center, Boston, Massachusetts states:
A child's experiences in the first months and years of life determine whether he or she will enter school eager to learn or not. By school age, family andcaregivers have alreadyprepared the child for success or failure. The community has already helped or hindered the family's capacity to nurture the child's development. (Young, 1996)
Concerns for the early years are paramount to the organization’s goal of reaching disadvantaged children at
a young age. Unusual circumstances may allow for exceptions to be made for the good of children and/or
the community.
The organization is committed to enriching the knowledge base of the house parents with theories
and best practices in early childhood education throughthe work of the Education Coordinator in Haiti, the
Education Advisor in the United States, continuous group discussions between the house parents and others
with strong pedagogical training.
The Location and Participants
The training for the house parents occurred from Thursday, March 27, 2003 until Monday,
March 31, 2003. The days selected were based around my own schedule of classesat American
University. The Board did not seem concernedthat the training would take place over the weekend but it
was not until the training began that we learned of the conflict for the two Adventist house parents. Itwas
not until five days before the training that thelocation had been secured at a Board Member’s home and
office. He graciously welcomed us to a sheltered patio area where three, two-person rectangular tables were
made into a U-shape facing the front of the training space. We had a white board and I had brought all of
the necessary materials for the training from the United States. (See Appendix G forlist of materials
brought from the US.)
The house parents had all been interviewed and selected based upon their experience with
young children, level of education, the quality of theircharacter as determined in the interviews and by
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their references. Two male house parents were hired first and it was determined that they would also
become the first employed once children enteredthe home. The other three were females. Two of the
females are Adventist which has posed a problem in terms of their religious observance. If they are true
Adventists then theywill not work on Saturdays. So, there is already concern about theeffect on the
children under their care. The third female had been employed as a pre-school teacherat the international
school in Port-au-Prince. She was probably the most experienced of the group but was a difficult
personality to deal with throughout the training.
The training days were intense and lasted from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm daily. We wouldbreak
for a few minutes every morning and enjoy butter sandwiches anda fruit juice. An hour lunch was
provided in the early afternoon and we would break for the hot lunch. The lunch was a piece ofmeat,
typically chicken, with rice and vegetable. Most ofthe participants were thankful for the lunch provided,
with the exception of the preschool teacher from the international school who complained about it.
Days three andfour of the training were held at a Montessori School up the road from the other
location. We sat in a classroom consisting of smaller, child-size tables and chairs. The tables and
chalkboard allowed us more opportunities for some of the activities: demonstrations and creating our own
teaching materials.
Day One
The first part of the morning was spent getting to knoweach other. The five house parents
were present, the Education Coordinator and myself. We paired up and interviewed one another and then
introduced our partners to the group. The whole exercise took an hour. Taking the time to get to know
each other is important at the beginning of a training to foster long-termrespect while setting the
foundations for a strong working relationship.
What is mv role at Orphans International?
An activity entitled “What is my role at Orphans International?” was used to clarify roles of
the stakeholders from the start. This is an important component in any organization’s training for the
development of respect between the people who are all working towards the same goal. This activity was
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meant to encourage participants tothink about their ownpurposes - what is and should be expected of
them and also to clarify how their role as house parents is thatof an interdependent group within an
organization working towards the same goal. The activity beganwith a reflection of what they believe
their individual purpose is for Orphans International. Eventually, we discussed expectations for ourselves
and others on flip chart. After reviewing, we came to a consensus and wrote the roles of all the
stakeholders for Orphans International.
Ideally, more stakeholders would havebeen involved in providing us with their viewpoints of
roles within the organization.Despite requests via e-mail and personal conversation, this did not happen.
Figure 4.2 on the following page depicts the roles as developed by the participants. The sociogram in
Figure 4.3, illustrates the relationship between all sectors of the orphanage from the international board to
that of the most important stakeholder - the Haitian orphan. Due to the overlap between stakeholders all
working towards the good of the child, it’s crucial that the group develops astrong appreciation of one
another’s responsibilities. Without an appreciation of each other’s responsibilities, the stakeholders may
lose track of one another’s workload; which could potentially become a source of conflict.
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FIGURE 4.2: Our Role at Orphans International
Board Members International (BM1) Board Members National (BMN) « Establish contacts ® Give guidance on the culture of Haitito BMI • Establish objectives ® Establish guidelines • They are the leaders • Establish contacts • They should listen to the different branches ® Raise money and learn of the needs ® Supervision of Haiti project • Raise money « Open to suggestions • Supervise • Create activity ® Open to suggestions « Develop the program - education and health • Take the initiative for different projects • Make sure that the house parents are comfortable, as well as, the children ® Don’t waste money or other resources Director/StaffAdministrator House Parents ® Supervise ® Discipline ® Develop program that meets needs of: social, • Respecting children academic, physical, spiritual, cultural and • Application ofprogram ideas emotional growth ® Education • File monthly reports to the boards • Treat children as though they’re your own « Accounting within the homes ® Be a good role model • Use resources wisely • Let them trust you « Diversity within the program activities • Make certain they feel valued • Build their self-esteem and confidence • Maintain a good relationship between the kids in the home • House Parents should maintain dialogue between themselves • Don’t send conflicting messages between the children; agree on rules - solidarity. However, if a house parent is acting inappropriately then it is your responsibility to notify administrator. • Good nutrition for the children • Good understanding of the children and their needs ® Establish a good relationship with the Orphans Int’l community and Cyvadier community • Accept kids for who they are!
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FIGURE 4.3: Sociogram - Interaction Between the Child in Orphans International, Haiti with His/Her Global and Home Community
Cyvadier Sulawesi Community 01 Board Haiti Guayana 01 Board 01 Board
International 01 Board u Orphans Inf 1 Other 01 Haitian families Child
Education Coordinator “Siblings” in House the home Parent
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Remembering Childhood Combined with Positive and Negative Punishment
In the afternoon, the session Remembering Childhood combined with Positive and Negative
Punishment was meant to generate a variety of positive memories from our own childhood experiences.
Drawing upon experiences is an effective way of harnessing the interests of the participants. It has also
proven an effective manner for engaging both genders as all people can relate to events from their
childhood (Evans and Myers, 1994).
After a large list had been compiled on chart paper, we sorted the list into the identified areas
of development: cognitive, social, emotional and physical. We looked for overlaps in memories and the
areas of development. The groups were asked to justify certain areas in question. My original intention was
to have participants constantly reflecting and recording in their journals, but unfortunately the journals were
rarely used for self-reflection. Due to time constraints, we went around the circle and each shared a
childhood memory then explained which areas of development were impacted. The Education Coordinator
shared a story about his mother getting upset with him and then coming to his school to take him out of
class. It was humiliation in front of his peers, he believed, which lasted longer and wounded deeper than a
beating. This led appropriately into the topic of positive and negative discipline.
This session was changed and focused mostly on positive and negative manners of discipline.
One participant thought it would be okay to ignorea child but she was questioned - it was a good
discussion as to what potentiallyrisks harm to the child. The Education Coordinator ended the discussion
by reminding the participants that the children coming to Orphans International already have“scars”. So
rather than adding to these scars, we need to look for ways to disciplinethe children positively and to
correct inappropriate behaviors by changing the environment. Changing the environment could be as
simple as engaging the child in a different activity.
The traditions of raising children run deep in the fabric of family life. Based on conversations
with Haitian educators, there could not be more than enough discussion on the topic ofpositive discipline.
The more time spent discussing discipline and giving alternativesto violence, the better for all. In Figure
4.4 are the ideas generated by the participants regarding discipline.
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FIGURE 4.4: Positive and Negative Forms of Discipline
Negative Positive Understand child’s needs - preventative Taking away food, basic necessities Provide ample encouragement - preventative Using inappropriate language in front of children Time-out: Change their environment. Remove them Blaming the children from the situation and redirect their activity. Do not isolate the child. Ignore the behavior Ignoring the point that the child loses self-esteem Behavior Chart Yelling a lot Discuss problem with the child in private Humiliating child in front of others Take away a reward
Toddler’s Abilities and Activities for Enrichment
The final session of the day was called, Toddler’s Abilities and Activities for Enrichment. I asked
the participants to work in teams to sort through pictures obtained from a book depicting young children in
a learning environment, and to identify whether the activity would be considered stimulation for the
physical, mental, emotional or social development of the child. We shared and discussed our thoughts on
the pictures. A reoccurring theme was the possibility of providing environments in which children are
engaged in activitiesthat build knowledge, skills, while working with others and thus encouraging social
development. These activities are beneficial for the total development of the child.
As a method of self-evaluation, reflection and dialogue with the trainer, I had intended to have
the participants write daily. Referring to the importance of reflection based on experiences in theshaping
of knowledge acquisition, I considered this an important portion of the evaluation. Time was not allotted
for this but should be in future trainings and between the frequent meetings of the house parents and
Education Coordinator.
Evaluations were given and reviewed daily and assisted in shaping the next day’s sessions (see
Appendix H for the evaluation of the first day oftraining). In general, five out of the six respondents
selected the first session, My Role with Orphans International as the most beneficial to them. In terms of
areas needed for improvement, two people suggested more discussion and debates.
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Day Two
Training ran until 4:30 on the second day. It was hot, the mosquitoes were bothering me and it
concerned me that the participants had to deal with a long trip home. Many discussions focused on our
childhood and what we’re not going to do at Orphans International Haiti. This is a reverse of what I would
have liked to have focused on - what practices are they accustomed to in theirsociety which would be
transferable and useful in the orphanage community. Recognizing the good practices and building on them
is much easier than beginning fromnothing or from onlyscientific-based theories (Evans and Myers,
1994).
The stories they sharedwere awful - all of them had been beaten as children. One had been made
to kneel with a heavy rock on his back until he collapsed;at which point his mother beat him with the rock.
The Education Coordinator facilitated well and Iwas amazed at how openthey were to sharing such
personal stories. The host, one of the Haitian Board Members, finished the day by reminding us of the fact
that Haitians were all brought toHaiti as slaves and that the cycle and acceptance of abuse started then and
will continue until people are educated to make a change. Thismay seem a common fact, but one with
profound impact on childrearing practices. Violence in society perpetuated over the generations simply
because no one cared or understood enough to teach them differently.
Due in part to the planned activities and based on recommendations from the previous day,we had
a much more active day: Vote with your Feet, Role Playing, Puppet Making and Puppet shows and ending
with a discussion on behavior.
Vote with vour Feet
An entertaining and discussion-generating activity is Vote with your Feet. Participants are to
answer either yes orno by physically moving toa side of the room designated either yes orno.
Some of the discussions are included below. In the statement, Children arealways happy. There were 4
yes and 1 no vote. There was good discussion in terms of the children having legitimate feelings that need
to be recognized and are not always happy. Children are sometimes upset, angry or depressed. The other
side said that children readily forgive and then become happy again. The Education Coordinator and I
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thought it important to bring in more discussion based on research thatchildren do feel emotions which are
real and should be validated (Colletta, 1992).
Another statement was: Children’s emotional needs develop as a unified system. When one
area of development is neglected then all areas suffer. All five participants answered yes. Participants
discussed the idea that emotional shock destroys so many poorchildren. If you don’t “feed” the child
emotionally then the child will suffer. A participant gave an example to exemplify how the teacher has a
huge impact on the emotional well being of a child.
An interesting discussion stemmed from the statement: Do the parents have to hug the children
every day? There were fourno votes but the yes vote soon shifted to theno side. Surprisingly to me, they
took hugging as being too protective of the child and then the child would grow up being spoiled. One man
argued that hugging isn’t spoiling but it’s an important way of showing love and giving attention to the
child. The Education Coordinator questioned the participants but then accepted it.
Exploringthe Social and EmotionalNeeds of a Child
After the warm-up activity, we discussed dealing with conflict arising between the children.
Participants were asked to visualize a time when they were a child and misbehaved. Where were they?
What were the circumstances? Who was involved? We asked them to write about it in the journal and then
we asked if one person wanted to share their story. A female participant shared. After she finished, we
identified the people involved in the conflict, the conflict and setting.
I brought in 6 steps that caregivers should take in conflict resolution, which I found in
literature from High Scope (Hohmann and Weikart, 2002). The participants added two more points.
1. Remain Calm
2. Acknowledge the children’s feelings
3. Gather information from all involved children
4. Restate the problem
5. Let the children come up with ideas for solution
6. Give follow-up support (observe the interaction)
7. Talk privately if the child is shy in front of peers
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S. Reconciliation - be nearby (Children may haveapologized because an adult told
them to apologize)
When considering points 7 and 8 in English, they do not seem much different than 3 and 6.
However, the translations may not be completely accurate, and participants should have the opportunity to
discuss and alter items appropriate to their own situation.
To demonstrate the problem solving steps we spent time role-playing. The participants were
given conflict cards and then three participants were asked to role play the conflict. Two played the parts
of the children and one always played the role of mediator. The three scenarios were:
A. Two children fighting over markers and one adult calming the two.
B. Two children playing“paddy-cake” a third wants to play too, but one child won’t allow her to
join.
C. Two children working at the same table, the one building a castle with cups and the other one
kicking the table causing the castle to tumble down. The teacher intervenes and eventually the
two children work together to build castle.
It was discussed afterwards that the eight points maybe used in managing any conflict but some
conflicts may take a couple of days to fully resolve. All participants reallygot into their roles! This activity
turned out to be one of the favorites among all throughout theweek.
Creating teaching materials from readily accessible materials in Haiti was an important goal of
mine for the training. I wanted them to come away feeling capable of creating mathactivities, language
games and books to use with the children regardless oftheir own artistic ability and quantity of supplies.
An hour was spent after the role-plays creating sock puppets to be used with the afternoon sessions.
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What Values DoWe Feel Importantto Pass onto Children? In the afternoon, we discussed and created puppet shows for the session What Values Do We Feel
Important to Pass onto Children? A discussion of values ensued during our lunch hour which then carried
over after lunch. We listed the values on chart paper and then wrote each individually on index cards.
® Sensibility
® Forgiveness
• Obedience
• Respect for all living things
• Honesty
• Fraternity
• Solidarity
• Tolerance
• Courage
The participants chose a card and then through their puppets had to createa story demonstrating the value
they selected. We shared our one-person puppet shows asa group.
The Education Coordinator wrapped up the session with some discussion among the participants.
Below are comments from the participants:
• Being a good model for the children will be the best way to instill values.
• Emotional needs are connected with values. Values are as important in life as breathing.
• Solidarity within the houseand the orphanage community is important.
• We are the only ones who can change ourselves, it comes from within not from outside.
• Everyone is unique so accept people for who they are.
® Respect kids in order to boost their self-esteem.
® No one can tell you what a value is but it is somethingyou feel.
• Be honest to yourself. Live by the ways that your values are guiding you.
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The Education Coordinator asked which valuethey believed was most important. One woman
replied that “obeisance” was the most important. Shegave support for her choice and a discussion clarified
that rules were important but that there must be some understanding for the individual. Depending on
personal needs of the child, one child may not be capable of obeying the samerules as other family
members.
Feedback after the day’s training was very optimistic(see Appendix I for evaluation of Day 2).
Three of the participants enjoyed therole playing of the steps towards effective conflict resolution the best
and the other three enjoyed creating the puppets and shows to teach lessons of values.
Day Three
The third training day took placeat the Montessori Haiti School up the road from our original
site. It was Saturday, which is the sacred day for the Adventist participants. The twoAdventists did not
come to the training. There had been discussion about this but I was under the incorrect assumption that it
had been resolved and that they would still attend the session because in many ways it was not technically
considered work. There had also been discussion that the house parents will need to be working around the
clock when they are the guardians of children and so they should also make the training the priority for the
day. At the same time, if Orphans International is focused on tolerance, acceptance ofdifferent religions
then we need to support their worship practices? What will happen onSaturdays? Can we expect a
substitute to rotate in? I was surprised that the two Adventists did not attend. However,it was apparent
that the others knew of this situation. With this as the case, I would have preferred to have taken a break
within the training week so that everyone had five days of training.
We were warned in my training coursethat regardless of the length of training, the half-way point
is always the mostdifficult. I felt it today. Maybethe participants were a little irritated about sticking
around until 4:30 yesterday, or maybe the three thatdid make it todaywere resentful of the two Adventists
who didn’t come. Whatever the case, I felt a lower energytoday. We were in a different setting - at
Montessorid’Haiti which might have benefited the participants by providinga different environment.
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Discussion about Montessori Philosophy
The Montessori School is well respected in Haiti. The lead teacher gave us a tour of the school
and also discussed Montessori philosophy with the participants. Unlike traditional classrooms, the
classroomshad no children’s work hanging onthe walls. There was no art work displayed throughout the
room and the children sat at tables rather than desks. The materials used are neatly arranged in color-coded
boxes, on color-coded shelves. The children learn quickly the discipline of cleaning up one’s own areas
and putting items back where they belong. All items are made with the intention of being used by children.
The pitchers used for pouring from one container to another are small so children can easily grasp the
handles. The tables and chairs are made especially for the young child. The manipulatives used in
mathematics are built especially for Montessori education. Unlikea traditional classroom where a teacher
may encourage children to bring in itemsfrom home for counting and making bundles of tens; the
Montessori classroom provides all essential materials and uniformity of materials is evident.
The letters that the children identify and manipulate to create words and sentences are script
pieces. The children do not begin with printing as one would assume but immediately work in script. The
books used in the classroom are all non-fiction. The reasoning behind this according to the leadteacher is
that young children are incapable of separating reality fromfantasy. They need to see and read materials
that are concrete.
How do Toddlers Learn?
We spent two hours with the lead teacher and then we moved into the session: How do
Toddlers Learn? After speaking withearly childhood educators and researching literature, I determined
that a merging of ideas from various early childhoodeducation styles would be the best option for the
house parents in Haiti. I especially liked the Key Experiences as identified in the High ScopeProgram.
(See AppendixJ for a listing of the Key Experience for Preschoolers.) There are nineexperiences
identified and those nine experiences would serve as the basis forcurriculum development (High Scope,
2003). In this activity, I selected five of the Key Experiences to introduce: Classification, Seriation,
Number, Space and Time. Many activities that would apply to each of the experiences are common when
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working with young children and similar materials can be used to demonstrate all of them. However, in
order to guide curriculum work and daily planning, it is necessary to ensure that all areas are covered.
Below are basic definitions for the five areas.
1. Classification: sorting objects by sizes, colors, purpose - observation of similarities and
differences.
2. Seriation: creating patterns - big, bigger, biggest; red, blue, red, blue
3. Number: comparing sets of objects, one-to-one correspondence, building sets
4. Space: filling and emptying; putting things together then taking them apart; viewpoints:
front, back, under, above; spatial relations in drawings and pictures
5. Time: stopping and starting; rates of movement; next, before etc.
In an effort to practice the different types ofKey Experiences, I distributed items to be used as
manipulatives. Again these items were all based on ease of replacement in Haiti and safety for children.
Unlike Montessori, I provided a sundry amount of materials rather than one specific type.
The Education Coordinator and I demonstrated each type of activity and then theparticipants
were asked to use any materials present attheir table to demonstrate a skill. Since we were missing two of
the five participants, the three participants worked together with the materials. They were given buttons,
yam, straws and other materials to determine how everydaymaterials could be used to practice each of the
Key Experiences.
A follow-up to this activity would be to visit a classroom of young childrenor to watch a
video and then ask the participants to identify the key learning experiences they observe and to discuss how
an activity could be extended to address different skills.
Once we completed manipulating the pieces, we brainstormed activitiesthat could be used in the
home to internalize these concepts for the children. We started out by asking the participants to recall
favorite areas in the home and different activities that could be done in the rooms to facilitate learning. The
goal was to work in pairs and then participate in a “Gallery Walk” as a way of sharing our ideas. However,
since we had so few participants, we did the brainstorming activity together(see appendix K for the results
of the Gallery Walk).
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Important Health Skills for Children Incorporated into Lesson Plans A goal for the education component of the project is to develop a binder of lesson plans. Unlike
Montessori education, the curriculum will be constantly emerging. As the house parents gain experience,
they will continue adding to a binder or manual of lesson plans. The Education Coordinator and I
introduced the lesson plan to the participants and asked that they write their own lesson plan focusing on a
health skill. The lesson was to incorporate at least one of the key experiences introduced in the previous
session. We were also advocating the use of interactive, child-centered learning. This might have taken
the form of an easy song for the children to learn using hand signals or a lesson using puppets designed the
previous day.
The Education Coordinator and I had different versions of the lesson plan outline. In the end
we used his plan but now that a new Education Coordinator is involved, he and I may develop a different
model. Ideally the design would be basic andeasy to follow for any house parent interested in a certain
type of lesson. The former coordinator wasmore concerned with long term goals such as activities that
would take a week. But I envision the binder as a resource of smaller, independent activities that are meant
to address a certain skill or key experience. Rather than make the lesson plan an involved procedure, there
are a few necessary components: topic, goal, materials needed, procedure, evaluation and suggestions for
future use. An “evaluation” section is important in determining the mastery of the skill. Notes will also
need to be included on individual children regarding their own masteries of skills. Guidelines for such
evaluations should be included in the plan. The component“future use” is important ifa house parent
altered the plan in any way to accommodate different learning styles (see AppendixL for a sample of the
Education Coordinator’s lesson plan).
The confusion between lesson plans and thematic unit plans, as well as other education jargon,
are reoccurring. Even when working with the new Education Coordinator,we had difficulty getting past
the initial wording used. Once the Education Coordinatoris free again to focus on the topic of education
rather than the initial acquisition of children, completion of house etc., then time will need to be spent
defining terms used in addition to building curriculum and trainings for the house parents.
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Of the three participants and two facilitators present in the afternoon of Day 3; three people
developed a lesson on the importance of hand washing. One person focused on the importance of proper
nutrition and one focused on the importance of brushing your teeth. A variety of methods were
incorporated into the lesson plans: puppet show, story, poem, songs and demonstrations.
As mentioned before, the third day was difficult because two of the five participants were
absent. The three who were present and who completed the evaluation believed that the discussion on
Montessori methodology was the most important part of the day. One of the male participants is especially
interested in having more documents related to theories of education. He never specifically states what it is
he is interested in learning more about but it is a very positive sign that he is taking his role as a house
parent seriously and wants to understandthe theories with the practical applications (see Appendix M for
the evaluation of Day3).
DayFour The training occurred at the Montessori School for the second day in a row. It served as a nice
break fromthe home where the training was held the first two days and may have helped keep us motivated
thinking about the children and their needs when developing curriculum. The energy level felt low this
morning. We began later than usual because it took a while rally participants into the classroom.
How CanPlav Stimulate Learning? The first activity of the day was meant to pick up the spirits, How can play stimulate learning? According to High Scope (Hohmann and Weikart, 2002), there are four types of play: 1. Pretend Play: helpsact out problems, situations and dreams
1. Games: may be in the form of a board game, math game, social interaction game or sport
2. Exploratory: similar to what we had done with the playground - using the environment and
playing with thedifferent objects present to learn
3. Constructive: handling materials and putting them together then taking them apart.
Using a variety of materials such as cardboard boxes, empty containers, yarn, glue, felt etc. the
participants were asked to develop a toy. They first worked alone on creatingtheir toy and then we shared
as a group. Once they had time to explore the materials alone, they were encouraged to design another toy
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with a partner. The objective of this session was to remind participants that basic materials found around,
the home can serve as important stimulants for the imagination. It also concretely showed the importance
of Piaget and Vygotsky’s beliefs that through interaction with the environment and with others, the person
can reach greater potential. In a situation in which people feel dependent upon the resources of a fonder -
and in this case, the house parents are dependent upon the Haitian and International Board, they need to
feel secure and creative about substituting accessible materials when they are unable to secure new
resources immediately.
After the morning break, we returned to talk about the importance of books in the emergence
of language and literacy development. A question still needing to be answered is the language of
instruction. The Haitian government recently determined that the children in the public schools will be
instructed in Creole until the fourth yearof school when French will be introduced as a second language
(Haiti: Republic d’Ayiti, 2003). Unfortunately, in practice there is much pressurefrom the parents for the
schools to teach in French as it is viewed as the way for upward mobility. (Ingered Petersen and Carlo
Joseph, personal communication, October 2003).
The Orphans International goal is toraise the children to be fluent in French, Creole and
English. The initial project goal of fluency in English was directly connected with the belief that if children
are sponsored and then provided university education, they will be encouraged to study in theStates. There
are also many industries in the world including tourism and the sciences which rely on English. But
according to research, it is most beneficial for children to learn basic components of reading, grammar and
writing in their mother tongue first before introducing a second or even third language. Many believe that
children can readily pick up the spoken language without confusing the languages but writing and reading
are not as easily separated for the children (Gfellar, 1999).
Creating a Literacy Enriched Environment at Home
The session, Creating a Literacy Enriched Environment at Home provided ways of introducing
children to literature through the use of symbols, pictures, simple words and sentences. Oral storytelling
allows house parents to transcribe basic books and encourages children to draw pictures showing the
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meaning of words. This might also be used in writing multi-lingual books with the children. Examining
books is an important skill for understanding the order of pages, looking at pictures for meaning, making
predictions, following the patterns of reading from left to right. Symbols in the home such as using pictures
and basic words to label areas of the home assist in basic reading. Children may be reminded to turn off
lights, to be careful near a hot stove or to wash their hands in the sink. Finally, transcribing each child’s
plan during the work time as suggested in the High Scope Curriculum (Hohmann and Weikart, 2002),
gives importance to the child’s personal goals and demonstrates the relationship between spoken and
written words. It forces the child to plan the activity intended to use and to cany it through. Planning is a
skill needed for sequencing events in a story both verbally and in writing. Validation of the child’s goals is
possible when time is taken to talk briefly with each child and to write the plan. The plan also serves as
connecting spoken and written words for the children. Planning and reflecting upon the work actually
engaged in is a critical step in the learning process. (Dewey, 1938).
At times the Education Coordinator veered off target from the topic of the session. In this
case, the session became more didactic and I felt that the participants did not have a chance to understand
or reflect upon the key points of emerging literacy. So, I made it a priorityfor the next day too. Some
discussions occurred regarding whether people with physical handicaps would be good house parents and
whether or not it should be acceptable to hire house parents who are left-handed. The Education
Coordinator at times seemed to proselytize versus engage the participants in discussion. Eventually, I broke
in and asked that we break for lunch. The emerging literacy session had been usurped by one on personal
values not to mention, archaic and discriminatory views.
Learning fromthe Outside Environment Sensing a need for movement, after lunch we took a detour from the original plan and I inserted
another component to the training. Based upon my experiences in Haiti I am aware oflack a of respect for
nature. My own personal biases as a nature-lover made me realize that this should also becomea critical
component to the training of the house parents as they are the ones directly in contact with our future
“global citizens”. We spent about 45 minutes on outside activities that I recalled on a whim. The tension
before and during lunch was high, so I viewed this as a good tension breaker. The Education Coordinator
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was tending to something else and the others had congregated on the patio, so I asked the English-speaking
participant if she had ever played “1 Spy” and she had a vague notion of the game. So with my help, she
explained it to the others then we went through a couple of turns which was fun for the participants. Then I
kept them outside and we looked around the playgroundfor examples of: squarea, rectangles and circles.
The Education Coordinator and I partneredup - we all spent about 10 minutes on the shape search. I think
it was good for people to get out and walk around. Then I asked them to count up the number of examples
and then the ones with the highest numbers had to show us their favoriteexample. That got them laughing
and excited. We talked about adaptations for this activity.
After this activity, I went ahead andasked them all to choose a leaf from the ground. The leaves
had to be fromthe same tree. We spent time observing our own leaf and then piled all of the leaves together
and had to identifying our own leaf from the pile of our combined leaves. It worked better than I expected.
This activity demonstrates individuality regardless of similarappearances.
The purpose of these activities was to get the house parents thinking about ways to incorporate
learning in any and every environmentwhile fostering a respect for nature - one of our most valuable
teachers. This activitywould not fit into the traditional Montessori curriculum as the environment is not a
constant (Morrison, 2003).
Creating Educational Materials for the Children We finished offthe day by providing time and materials for the participants todevelop
learning aids for the orphanage. Based upon evaluations, the participants were asking for concretematerials
that could be used with the children in the orphanage. We provided time for them to create activities, tie
them in with key experiences as discussed and then share with one another. These materials have been kept
together and will be brought out once the orphanage is ready to open (seeAppendix N for materials
created).
In the end, the evaluations revealed that the participants were evenly divided between viewing
the outside activities and creating their own materials as the most important parts of the day. One
evaluation also asked what the importance was in teaching about the environment. There are questions
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regarding the possibility of follow-uptrainings and also curiosity regarding the actual start-date at the
orphanage (see Appendix 0 for evaluation of Day 4).
Day Five
The final day ofthe training began onsite in a Montessori Classroom visit. We were invited to
be observers of the school that we had had our training at during the third and fourth trainingdays. We
asked that the participants observe and note the children’s activities and the manner in which the adults
interacted with the children. Once we returned to the board member’s home for our final training day we
discussed our observations. We used the list of observations generated asa basis for discussion of
appropriateness and transferability of such traits in thecontext of Orphans International. We also created a
list of traits that were exhibited bythe teachers.
Observations fromMontessori d’Haiti • Children have the freedom to choose what they want to do
• Individualized approach to learning; each child is free to choose and the teacher is there as support
• Chi ldren learn to create and to find the material they need or want to use. Because of this, it is
important to always keep things in one place. The children need the security and autonomy of knowing
where items are and being able to get them on their own.
• Learning to think and express themselves is important
• Children are free to move
• If the child does not want to do an activity any longer, he/she puts away the activity and moves onto
something new.
» Some activities require assistance but most do not.
• This observation was useful in seeing the purpose of the materials.
• Teach children to be autonomous
® The classroom is for the children and must be designed in such a way that they feel comfortable to
retrieve the materials.
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• One participant observed a boy putting water on himself. Rather than get angry, the teacher allowed for
the natural consequence of the boy becoming wet and then spoke calmly with the child.
Traits of theMontessori Teachers
® Attentive
® Understanding
® Tolerant
® Affectionate
• Mutual Respect between children and adults
• Active
• Exhibit self-control
« Devoted
• Obedience and respect of the children within the room
Creating and Sharing Books
During this session we investigated common traitsin preschool books. Some areas that we
analyzed included: number of pages, number of words, layout ofpages, types ofwords, and the purpose of
the books. The purpose of children’s books may be to teach a skill,teach a virtue, teach content or simply
to entertain. To demonstrate the usesof simple books, I brought in coupleof examples. Anno’s Counting
Book, by AnnoMatsumasa, is a picture book that shows each number 1-10 represented bycubes and then
village pictures depicting the number (4 has 4 pumpkins, 4 flags etc.) Brown Bear. Brown Bear, by Bill
Martin, is book based on repetition and common words. And finally, a few science books were used to
illustrate how basic picture books can enable children to learn more about the world around them.
The participants were then given time to create basic books from the materials provided which
will later be stored in the resource center (see Appendix P for a listingof the books written).
Head. Heart and Hands Evaluation of Training
As an overall evaluation of the training week, the Education Coordinator and I prepared by
tracing a person on chart paper and then providingdifferent colored paper scraps to the participants
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representative of: head, heart and hands. The participants were asked to reflect upon the training week and
write down on the scraps parts of the training that they deemed mostuseful in terms of HEAD, HEART
and HANDS. The three areas represent:
Head: What they have learned.
Hands: What skills have they learned to do.
Heart: What changes in attitudes resulted from the training.
The participants shared their thoughts aloud and we taped the scraps of paper onto the body of
the poster. It may also be done anonymously. This is an effective evaluation technique for generating
discussion and suggestions for upcoming sessions. So often a written evaluation at the end of a training can
be misplaced or participants may not spend as much time on it as the facilitators would like due to lack of
time and other commitments. This evaluation style allows for immediate feedback and opens up the group
to discussion.
The outcome of this activity:
HEAD; • acceptance of all children • conflict/resolution approach • the overall training and how it helped the participant understand how to work with children and to get children to reflect upon their actions • understanding how to reach children ® linking the philosophy of Montessori education with Orphans International
HEART: • the traits of caregivers: mutual-respect • we must have a love for what we are doing at the orphanage • value transmission is very important for mutual respect « positive environment foroptimal development of the children
HANDS. • using materials « creating materials - so much can be made from so little, you shouldn’t say you can’t do something because you don’t have materials ® able to use the natural environment for learning
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Closing Discussions
The board member who had hosted us, along with the Montessori Lead Teacher were both
present in the afternoon for follow-up questions. The participants had several questions regarding their
actual start-dates and contracts with Orphans International. It felt like a completely different group of
people than the ones I had just wrapped up the evaluation with. At this point, the intention was for two of
the house parents to begin working within the next month. I would have been in contact via e-mail with the
new. Education Coordinator and we would have had the opportunity to begin follow-up training for the
house parents, evaluation and curriculum development based upon experiences. Unfortunately, the delay in
the completion of the house has upset the timetable and only now, fall 2003, preparing for the entrance of
the first children.
Chapter Summary
I’m not sure what I thought I expected from the week of training. The training was really all
that I could focus on. Had the training occurred onsite, I would have liked to have observed other schools
and would have asked for assistance in speaking with community members’ beliefs on childrearing and
would have liked to have spent more time speaking with the participants about their own experiences.
They all completed the questionnaire for me but that is not as useful as engaging in dialogue with a person.
There were several times throughout the training when I felt that theEducation Coordinator
was doing toomuch of the talking. Ideas that I wanted to have raised in hopes of generating discussion
were sometimes stated as facts to the participants. The training was flexible to the needs of the participants
and alterations were made throughoutbased on the daily evaluations and nonverbal cues. But in theend,
the Educator Coordinator and I stuck close to the objectives of the originally drafted training.
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ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS
.. .there is aa intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education. John Dewey, 1938
Lessons Learned
In summary, this research demonstrates the process in designing, implementing and evaluating a
house parent training program within the context of early childhood care and development for a newly-
established orphanage community in Haiti. The preparation work was largely based on a literature study of
best and current practices in earlychildhood education, adult training, and Haitianculture. When
developing the training, the goals of the international organization and the house parents’ backgrounds
were considered. As a participant observer in my own research, I thenmonitored and adjusted the training
daily. In closing, Iwill revisit my primary research questions and provide insight into my challenges and
my recommendations.
Primary ResearchQuestions Answered
In the context of Orphans International, Haiti what areas will be considered most appropriate to include in the content of the training program?
When researching early childhood programs, I consulted many resources and learned of various
programs in use throughout the world. Research focused on the spectrum between student-directed
curriculum; better known as an “emerging” curriculum and more directed learning environments in which
centers remain constant and little change occurs within the in order to provide students with a sense of
control. As an educator, I felt it necessary toempower the house parents with choice and I did this with the
63
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selection of the High Scope Key Experiences as the base for the curriculum design. It will also provide
flexibility as the house parents work together developing activities that best meet the needs of the children.
In addition to introducing the house parents to the High Scope design, it was important to
provide them with theories of early childhood education. Bridging the gap between theory and practice is
critical in all situations as it gives purpose to the learning and inspires reflection upon one’s experience.
Finally, time was made in the development of materials that can be used within the homes. The house
parents will need to be resourceful with their materials. Therefore, allowing time to create and share ideas
was beneficial in that it provided one another with ideas while also building positive relationships amongst
the participants.
For the training I moved from comfortable topics to more challenging. We built up from basic
theories in early childhood development and then into the application of such theories to our situation.
Below is a list of the training sessions in order.
« Introductions and Interviews • What is my role at Orphans International? • Remembering Childhood combined with Positive and Negative Punishment • Traits of their own Caregivers • Toddlers’ Abilities and Activities for Enrichment ® Exploring the Social and Emotional Needs ofa Child • Making Puppets • What are important values to instill in the children? • What is appropriate punishment? • Montessori Discussion • How do Toddlers Learn? • How can home environment stimulate learning? • Important Health Skills and Writing a lesson Plan • How can play stimulate learning? • Creating a Literacy Enriched Environment at Home • Learning from the outside Environment ® Creating Materials • Montessori Class Visit and Follow-up Discussion • Creating and sharing Books ® Summarizing the Training
The topic of corporal punishment was revisited throughout the week. As mentioned in an
earlier chapter, a questionable respect for one anotherhas been shaped by years of oppression.
Without an understanding of alternatives to punishment, thecycle of violence will undoubtedly
continue. The session: Learning fromthe outside Environment was inspired by a felt lack of respect
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for the environment in Haiti. Spending a short amount of time focusing on nature provided the house
parents with some easy, transferable activities to any situation. Instilling the children with
environmental awareness and appreciation will benefit the nation and enforce the organization’s goal
of raising global citizens.
What training methods could be utilized that would take into account the needs, interest, cultural perspectives and existing knowledge of the trainees?
The methods I incorporated into the training were selected based on my knowledge of adult
education. In order to build respect and a sense of community between the trainers and participants,
the participant’s experiences and opinions needed to be heard. With this said, I wanted to develop a
training that would constantly solicit input from the participants. As I soon learned, the role of student
and teacher was so deeply ingrained that discussions often lacked and turned into more of a lecture by
the Education Coordinator. This was one constant struggle for me as I knew the literature surrounding
adult education recommended participatory activities but the reality was much more didactic in style.
When working within the context of the orphanage environment, I am hopeful that the house parents
and new Education Coordinator will feel more as colleagues versus supervisor and workers.
Based upon Haitian culture which is rich in story-telling traditions, I expected the participants
to be interested in sharing stories and role-plays. Throughout the sessions,a goal of mine was to keep
the participants actively involved in discussion, role-plays and creation of their own materials. All
participants seemed delightfully involved in the story-telling, role-play and puppet show activities
while also demonstrating lessons in virtues, conflict resolution and teaching basic health skills.
To what extent could a short-term training program provide caregivers with skills, knowledge and attitudes to enable optimum early childhood care and development?
There are limitations to answering this question as the project has fallen behind and the house
parents haven’t had the opportunity to put their new skills to work. As of this writing, thefirst children are
being identified for the house and the first two house parents and current Education Coordinator are living
permanently onsite. However,based upon discussions at the end of the training, it is possible to conclude
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that the participants felt the training to be very useful and appropriate to their needs. A few of the
comments regarding the training and what they attained from the training included:
» Confliction/resolutionapproach was valuable in manyareas of life.
0 Value transmission is very important in developing mutual respect (within the homes) • Creating materials - so much can be made from so little « Making the connection between child-centered learning and Orphans International
It is also appropriate to say that both boards - Haiti and the International, deemed the training
worthwhile as there has been discussion for further collaboration between the Education Coordinator and
myself and the possibility of follow-up trainings with the house parents once the children have joined the
home. Furthermore, the International Board is expecting to use this initial training program for all
newly-hired house parents but will adapt the training to match the needs of the various orphanage
projects throughout the world.
Due to the physical, emotional, and psychological needs of children from an early age to develop into capable learners at later stages in life; to what extent could caregivers provide inputs conducive to learning and development in an orphanage?
In order to answer this question, a longitudinal study of the children in the orphanage
community would need to occur. These results compared with statistics on the educational achievement
and health standards in the area could be usedas points of comparison. This question lends itself to a goal
for further study and calls in the need for developing ongoing evaluations of notonly the children but also
monitoring the continued knowledge, skills and attitudes of the house parents.
Based on current research in brain development and longitudinal studies done in connection
with early childhood education groups such as Head Start, it is possible tostate that through the provision
of an enriched environment in which the children are free to explore and control their learning that they
will have the opportunities to develop to their potential cognitively, physically, emotionally and socially.
With this in mind, caregivers have the critical responsibility of maintaining a stimulating environment
best accomplished through ongoing discussions with colleagues and a continuous thirst in knowledge of
current and best practices in early childhood education.
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Challenges I Faced
Invited to deliver the training that I wrote for the organization, I wasthrilled and accepted.
However, the actual development of early childhood education training for caregivers was verydifficult
when designing it for a young organization that did not have a formal structure for training in place or a
solid idea of the education system they were striving to build. So, I had a large responsibility of
familiarizing myself with the goals of the organization, while also producing something to serve as
template for the organization.
In an ideal situation, I would have had the opportunity of preparing this training after spending
more time with the house parents. I would have observed them in action and then worked with them
individually to assess their existing knowledge, skills andattitudes in the realm of early childhood
development. Unfortunately, this training program was designed based solely on literature study and a ten
day trip toHaiti the summer before when I had the opportunity to speak with some of the project
stakeholders but not delve into the topic of common early childhoodcare and education practices.
The lack of a formal needs assessment was a critical error on mypart. In order to develop a
training suitable to their needs and accurately assess the results of thefive-day training, baseline data would
have been important to gather. With thatsaid, it’s also important to remember that a “ . ..needs assessment
does not form the course; it informs it.” (Vella, 2002, p.25). One never knows what issues will occur in
training but a good facilitator must be prepared to adapt.
I felt at a disadvantage too because I was coming in asa female into a patriarchal society. Even
though I was treated kindly, I felt being a young female may have brought up some barriers. With that
said, one of the Haitian Board Members is a female and so that should not have been a factor.
Another personal challenge was the inability to communicate directly with the house parents.
Even though there was a translator for me, itwas not the same as directly engaging in discussions with the
house parents both during the training sessions and outside. It also would have benefited the training
because I would have been able to keep the training sessions on target; solicited input from all of the
participants, and pose higher-order thinking questions to stir debate and discussion. As mentioned before,
facilitating discussions was difficult and unfortunately my co-facilitator oftentimes went off track to discuss
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other issues he deemed important. There were also many instances when something meant for discussion
was stated as fact. With this said, in the future I would like to be directly involved in the facilitation. A
translator would be responsible for translating everything tome and that would give me abetter
opportunityof keeping discussions on track and ensuring that concerns are heard and addressed. But, what
I also regret the inability to developa strong rapport with the house parents because of the language barrier.
I hope to improve my language skills while continuing work with the house parents as the programgrows.
The language barrier, coupled with the facts that I am an outsider and a member of the International Board
of Orphans International may also have decreased the amount of discussion we had on certain issues (see
Appendix Q for the invitation to join the Orphans InternationalBoard).
Even if language was not a barrier,other cultural factors may have inhibited the discussion.
For example, the manner of learning in Haiti is very muchmarried to the traditional pedagogy of rote and
didactic learning in the traditional French education system. I made some incorrect assumptions that since
the culture contained strong oral traditions that in turn, the participants would be eager to contribute to
discussions and offer opinions. They were eager and unafraid to participate in role-plays, puppet shows
and “safe” discussions. But they also seemed to be more passive recipients of knowledge as fed to them by
the Education Coordinator.
Through literature study and visits to Haiti, I have learned that the requirements of teacher
training vary greatly. had I made assumptions that all of the participants would have had similar theoretical
backgrounds, when in fact this is most likely not the case. Experiences withearly childhood care and
development centers were also most likely different as Ilearned that the term “Montessori” is used
haphazardly throughout Haiti when naminga pre-school. Simply having worked at a “Montessori”school
does not mean that experience with Montessori methodologies prevailed.
My initial plan of focusing the sessions throughout the week so that the house parents would
come out ready to design lessons addressing the cognitive, emotional, and physical areas of development
within the realm of High Scope’s Key Experiences soon crumbled as I realized the gaps between
experience and education of the house parents. The areas wewere able to work on despite these baseline
gaps were the idea of mixing theory with practice. The sessions were designed so the participants had an
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opportunity to team current practices in earlychildhood care and development while also working on a
transferable skill for children. For example, the use ofmanipulatives in math is very important in teaching
the concept of one-to-one correspondence. Stating this is not enough but allowing the participants an
opportunity to find readily available materials and thendemonstrate that skill completes the lesson.
Some gaps in educational theory andpractice were more obvious. In one Instance, the house
parent used one piece of card paper and introduced addition while also introducing number identification.
This house parent needs some background in the progression of numeracy skills, which may have gone
unnoticed had we not observed him teach this activity.
Another challenge I faced when working with teachers was their difficulty in creating their
own songs or activities to teach a concept. The use of multiple strategies and appealing to various learning
styles was a message in my training. Unfortunately, such risk taking was not often donewithin the context
of the training. The participants may have felt inhibited witha new group of colleagues or concerned that
they werebeing rated. If one person opted to create a certain activity, several similar activities followed.
Encouraging the participants to trust their own knowledge was a constant struggle.
Conclusions
Was this training effective? Will the skills, knowledge and attitudes transfer from the five-day
training to the actual home situation? Since there was noformal needs assessment done at the start, it is
very difficult to assess the skills, knowledge and attitudes acquired versusthose which were present before
the training. Furthermore, it will be impossible to then assess the transferability of such into theactual
home environment.
The content of the training was designed based upon my ownliterature review of Haitian
culture and early childhood programs. It contained a mixture of discipline, health concerns, basic strategies
for emerging literacy and numeracy, designing materials for the accomplishment of such goals and creating
dialogue and respect between house parents and the Education Coordinator.
The training methods incorporated were meant to maintaininterest while building from non-
threatening topics to topics in which the house parents had to put forth more opinions and exposetheir
personal values. The discussion-based methods focused on all voices being heard whether in an orderly
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group sharing time or with partners. Time reflecting throughout the day in their journals would have been
beneficial. “It (reflection) is the heart of intellectual organization and of the disciplined mind. (Dewey,
1938).
The daily evaluations provided important feedback to the Education Coordinatorand myself.
We were able to use the suggestions and questions in tailoring the next day’s sessions. Being open to the
needs of the participants is important in any training situation. With this said, the trainer should be flexible
in the design, regardless of setting to the needs of the individual participants. Keepingtrue to the mission
and goals of the hiring organization, but acknowledging theexisting experience and knowledge of the
participants is crucial in providing a training in which all stake holders find beneficial. A major struggle I
contended with daily was finding a balancebetween theories proposed in the literature and the reality of the
situation.
Recommendations
As soon as the Education Coordinator at the orphanage is able to focus full-time on his duties
of monitoring and continuing education of the house parents while also developing a curriculum and
evaluation of the individual development of the children, it will be prudent to develop a strong and frequent
communication with him. There are many items that need to be taken care of in order to begin the process
of working with the children and building upon the skills of the house parents. Assessment tools should be
designed to determine the baseline of the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the house parents as they begin
their work with only the five-day training seminar and their personal experience that they bring with them.
Observational notes assessing the parents as they demonstrate the skillslearned in the sessions and the
ability to transfer the skills when working within the home.
The assessments of children should be created to ensure that all areas of development are being
stimulated: cognitive, physical and emotional. A baseline assessment of cognitive, physical and social
abilities of the children should be taken upon their entrance to the community but continuous anecdotal
notes, mixed with a checklist form will be useful in evaluation children and development. These
evaluations will assist in determining gaps in the children’s education, thecare given by the house parents
and the resources provided by the boards.
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I will continue working with the Education Coordinator to respond to gaps between the outcomes
of the training and the goals of the organization. Gaps will be addressed in developing the follow-up
training and the topics for the meetings between the house parents and Education Coordinator. Dialogue
between the Education Coordinator and the Haitian Board is very important in keeping thegoals of the
organization realistic while also heeding to the needs and concerns of the house parents. The Education
Coordinator, serving as voice ofthe house parents, and the Haitian Board responding accordingly and
passing along concerns to the International Board will become more and more critical once children are
taken into the community.
There are already issues with communication betweenthe three groups of stakeholders in
terms of language at the orphanage. The International Board is expecting the children to become tri
lingual, the Haitian Board believes that expecting the children to be bilingual in Frenchand Creole is
realistic but the literature behind second language acquisition recommends the use of mother tongue until a
certain age in schooling. Rather than giving up on the first language, that language should be developedin
addition to learning a new language. In this way, cognitive skills continue to develop and are easily
transferred to the new language. During the training, the language spoken was Creole. If something as
comfortable as Creole is used, is it reasonable to ask the house parents to flip between French and Creole
while also learning English to teach their children? This is one example of where visions for the
community are not necessarily the same across the stakeholders.
A limitation to my study is the work that the Ministry of Education and other non-govemmental
organizations are currently doing inthe area of early childhoodeducation. Building a partnership and
finding connections between our program and one in existence would benefit the children as they continue
through the education system.
As much as Orphans International would like a curriculum established, to be used throughout all
of the orphanage communities, my recommendation is thata basic structure is decided upon. My
suggestion was for the High Scope’s Key Experiences to serve as a guide to the design of the curriculum.
But as in any training, the educators needa say in the development and ownership of the curriculum if they
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are to feel connected to It. Their input is critical in the validation of their previous experience plus the
experience they will be gaining upon working with thechildren.
Orphans International has designed its’ communities with the same goals of providing the best
inputs possible to the development of disadvantaged orphans of the world withthe intent on building the
nation’s human capacity. With this said, a certain amountof leewaymust be given for the individual
experiences and cultures existingwithin each organization. A good training, regardless of location, will
always mix theory with practice and encouragethe voices of the participants to be heard.
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APPENDIX A: Institutional Review Board Research Proposal Review
THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Teaching Uo^GoSega: Das© Submitted; Datsfs) erf IBB Review:, msTmmoNAJLr e v ie w Bo^ ^ ro Rra^p^TEcrfONo f hum an su bjects
IBB approval must be ctsakm i for alt projectsimolvmg human subjects.Is the » rotpom itm y of the ttmsBgator to inMata this form,atxf tmmi it to the (JrM Oasipmi, o rm m iMvemliy i>utpBmtc»Mtrimstimr,fytficat^Bas0archS0rvlcss. TFlte of Proposal Soc-tot C f'gr'a.e 4Wrw,uar' C iM fa g e i'W ^ C.lmtrlrttry A £ a n CXpW*««f. Investigator ^ i o ^ Z .C l C ,S w b a r i k '> '" " Tafcipftong N u m b e r 3 ' i o . Hru
How are bumaa subset® IrwolvwJ?
kteolity categorjflss)of nsteantf deserts® details. Physical O PsyebofcgiraJ Q Social, E»w3mfc,a«ltotE»irohroenit^ }~i .Details:
What plans
St^jportngdoouimotsaaaciwefc Yas Mo Yes Ho MomwdwmwwtCs) B Q other g | 0 j|g f=f Oascmm ScV ^ a » > V D « e~ ' , ' S£xm&' ' ’ i i u W ' < ,’sa. "’?■' -* ~ '2 ^aS^r^nakOt' ,, ,< // <>, > ii^C7^|)^grt«f,a'*«»?^OsiS£r-^ y v ' s o j p k J f o r tf r tf c e r r ity flfcff. r* a ? A « q pV t& C a S e g e , m sd h to & tig o lo r Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74 International Training and Education Development of Training for EarlyChildhood Educators in Haiti Barbara Biazek (202) 257-3029 Dr. FlaviaRamos (Advisor/Program Director) (202) 885-3723 1. introduction: You are invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide oftothe be a study, part you need to understand the purpose of the study and the risks and benefitsstudy. I ofwill the always be available to answer questions you have as they arise. If you agree to take part in the research study, youwill be asked to sign this consent form. This process is known as informed consent. Your decision to take part in this study is voluntary. You are free to choose whether or not you will take part in the study. SI. Purpose: Barbara Biazek, an International Training and Education Master’s student in the department of Education at American University is carrying out a research study to determine the current attitudes and skills in child rearing within the context of Haiti and to monitor the impact of a 5 day training program on the skills and attitudes of the participants of the training. ill. Procedure: The participants of this study will agree to a one-time interview with the possibility of follow-up dialogue through phone, email and in-person interviews. Each interview is estimated to take one hour. Focus groups will also be used in which dialogues between small groups of people with similar interests will add to the research collection. The focus groups will be used in evaluating the effectiveness of the daily training sessions. Finally, participant observation of the training and the interactions between caregivers and children when visiting community schools will be done for the sole purpose of research. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75 IV. Possible Risks: To the best of my knowledge, the things you will be doing have no more risk of harm than you would experience in everyday life. V. Possible Benefits: You will not gain any personal benefits from taking part in {his study, - VI. Costs: There are no costs associated with taking part in this study. VII. Compensation: You will not receive compensation for participating in this study. VIII. Right to Withdraw from the Study: Your participation in this research study is voluntary.may You decide not to begin or to stop this study at any time. You will be told of any information about the researchthat studymay cause youto change your mind about participation. IX. Confidentiality of Research Records: Your records will be confidential. You will not be identified (e.g. name)anyreports in or publications of this study. It is possible that representatives of regulatory agencies may come to American University to review your information. In that situation, copies of the relevant parts of your records will be released with all identifying information removed. Except for these entities, research study recordswill be kept confidential unless authorizeyou their release or unless the records are required by law. X. Questions: If you have questions about the procedures of this research study,contact please Barbara Biazek by phoning (202) 257-3029 or by emailingbiazek? 1 ©.netscape,net. If you have questions about the informed consent process or any other rights as a research subject, please contact - XI. Signatures: By signing the consent form, you affirm that you have read this informed consent form; the study has been explained to you, your questions have been answered, and you agree to take part in this study. You do not give up your legal rights by signing this informed consent form. You will receivea copy of this consent form. Participant (Print Name) Signature Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76 X1L InvestigatorStatement: I certify that the research study has been explained to the above individual by me or my co facilitators/translators. The participants are aware of the purpose, procedures, the possible risks and the potential benefits associated with participation in this research study. Any questions raised will have been answered to the individual’s satisfaction. Investigator (Print name) Signature Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77 APPENDIX B: Childrearing Questionnaire ...... gender # of adults in home growing up age # of siblings # of years in Rural or Urban 1. Childrearing in Haiti. a. Who were your caregivers? b. What types of interactions did you have with your caregivers? c. How did the caregivers assist with your education - at home? d. What did you learn at home? e. Were you a caregiver of a younger sibling or did an older sibling look after you? f. How often were you alone with your siblings? 2. Were there any formal earlychildhood programs - nursery school orarts & crafts? 3. How old were you whenyou started formal school? a. How many children ina class? b. What methods did your teachers use to teach? c. Any special memories of teachers or activities done in school? d. In general, did you like school? Why or why not? 4. How would your educational experience have beendifferent in a rural area or urban area? 5. How do you raise your own children similar to how you were raised? 6. How do you raise your children differently than how you were raised? 7. What is the opinion of orphans in your country? What do you mean? How do you feel about orphans? 8. Are you familiar with any of the orphanage systems? How are they structured? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78 APPENDIX C: Orphans International House Parent Training Day 1 9:00 - 9:15 am: Basic introductions and welcome; agenda preview. The Education Coordinator also explained my project and why I would be taking notes and pictures throughout the sessions. 9:15 -10:15 am: Introductions and Interviews Generate a list of questions that can be used to leant about each other. The questions should get at personal interests as well as basic background information. After a few minutes of interviewing a partner, participants will be asked to introduce their partner to the rest of the group. 10:15 -12:15 pm: What is my role at Orphans International? Topic: Our Role at Orphans International Time: 120 minutes Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens Methods Used: Individual Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion Learner To articulate the value of their work as the house parents within all sectors of the Objectives: orphanage community. Clarifying roles is important from the start. This will alleviate any tension between the people who are all working towards the same goal of providing a nurturing and stimulating learning environment for the children. This activity is meant to encourage participants to think about their own purposes - what is expected and what should be expected of them and also clarifies how their role as house parents is that of an interdependent group workingtowards the same goal. The activity willbegin with a reflection of what they believe their individual purpose is for the organization. Eventually, we will discuss expectations for ourselves and others on flip chart. After reviewing, we will come to a consensus and write the importance of the house parent on all other sectors of 01. Progression of Session: 1. Begin with a discussion of the goals of Orphans International. Record all items on chart paper: best learning for the children, community involvement, and global education. We spent time discussing the mission of Orphans International as laid out in the brochure. 2. Ask individuals to jot down what they believe their roles are in seeing that OI, Haiti meets its goals? Share ideas. Some examples: a. Cooking for the children b. Creating homes that are safe and comfortable c. Enrich the children’s learning at home d. Provide nurture and feeling of familyto children e. Strong working relationship with other house parents and education coordinator - sharing ideas, welcoming of home visits and weekly meetings/trainings 3. Ask participants to discuss the interdependence of the organization. Taking each area individually, discuss why their roles as House Parents are important to each group. Key Learning Points • The individual’s role at the orphanage « What one canexpect from the others involved 12:15-12:30 Break Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 79 12:30 -1:30 pm: Remembering Childhood combined with Positive and Negative Punishment Topic: Remembering Childhood Time: 60 minutes Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens, Methods Used: Individual Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion Learner To distinguish and sort activities according to developmental areas: cognitive, physical, Objectives: emotional and social. The purpose of this activity is to generate a variety of positive memories from our own childhood experiences. Drawing upon experiences is an effective way of harnessing the interests of the participants. After a large list has been compiled on chart paper, sort the list according to the different areas of development: cognitive, social, emotional and physical. Werethere any overlaps between memories and areas of development? Were there any disagreements between the groups? Have groups justify certain areas in question. Which development areas had the most memories? Why do they suppose one area over the others? Progression of Session: 1. Review or introduce the concept of “whole-child” development. Generate examples of each. Develop a symbol for each area which can be used throughout the curriculum and training as a quick reference. a. Physical b. Emotional (heart) c. Social: play and interaction with caregivers (holding hands) d. Cognitive 2. Ask participants to generate a list in their journals of positive childhood memories. Examine which of the four categories above best describes the memory, (ex. Playing tag with friend = social and physical) 3. Share some as a group 4. Discuss similar memories, which development areas were best represented? Key Point: • Using their own experiences as a child as a springboard for generating ideas that may be used within the community. Traits of their own Caregivers Topic: Care Giver Traits Time: ^connected with previous lesson Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens Methods Used: Individual Whole group discussion — T Chart for positive and negativetraits Learner To recognize and define traits ofcare givers that is both positive and negative. Objectives: Progression of Session: 1. Ask participants to recall their own caregivers. Were they parents, siblings,extended family, neighbors? Make a list on chart paper. 2. What support structure is in place for the children of the orphanage? Who will be their main caregivers? What are the similarities and differences? 3. Using a T- chart design, separate the sides into positive and negative traits of the caregivers. Items might include: honest, fair, loving, or yells a lot, absent 4. Take time to discuss disagreements of the positive and negative traits. Are there any traitsthat cross over to both sides? Are any appropriate for both sides? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80 KeyPoints: • To make sure that everyone is in agreement on positive characteristics of a caregiver. An opportunity to introduce positive discipline as the only method of acceptable discipline in the community. • All people have been formed through their different backgrounds which should be recognized as it will help us understand each other’s opinions and concerns. 1:30 - 2:15 pm Lunch 2:15 - 3:20 pm Video orPhoto observation of toddlers’ abilities. ***The session below was modified but could be done either way. Topic: Toddlers’ Abilities and Activities for Enrichment Time: 65 minutes Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens, provide a list of age-appropriate activities for 2-4year olds. VCR/TV and video if possible - if not, alter activity to use pictures of children engaged in activities Methods Used: Individual Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion, Learner To observe and identify developmental activities appropriate for the children at the Objectives: orphanage. Progression of Session: 1. Go through the list of appropriate skills identified for the toddler-aged children. Discuss/add to it as seen fit. The participants are to use it as a reference during their observations. 2. A 20 minute video will be shown of a learner-centered toddler classroom. Participants are to watch and make notes of what the children are doing in the video. Paying close attention to areas that stimulate the cognitive, physical, emotional and social development of the children, participants will be asked to sort activities accordingly. Participants are also asked to note the interaction between caregiver and children - tone of voice, leadership and guidance. Since communication is 70% non-verbal actions of the caregivers is important. 3. After the video, we will discuss what was observed. Information will be added to flip charts describing what activities are appropriate at the toddler level based upon observations and the background material distributed to participants. 4. A discussion of the caregivers’ interactions with the children will take place. A T chart will be used to show the positive traits of the interactions on one side and the areas in need of improvement on the opposite side. Examples: Positive: at their level, allowing the children freedom to explore Negative: no eye contact with child; ignoring a child 3:30 - 4:00 pm Journal Reflection and Evaluations. As a method of self-evaluation, reflection and dialogue with the trainer, the participantswill be requested to keep a journal or learning log throughout the workshop. This will serve asa place in which they can keep track of thoughts, ideas that might pop into their mind throughout the workshop. This was not done but should be used in the future. Evaluations should be reviewed daily and may influence the way the next day’s sessions are run or shifting of sessions throughout the training. A Haitian Board Member came and spoke with us aboutthe organization and shared some passages from the book, The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81 Day 2: 9:00 am; Opening ofDay 2 One person stood up and reviewed what we had done the previous day. A few people added comments. Education Coordinator went through the revised agenda. 9:15 am - 10:45am: Exploringthe Social and Emotional Needs of a Child Topic: Using props to express emotions. Time: 15 minute ice-breaker/discussion 15 minute group share 30 minute small group activity 20 minute whole group discussion Materials conflict cards , fiip-chart paper and markers Methods Pair work and then sharing asa whole group. Used: Objective: Participants will understand the importance of validating a child’s feelings in order to build their sense of security and self-worth. Goal: Participants will create methods for self-expression and teaching values to toddlers through the practice of flannel boards, role-playing,puppets and dialogue. Progression of Lesson: 1. Ice Breaker: Vote with your Feet Ask trainees to stand up and congregate inthe middle of the room. Explain that one end of the room represents “yes” and the opposite end of the room represents “no”. The middle represents “undecided”. After the Education Coordinatorread each statement, they were to decide if they believed the answer was “yes” or “no”and then move to the respected side. These statements refer to children between the ages 3-5 years (Colletta, 1992). • Children are always happy, (no) • Children are resilient, (yes) • Long-term negative circumstances havea greater impact on children’s mental health rather than a short-term, single event, (yes) • Children’s emotional needs develop as part of a unified system. When one area of development is adversely affected (cognitive, physical) then all other areas are at risk too. (yes) • Children may show signs of depression by decreased appetite and lack of energy, (yes) After going through each one, spend a minute discussing the choices and maybe offering an example of when suchstatement was true or false. 2. Participants will return to their seats and I will ask them to do an exercise using their imagination. They may close their eyes and try to visualize the setting - smells, sights and sounds. Some may chooseto remember their experiencethrough journal writing. Imagine a time as a child when you were in conflict with another person. Wherewere you ? Who was the conflict with ? What was the conflict about? How were you feeling at the time?How was the conflictresolved? *List the five questions on the flip chart as they focus on their story. After a few minutes, ask if anyone would want to share their experience. If not, then ask for volunteers to share one answer to the five questions without revealing the whole story. Validate responses verbally, but not necessary to write down. 3. Remind the participants that even though the children are young, they have real emotional and social needs which are all a part of the full development of the child. High Scope recommends resolving conflicts with Preschoolers by: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 82 1. Remaining calm 2. Acknowledging children’s feelings 3. Gathering information from all involved children 4. Restate the problem 5. Let the children come up with ideas for solution 6. Give follow-up support 4. Role-playing is an effective way for participants to distance themselves from a situation. It allows them to act out their feelings in a safe,non-judgmental environment. In each role-play, two participants are the children and one is the care giver who moderates between the two. Conflict Cards • A friend has taken awayyour toy and is saying that it is his/herturn to play with it. What should you do? • You’re playing with a new friend and afriend you have known fora long time wants to play too. However, your new friend only wants to play with you. What can you do? • You have just built a tower but another child comes and knocks it down, what do you do? Key Learning Points: 1. Children’s emotional needs should be validated. 2. Children should be encouraged to express their emotions throughvarious forms: speech,drawing, role-playing, puppets and/orflannel storyboards 3. Children should not be judged based upon their actions during their role-playing.It should be a form of safe expression for them. 11:40-11:55 am: Break 11:55 -1:00 pm: Making Puppets Design puppets, and stories about a conflict that their small group creates. This is to demonstrate conflict- resolution practices for small children - detaching the child by using puppets so child is not humiliated; transferring the anger, sadness etc through a puppet rather than self. 1:00 - 2:00 pm: Lunch 2:00 - 2:45 pm: What are important values to instill in the children? As a group brainstorm common values of societies across cultures; honesty, helpfulness, family, respect for people, nature and animals. These values were listed on index cards and then the participants each chosea value to develop into a puppet show. 3:20 - 3:30 pm: Evaluations for Day 2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 83 3:30 - 4:30 pm: What is appropriate punishment? Group Discussion. Punishment methods: what will change a child’s behavior without harming the child? ® Generate a list of everything the participants suggest • Together, analyzethe list for appropriate punishments vs. inappropriate and allowfor discussions Appropriate Inappropriate Time out Slaps, spanking, etc. Drawing a picture - feelings at the time and feelings Extended periods of isolation. A time-out should desired. How will the child reach the desired not be in a dangerous or“scary” place (closet). In feelings (happiness, getting along with a friend)? my opinion, a time-out should not be in the Discuss the pictures with the child. bedroom. That is for sleeping. ***Takmg away play time - but not if it’s the only Deprivation of play/exercise exercise of the day. Possibly only allowing solitary play fora period of time. ***Taking away a special food/treat - not if it’s Deprivation of food necessary for nutrition (fruits, water) ***Behavior charts can be introduced as one way of setting up goals The focus will be on using the conflict-resohition strategies discussed in the first sessions of the day in order to avoid the need for punishments. Emphasize that if behaviors haven’t changed then the house parents should look at the environment, what are the causes of the behavior and then extinguish the causes. Day 3 9:00 - 9:15 am: Opening of Day 3 The location changed to the Montessori Haiti School up the road from Pierre-Richard’s home. We spent some time going through questions that the participants had written on their evaluationsfrom the first two days. 9:15 - 11:20am: Montessori Discussion Dominique arrived and sat with us in a classroom.She described the Montessori philosophy to us downstairs. She addressed questions such as: What do Montessori instructors do? What is the philosophy of Montessori education? How can they use everyday materials from the home to work with the children? Then she took us upstairs to a classroom with materials. While upstairs, we were able to see the different materials and their uses. She ended her time with us by showing us the Primary School classroom for Montessori. 11:20 - 11:55am: Break 11:55 - 1:00 pm: How do Toddlers Learn? Topic: How Do Toddlers Learn Time: 65 minutes Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens, pictures of 2-4year oldsengaged in different activities, Resource Binder sheets Methods Used: Individual Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion Learner To develop and write lesson plans forthe Resource Binder of age appropriate activities Objectives: for young children. There are 5 Key Experiencesthat I think would be beneficial to concentrate on before touching the literacy components: classification, seriation, number, space and time. 1. Classification: sorting objects by sizes, colors, purpose - observation of similarities and differences. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 84 2. Seriation: creating patterns - big, bigger, biggest; red, blue, red, blue 3. Number; comparing sets of objects, one-to-one correspondence, building sets 4. Space; filling and emptying; putting things together then taking them apart; viewpoints: front, back, under, above; spatial relations in drawings and pictures 5. Time: stopping and starting; rates of movement; next, before etc. Demonstrate each type of activity and then the participantswill use whatever materials are at their table to show a way of demonstrating that skill. They will be in groups of 2 and 3 and will share the activity that they devise. Participants should play around with buttons, yarn, straws and other materials to determine how everyday materials could be used to practice each of the key experiences. Distribute pictures of toddlers doing different activities to the small groups. Analyzehow each child is learning in the group. Who is involved in the learning? What items/materials are involved in the learning? Identify the cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills involved and how do the skills mesh with the developmentally appropriate skills given in session 3. Groups will organize their pictures and flip chart answers to share with group (Irvine, 1999). Introduce the idea of maintaining a Resource Binder for easy reference by house parents and community members. Together choose an appropriate toddler activity and complete a sample plan. Ask participants to choose an activity that they had observed the previous day at The Community School and draw upsample a lesson for the Resource Binder or video. Begin writing lesson plans forthe binder. 1:00- 1:55 pm: How can home environment stimulate learning? Topic: Creating an Enriching Environment Time: 55 minutes Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens Methods Used: Pairs Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion Learner To list and design areas within the home that can serve as learning environments to the Objectives: children. The home is filled with a multitude of experiential learning opportunities. Spend a few minutes writing in the journal about favorite places at home that they remembered escaping to play. What made those places special? What would you do in those special places? The participants may also choose to write about their own children and what areas of the home that they often end up playing. What is enticingabout those rooms? After 15 minutes of writing time, share in small groups. As a whole group discuss some of the “favorite places” within the home. Reflect on howthese “safe” spaces canbe created within the orphanage homes. Pairs will be assigned a “favorite place” and will be responsible for brainstorming learning activities that could occur at that place. Some suggestions are: kitchen, garden, toy area and bedroom. Activities for sorting, matching, patterning, filling containers would be encouraged. Postideas on the wall and allow participants a chance for a “Gallery Walk” to view the ideasand to make additions. Pairs should complete a page in the Resource Binder for an activity that may done in one of the “special places”. Example: sorting fruits according to shape, colors; counting seeds 1:55 - 2:35 pm; Lunch Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 85 2:35 - 3:50 pm: important Health Skills and Writing a lesson Plan Topic: Health Skill for the Children Time: 75 minutes Materials: Chart paper, markers, tape, journals, pens Methods Used: Individual Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion Learner To create simple songs, stories, puppet shows easy enough for young children torecite Objectives: while conveying a health message. The participants will be asked to individually list health skills in one of the following areas: hygiene, nutrition, exercise and keeping healthy. As a whole group, we will share the needsand brainstorm additional needs to be addressed when providing health and hygiene skills to the toddler. These skills may include: washing hands, combing hair, washing body, brushing teeth, wearing shoes, eating vegetables etc. Discuss ways to teach the children health skills: song, poetry, demonstration doll, a picture chart (hanging a picture at eye-level in thebathroom to remind children to wash hands). Write these ideas on chart paper. Setting the list aside for a moment, we will remember favorite childhood tunes. Pairs will then be asked to choose a skill and write a songthat can be taught and easily rememberedby preschool students. Gestures should be encouraged as a wayof remembering the song and developing motor skills. Share and scribe the songs on a Resource Binder page. 3:50 - 4:00 pm: Evaluations Day 4 9:00 am. Opening of Day 4 Do an activity to get participants thinking about the training or sharing more information about themselves. This could be done as a Sociogram. Ask the group to physically move to a place to answer a question. ® How did you feel during the role-play? Very comfortable, okay, not comfortable at all. • How many activities do you think you could develop using grains of rice? 1, 5, 10, endless numbers • What has been your favorite session - offer 4 ideas. 9:15-11:15 am: How can play stimulate learning? Topic: How can play stimulate learning? Time: 120 minutes Materials: Yam, material scraps, glue, tape, empty cardboard boxes, non-toxic bottles etc. Methods Used: Individual Whole group; brainstorm (generating ideas) and discussion Learner To make toys out of everyday materials. Objectives: Display thequotation about play from appendix T. In this session the focus will be on play as a creative outlet. The participants will realize that with a little imagination, theyare capable ofmaking “toys”out everyday materials. The toys,which usuallyare action-oriented, become a medium for the child to express action and movement. According to High Scope, play is broken into four types: 1. Pretend Play: helps act out problems, situations and dreams 2. Games: may bein the form of aboard game, math game, social interaction game or sport 3. Exploratory: similar towhat we had done with the playground - using the environment and playing with the different objects present to learn 4. Constructive: handling materials and putting them together then taking them apart. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 86 Progression of Session: 1. In the first part, the participants will choose an everyday object: empty cardboard box, empty non toxicplastic container, yam, material scraps and will design a toy. After 15minutes, they will share the toy and its purpose with the group. 2. Then we will have time to construct another toy. The cooperation and imagination involved in this project can be carried over to the emotional, social, physical and cognitive development of the child. 3. Have a group member choose a card that has a specific purpose on it and ask the group to use their imagination to create anobject that can do that task. Examples: a flyingpig, floor sweeper, cooking machine, Key Learning Points: • Children don’t need special or many objects to ignite their imagination, • Children’s interaction with others and experience using materials will enable them to reach cognitive potential (Vygotsky, Piaget). 11:15-11:30 Break 11:30 - 12:45pm: Creating a Literacy Enriched Environment at Home Purpose: To develop a 1. oral storytelling -transcribe to basic books, allow children to draw pictures to show the meaning of the words, multi-lingual books 2. books: understanding the order of pages, looking at pictures for clues to words and making predictions, reading from left-right, 3. symbols in the home: represent meanings to children - hot,dangerous, turn off lights 4. write the children’s plan for the exploratory time: they see what you write and it validates their work **** Scribing what children do through their puppet shows may be aneffective way of introducing them to written words that they use in their own vocabulary. 12:45 -1:20 pm: LUNCH 1:20 -2:00 pm: Learning from the outside Environment The Purpose of these activities is to get the house parents thinking about incorporating learning in any and every environment. Afew examples are below: 1. We played simple observation games like “I SPY”. 2. Then we went on a “Shape Hunt” around theplayground looking for examples of triangles, squares, rectangles, circles. Afterwards we shared our results and our “favorite/most unique” find. 3. Finally, we observeda leaf. All of the leaves were the same species but we were to observe our leaf well enough to pick it from a pile. The activity can be expanded into a discussion on diversity and as a way to break down stereotypes and prejudice. Having read the low energy level before lunch, I wanted to get the participants moving and give them a change of environment from the classroom. 2:00 - 3:30 pm. Creating Materials Based upon the evaluations of previous days, the participants wanted something that they could use in the classroom. Open for discussion or to add resource ideas to the binder. Possibly work on: • creating books or games for the children; • health signs - washing hands beforeeating, shutting off lights etc, • ABC books for health skills • Games Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 87 Literacy: associate words with pictures, learning letters, repeating verses,choral reading Numeracy: one-to-onecorrespondence, patterning, counting 3:30-3:45 Clean Up 3:45-4:00 JournalReflection and Evaluations: Day5 8:30 -10:00 am: Montessori Classroom visit and travel to and from school. 10:00- 11:00 ant: Review what we observed in the classroom. ® the activities done by the toddlers: noticing the cognitive, social, emotional and physical development • the interactions between the teachers and children: what types of interaction? What types of assistance do they give children? 11:00-11:15; Break 11:15 - 1:0O pm: Creating and sharing Books During this session we will investigate common traits in preschool books. Some areas that we will analyze include: number of pages, number of words, layout of pages, types of words, and the purpose of the books. The purpose maybe to teach a skill, teach a virtue, and teach content or simply to entertain. The whole group will then brainstorm topic ideas for books. The participants will then be asked to work independently or with a partner to begin creating a book for the resource center. Before lunch share whatever the groups have accomplished. Materials for illustrations and book binding will be available. I have purchased some books and will use them as examples and models: 1. Anno’s Counting Book a picture book that shows the number through cubes and then the village pictures depict the number (4 has 4 pumpkins, 4 flags etc.) 2. Brown Bear. Brown Bear this book is based on repetition 3. A few science related books - basic picture books with one sentence but the pictures allow the children to explain what is happening and thus learn from them. 1:00-1:45 pm: Summarizing the Training Head, Heart and Hands activity. *Using Chart Paper, draw or trace a person. Ask participants to write down what theyare coming away withafter the five-day training. They should address areas: Head: What theyhave learned. Hands: What skills have they learned to do. Heart: What changes in attitudes resulted from the training. The ideas should be written on scrap paper and thentaped to the person. The participants can remain anonymous and simply discuss the notes aloud. Or, participantscan share their notes with everyone. Evaluations for the last day. 1:45 - 2:40 pm Lunch 2:45 - 3:30 pm. Board Member was available for questions pertaining to their employment and other Orphans International information. 3:30 - 4:00 pm. Montessori Head Teacher was available to answer questions about Montessori. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 88 APPENDIX D: Daily Evaluation Form Choose the phrase that best expressesyour feelings: Very true somewhat true somewhat false false I felt good coming into the session today. ______The material covered is relevant to me. ______My opinion and experiences were validated. _ _ _ _ _ I felt safe within the environment of the group. _ _ _ _ _ I’m interested in tomorrow’s session.______ Very True SomewhatTrue Somewhat False False Coming to the session Relevance of Material (interpreted - how much experience?) *Validation of experiences/idea Safe environment Interested in tomorrow’s session Please give feedback on the following questions. What was the most useful session of the day? Why? What areas need improvement within the sessions or training environment? What questions did today’s sessions raise in your mind? What items would you like to have addressed in upcoming sessions? Additional comments? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 89 APPENDIX E: Child Intake Form Orphans OJHID# Last Name: Middle: First: Sex: Female u Male □ Birth date: / / Birthplace: Area: City: Department: Religious Affiliation: Denomination: Mother’s Name: Living 0 Dead 0 Proof ofDeath □ Father’s Name Living □ Dead □ Proof ofDeath □ List two (2) people O.I.H. can contact in case of emergency: 1. Name: Relationship: Address: 2. Name: Relationship: Address: Educational Background: Kindergarten □ Primary/Elementary School 0 Secondary/High School 0 School Name/s: Dates of attendance: Classes completed: 1. Name: Relationship: Address: 2. Name: Relationship: Address: Psych-Educational Test Denver (for 0 to 3) D Harvey (for 3 to up) □ Conclusion: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 90 Written test: Excellent □ Good □ Mediocre 0 Poor □ Reading test: Excellent 0 Good □ Mediocre 0 Poor □ Outstanding test: Excellent □ Good 0 Mediocre 0 Poor □ Language test: Excellent □ Good □ Mediocre 0 Poor □ Communications test: Excellent □ Good 0 Mediocre □ Poor □ Memory test: Excellent □ Good □ Mediocre 0 Poor □ Comments: Conclusion: Family Profile: Brothers: Age: Sisters: Age: 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 4. 3. 5. 4. 6. 5. 6. References - peoples who are not family members of the child: 1. Name: I Relationship: Address: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 91 Jrphans Ch il d Intake Re fer r a l F o r m * Length of time you known the child and his/her family: Notes of recommendation: Signature: Date: Print name: Title: Address: E-mail: Telephone: How would you rate the child in overall scholastic and family ability: □ Outstanding 0 Very good 0 Below average □ Unable to comment Recommendation for admission to GIH: □ Strongly recommend □ Recommend 0 Recommend with reservation □ Would not recommend Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 2 Orphans M e d ic a l In -Take F ro m Name Age Sex Birthdate Church affiliation Whom to notify if emergency: Address: Medical History □ allergy □Mental illness □ Anemia □ Mumps □ Anxiety or tension □ Poliomyelitis □ Asthma □ Sinusitis □ Back Trouble □ Insomnia (no sleep) □ Brain concussion □ Lung disorder □ Cancer □ Chicken pox □ Colds (frequent) □ Typhoid □ Epileptic fits □ Ulcer (stomach) 0 Kidney trouble □ Whooping cough 0 blood in the urine □ Eye problem □ Fatigue □ Ears trouble 0 Hay fever □ Others illness □ Head ache □ Accidents/fractures □ Heart disease □ Influenza 0 Hernia □ Jaundice Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 93 Medical Treatment within the Past Three Years Date Names and address of physician Reason Consulted 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Family History □ Diabetes mellitus □ Heart Disease 0 Epilepsy or fits □ High blood pressure □ Hereditary disorders Immunization Had Disease (approx. date) Immunization Date Rubella (“German Measles”) Measles Mumps Diphtheria Tetanus toxoid Polio Date: _ _ _ _ _ Parent or Guardian: Social Worker: __ House Director:___ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 94 APPENDIX F: House Parent Advertisement HOUSEPARENT WANTED ORPHANS INTERNATIONAL - HAITI Raising Global Citizens Orphans International - Haiti is a new style oforphanage in Haiti. We come to Haiti tohelp orphans and abandoned children to grow into solid citizens, with the potential to become future leaders in Haiti, through a sound educational program and family-type environment that is inter-faith and inter-racial. To achieve this goal, we are looking for dedicated persons to work with us as house parents on our campus located in Cyvadier (Jacmel). Each home willconsist of 4-6 children with a house parent. Eventually we a campus of 60 homes-, school clinic and arts » d crafts center. Requirements to be a candidate as houseparent: • Between 25 - 45 years old. • Dynamic and creative. • Capacity towork as a team. • Be patient and accept the children as they are; not as they are supposed to be. • Love and respect the children. • Be able to work with a new approach to raising children. • To live with the children on the campus. • Be a model for the children. • Be a loving parent and friend of the children. • Be interested in this position on a long-term basis (eg, 10 years). • Teaching or training in Montessori techniques is desirable. • Prior experience working with and/or caring for children is desirable. Please submit your candidature with the followingpapers to Orphans International - Haiti, PO B ox _ Petion-Ville, Haiti before September 22: 1. Photocopy of your baccalaureate certificate 2. Photocopy of your ID card, birth certificate, recent certificate of Bonne Vie et Moeurs 3. 2 Photos 4. 2 letters of reference from the Leader of your church, temple or peristile 5. Letter explaining why you want towork with Orphans IntemationalFor more information, please contact M r. at (509). 5117628, from 4pm to10pm or by e-mail a t...... Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX G: MATERIALS NEEDED FOR TRAINING Chart Paper Markers Masking Tape Journals Pens/pencils Modeling Clay socks Flannel Board Felt Pieces Crayons Pictures of kids Yarn Scrap Material Glue Scissors Cardboard boxes Non-toxic plastic bottles/container Ziploc freezer bags Index cards Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 6 APPENDIX H: EVALUATION OF TRAINING DAY I The evaluation had been translated to French for the participants. Phadoul and I spent about 15 minutes going through the evaluations. When speaking with Phadoul, it seems that the second phrase, “The material covered is relevant to me” translated as “I have had experience with the materia!”. This was the case throughout all of the evaluations. The 5 participants and Phadoul completed the survey. Choose the phrase that best expresses your feelings: Very true somewhat true somewhat false false 1. I felt good coming into the session today. ______2. The material covered is relevant to me. 3. My opinion and experiences were validated. 4. I felt safe within the environment of the group. 5. I’m interested in tomorrow’s session. ___ Very True Somewhat True Somewhat False False Coming to the 5 1 session Relevance of 2 4 Material (interpreted - how much experience?) *Validation of 'S 1 1 experiences/idea Safe environment 7 Interested in 4 1 1 tomorrow’s session Please give feedback on the following questions. What was the most useful session of the day? Why? Five people said that“My Role withOrphans International” was the mostuseful session. One person voted“Remembering Childhood” as the favorite. What areas need improvement within the sessions or training environment? 2 people recommended thatthere be morediscussion and debating What questions did today’s sessionsraise in your mind? Howdo youremain positive whendealing with child punishment without over-protecting thechild? How mn we educate fm- children to become- -GlobalCitizens? What items would you like to have addressed in upcoming sessions?Children’s Education - 2 people Additional comments? When will the houseopen? Can children beadopted? Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 97 APPENDIX I: EVALUATION OF DAY 2 Phadoul and I spent about 15 minutes going through the evaluations. Thefive participants and Phadoul completed the survey. Choose the phrase that best expresses your feelings: Very true somewhat true somewhat false false I felt good coming into the session today. ______The materia! covered is relevant to me. ______My opinion and experiences were validated. _ _ _ _ _ I felt safe within the environment of the group. I’m interested in tomorrow’s session. Very True Somewhat True Somewhat False False Coming to the 6 session Relevance of 2 1 1 3 Material (interpreted ~ how much experience?) Validation of C 1 experiences/idea Safe environment 5 1 ♦Interested in 3 1 tomorrow’s session What was the most useful session of the day? Why? 3 said that the transmissionof values:puppets and show 3 said the conflictiresolution What areas need improvement within the sessions or training environment? 2people mentioned more timefo r discussions and debates What questions did today’s sessions raise in your mind? How do you apply and transfer values to the children? How does one understand children? Is there a way of matching values with the goals of Montessori and 01? What are important teaching techniques? What items would you like to have addressed in upcoming sessions? How can weteach the toddlers? How canwe use pictures to teach the children? Additional comments?’ Task# m$. m m . exciting thm yesterday! Techniquesto resolve the conflicts are thebest tool for life. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 98 APPENDIX J; HIGH SCOPE KEY EXPERIENCES FOR PRESCHOOLERS Creative Representation • Recognizing objects by sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell • Imitating actions and sounds • Relating models, pictures, and photographs to real places and things • Pretending and role playing • Making models out of clay, blocks, and other materials ® Drawing and painting Language and Literacy • Talking with others about personally meaningful experiences • Describing objects, events, and relations • Having fun with language: listening to stories and poems, making up stories and rhymes • Writing in various ways: drawing, scribbling, letterlike forms, invented spelling, conventional forms • Reading in various ways: reading storybooks, signs and symbols, one's own writing • Dictating stories Initiative and Social Relations • Making and expressing choices, plans, and decisions • Solving problems encountered in play • Taking care of one's own needs • Expressing feelings in words • Participating in group routines • Being sensitive to the feelings, interests, and needs of others • Building relationships with children and adults • Creating and experiencing collaborative play • Dealing with social conflict Movement » Moving in nDHloeomotor ways (anchored movement: bending, twisting, nocking, swinging one's arms ® Moving in locomotor ways (nonanchored movement: running, jumping, hopping, skipping, marching, climbing) • Moving with objects • Expressing creativity in movement • Describing movement • Acting upon movement directions • Feeling and expressing steady beat ® Moving in sequences to a common beat Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 9 Mpsfe • Moving to music • Exploring and identifying sounds • Exploring the singing voice • Developing melody • Singing songs ® Playing simple musical instruments Classification • Exploring anddescribing similarities, differences, and the attributes of things • Distinguishing and describing shapes ® Sorting and matching • Using and describing something in several ways ® Holding more than one attribute in mind at a time • Distinguishing between "some" and "all" • Describing characteristics something does not possess or what class it does not belong to Seriation • Comparing attributes (longer/shorter, bigger/smaller) • Arranging several things one after another in a series or pattern and describing the relationships(big/bigger/biggest,red/blue/red/blue) • Fitting one ordered set of objects to another through trial and error (small cup—small saucer/medium cup—medium saucer/big cup—big saucer) Number • Comparing the numbers of things in two sets to determine "more," "fewer," "same number" • Arranging two sets of objects in one-to-one correspondence • Counting objects Space • Filling and emptying • Fitting things together and taking them apart • Changing the shape and arrangement of objects (wrapping, twisting, stretching, stacking, enclosing) • Observing people, places, and things from different spatial viewpoints • Experiencing and describing positions, directions, and distances in the play space, building, and neighborhood ® Interpreting spatial relations in drawings, pictures, and photographs Time • Starting and stopping an action on signal ® Experiencing and describing rates of movement • Experiencing and comparingtime intervals ® Anticipating, remembering, and describing sequences of events Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 100 APPENDIX K: How do Toddlers Learn - 5 KeyExcellences, Classification, Seriation, Number, Time and Space • Color • Shape « Texture • Quantity « Size • Does it bend? • Does it stick tothe flannel board? Is it magnetic? • Distinguish by tastes, smells ® Purpose: things that write, Classification in the Home: • Kitchen: Sorting supplies Refrigerator: items you drink, dairy foods, vegetables Putting dishes away: cutlery, plates, glasses Sorting beans and seeds by type, color, size • Bathroom Sort types of soap • Bedroom Sort clothes according to a symbol the childmight have (shape, color or number) Seriation: • Color: poms and thread • Size: poms, thread, • Shapes • Quantity • Quality/texture *BuiM vocaMsty with tM« «*yjjy; big, bigger, biggest, s » ik In the home - practice stacking items inside of one another such as mixing bowls or cups of different sizes Number: counting • One-to-one correspondence • Show the number 1 and place 1 seed with it • Show the number 2 and place 2 seeds ® Make groups of numbers - groups of 2, or 3 or 4 etc. Vocabulary: more, less, fewer, some, a couple Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101 Within the home: Sharing food: one bean for you, one for another child and one for another Setting the table for mealtime: one plate at each chair lime: • Daily routines • Waking up, brushing teeth, getting ready for the day • Calendar time: what day is it? What is the weather like? How many days in the week? Etc. This is often used in preschool and kindergartens ® Describe rates of movement: fast slow • Move to music - speed up to fast music or clapping and slow down to slow beats • Encourage children to recall events in an order: whatever they might have done during free time Vocabulary: fast, slow, yesterday, tomorrow, today Space: • Emptying and filling items • Put things together and take apart: markers and straws • Look at things from different perspective: the cup on the desk, the cup under the desk Vocabulary: under, above, next to, behind, in front Comments: **These are good practices for preparing for handwriting ***Also, this is a good way to practice movement for the kids. Children can be asked to move in front of an object, behind, raise arms high, drop arms low. Etc. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 102 APPENDIX L: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Topic: Hygiene Subject: Brushing Teeth Time: 1 week Each Session: 30 minutes Goal/Objective Activities - Procedure Materials gather materials Brash Toothpaste Water Cup Provision/Preparation Find materials before beginning Evaluation: Explainhow the child performs the activity. Next timeI’ll ..... * Phadoul demonstrated this activity withJhoan. Theyused markers and pencils as the toothpaste and toothbrush. The child should be encouraged to teach the skill to the other children in the home. Participants were asked to develop a health lesson based on this plan and to share. 3 people shared why it is important to wash your hands, 1 person focused on nutrition and one on brushing teeth. A variety of methods were used: puppet show, story, poem, songs and demonstration. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 103 APPENDIX M: EVALUATION OF DAY 3 Phadoul and I spent about 15 minutes going through the evaluations. Only 3 participants attended the session. Phadoul also completed an evaluation. Choose the phrase that best expresses your feelings: Very true somewhat true somewhat false false I felt good coming into the session today.______The material covered is relevant to me. ______My opinion and experiences were validated.______I felt safe within the environment of the group. ______I’m interested in tomorrow’s session. ______ Very True Somewhat True Somewhat False False Coming to the 4 session ^Relevance of 2 1 Material (interpreted - how much experience?) Validation of 4 experiences/idea Safe environment 3 1 ^Interested in 4 tomorrow’s session Please give feedback on the following questions. What was the most useful session of the day? Why? 3 said the discussion ofMontessori wasmost useful 1 said the Teaching Techniqueswere most useful What areas need improvement within the sessions or training environment? None What questions did today’s sessions raise in your mind? Will we receive the documents? How do you teach “logical consequence ” What items would you like to have addressed in upcoming sessions? Child Education Moreinformation on Orphans International Additional comments?’ Thank youfor bringing in Dominique Documents Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 104 .APPENDIX N: MATERIALS CREATED ON DAY 4 Maths ® Number Board: • children practice counting by one’s, then by pairs * There is also number problems on the board ® This would be useful with older children but is overwhelming foryounger children because of all the numbers. a Shape Board: a There are different colored shapes so this can be used as an identification and counting tool, a How many yellow shapes are there? • Find the blue triangle. a Numbers a Set out numbers on the table and ask children to form groups of items. For example: the number 4 will have 4 seeds with it. a Time a Make a clock and use it to show children when the next activity will begin.Set the pretend clock to the time when they will need to change activities. When the real clock looks like thepretend clock they will know its time to clean up. The house parent will still need to talk about the time and point it out but it will get the children accustomed to the feel for length of time and reading the clock. Calendar: Demonstration of all the different ways to use a calendar with children a Learning the days of the week • Practicing words like: yesterday, tomorrow when discussing the weekend • Planning for holidays orfor the day ® Practice counting as you count the number of days in the month, number of weeks • Learn words related to weather: today is hot, cloudy etc. • Attach a cup nearby and put a straw or stick in for every day. Once 10 days have comeup then tie the 10 items in a bundle. And put the bundle in another cup labeled 10’s. This can be up to a certain number - for example, 100 and then begin again. Concentration/Memory • This game will help the children develop memory and observation skills. Laypairs of cards facedown on the table. The pairs should be mixed around. Playersshould take turns picking up cards that are pairs. It’s important to pay attention to which card has which picture on it. When a pair is selected, the pair should be removed fromthe pile. The goal is to find as many pairs as you can. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 105 Weaving Cards with holes in them can be made up so children can practice fine motor skills of weaving. The cards can have pictures on them or just be in a design. This was also demonstrated with weaving yam between the posts of a stool. Literacy: • Sounds ® Knowing the difference when writing an “a” and an“o”. A little story/song was told. ® A chart with different pictures ofobjects was on the board and then the child matches the first letter of the word with the object. • Books • Number books: Three items on each page - 1, one and one symbol • Consonant with vowels: ba, bi, be, bo, bu and by Colors Practice selecting colors from a variety of materials. Red and blue flower using crayons, pipe cleaners and paper. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 106 APPENDIX O: EVALUATION OF DAY 4 Phadoul and I discussed the evaluation after the day's training. All participants and Phadoul completed the evaluation. Choose the phrase that best expresses yourfeelings: Very true somewhat true somewhat false false I felt good coining into the session today. ______The material covered is relevant to me. ______My opinionand experienceswere validated.______I felt safe within the environment of the group. ______I’m interested in tomorrow’s session. ______ Very True Somewhat True Somewhat False False Coming to the 5 1 session *Relevance of 2 1 2 Material (interpreted - how much experience?) Validation of 4 1 1 experiences/idea Safe environment 5 1 * Interested in 5 1 tomorrow’s session Please give feedback on the followingquestions. What was the most useful session of the day? Why? 4 said making the materialsfor learning was most useful 2 said using the environmentfor learning was mostuseful What areas need improvement within the sessions or training environment? Morning break is too short What questions did today’s sessions raise in your mind? Why is the outside environmentimportant? Is it necessary to keep handicapped peoplefrom becoming house parents? What items would you like to have addressed in upcoming sessions? What will happennext? Will there be a follow-up training? Additional comments?’ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 107 APPENDIX P: Orphans International’s FirstLibrary 1. Shape Book: different shapes are introduced: triangle, square, rectangle and circle. Each page has a shape made from various materials: crayon, yarn, felt, paper. The final page is picture using all of the shapes "Good for learning shapes and distinguishing between characteristics of materials. 2. Color Book: Each page shows a different color, gives the name of the color and gives an example of something found in the natural environment that is the color. Ex: green - grass, blue - sea 3. Nature book: picture book of different items found in nature. Use it to discuss different items in the natural environment. Can be used to enrich vocabulary and learn about science. 4. Introduction to vowels: a bookwith one vowel on each page. Practice repeating the vowels 5. Vowel book: each page highlightsa vowel. A little story goes along with each vowel on each page. All of the vowels are written in different color ink so they stand out. 6. Introduction to different types of items in the natural environment: 4 types of leaves, different types of fruit. Builds vocabulary of the child and observation. 7. Story Book - The Red Dot. Followadventure the of the red dot as it parachutes fromsky, the falls into the ocean and ends aup little on girl’s dress. 8. Book of Opposites - each page represents opposites to demonstrate new vocabulary. Under/above, low/high, behind/in front, full/empty, inside/outside Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 APPENDIX Q: Board Invitation January 8, 2002 Ms. Barbara Blazek blazek? 1 @netscape.net Washington, D.C. Dear Barbara, We are pleased to inform you that your name has been placed in nomination for the Board of Directors of Orphans International America, beginning January 2003, for a one-year term. Orphans International, as you already know, is a not-for-profit corporation, duly in-corporated in the State of New York and in the process of completing our 501(c)3 non-profit tax status application with the Internal Revenue Service, coordinated by the venerable law firm White & Case. Our budget for 2003 maywell reach US$200,000. We are now in dialogue with Ernst & Young to become our accounting firm and oversee our worldwide finances. Our new board will seat thirty-six, and meets the first Thursday of even numbered months. The 2003 schedule is as follows: Feb. 6, April 3, June 5, Aug. 7, Oct. 2, and Dec. 4. The Feb. 3 meeting will be held at the office of White & Case. Board members are required to attend three board meetings peryear and communicate effectively with the organization electronically. All board members are requested to involve themselves with one committee. Our committees are the backbone of our future and are responsible for project nations (Sulawesi, Haiti, Bali, Guyana, China, the Philippines, etc.), funding nation (Italy, France, U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, etc.), and/or development (education, public relations, technology, endowment, networking, physical infrastructure, public health, finance, gifts-in-kind, corporate gifts, foundation grants, communications, individual giving, etc.). Board members are encouraged to be involved with active financial support of the organization,such as sponsoring one of our children. Please respond by e-mail, accepting or declining your nomination to our board. If you accept, please include a recent one-page resume, a one-paragraph statement for our website on why you have an interest in serving on our board, anda non-binding indication as to the committee/s you are interested in serving on. Warm regards, Jim Luce Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 109 REFERENCES Arthur, Charles. (2002). In Focus: Haiti A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture. NY: Interlink Books. LydaBeardsley’s. (1990,October). GoodDay, Bad Day: The Child’s Experience of Child Care (Early Childhood Education Series). NY: Teachers College Press. CIA Factbook. (n.d.). Haiti. Retrieved October 19, 2003 from http://www.cia.gov/cta/publicatioas/factbooSc/geoyha.fatml Colietta, Nancy Donahue, PhD. (1992).Understanding Cross-Cultural Child Developmentand Designing Programs for Children. Prepared for National Offices of Christian Children’s Fund, Richmond, Y A. Doggett, Scott and Leah Gordon. (1999).Dominican Republic & Haiti. Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications. Judith Evans and Robert Myers. (1995). Childrearing Practices: Creating Programs Where Traditions and Modem Practices Meet. The ConsultativeGroup on Early Childhood Care and Development, Coordinator’s Notebook No. 15. Retrieved October 19, 2003 from http://www.ecdgroup.com/dowa3oad/ccl15aci.pdf Evans, Judith L. EdD, Robert G. Myers, Ph.Dand Ellen M. Ilfeld, DA. (2000). Early Childhood Counts:A Programming Guide onEarly Childhood Care and Development. Washington, DC.: The World Bank, Farmer, Paul. (1999).Infections and Inequalities: The Modem Plagues. Berkeley: University of California Press. Freire, Paulo. (2002). Pedagogy of the Oppressed,30th Anniversary ed. translated by Myra Bergman Ramos NY: Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc. Gfeller, Elisabeth. (1999). Language Equality:Multilingual Issues in Education. SNNP REB, Awassa: USAID. Haiti: Repiblik d’Ayiti. Education inHaiti. Retrieved October 20, 2003 from http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/amsudant/lmiti.htm High Scope, (n.d.). Key Experiences.Retrieved October 19,2003 from http://www.highscope.org/EducationalPrograms/EarlyChildhood/preschoolkevexp.fatm Hohmann, Mary and David P. Weikart. (2002).Educating Young Children, 2d ed. Ypsilanti, Michigan; High Scope Press. Irvine, Margaret. (l999)Early Childhood Education:A Training Manual and Packets. The Hague; Bernard, Van Leer Foundation and UNESCO Publishing. Landers, Cassie. (1998). Children Caring for Children - A Review of Programmes. The Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, Coordinator’s Notebook No.6. Retrieved October 19, 2003 from http://www.ecdgroup. com/download/cc 106aci.pdf Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 Landers, Cassie and Robert Myers. (1988). Home-Based Programmes: Educating Parents and Other Caregivers. The ConsultativeGroup onEarly Childhood Care and Development, (Coordinator’s Notebook No. 5. Retrieved October 19, 2003 from totti:/M'ww.ecdgroup.coni/download/ccl05agi.pdf Lauture, Denize. (1996). Running the Road to ABC. NY: Simon & Schuster. Leki, Ray. (2003, February18-9). Intercultural Training and Facilitation: Skills and Techniques. Class lecture SIS 633-01, American University, Washington, D.C. Luce, Jim.(1999). Orphans Internationa!: Comprehensive Initial Report. Unpublished Manuscript. Qvide, Stephanie. (1996). Creoie-EngUsh/English-Creole(Caribbean). NY: Hippocrene Books. Martin, Bill. (1967). BrownBear, Brown Bear, What do youSee? NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Mitsumasa, Anno. (1975). Anno’s Counting Book. NY: Crowell. Morrison,George S. (2003). Fundamentals of EarlyChildhood Education, 3d ed. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Prentice Hall. Myers, Robert. (1993). Toward a Fair Start for Children: Programming for Early Childhood Care and Development in the Developing World. 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Shepel, Elina N. Lempert. (1995, December). Teacher Self-Identification in Culture from Vygotsky’s Developmental Perspective. Anthropologyand Education Quarterly, 26(4), 425-442, Srinivasan. (1992). Options for Educators. NY: Pact/CDS, Inc. UNICEF, (n.d.). Convention on the Rights of the Child, Retrieved October 9,2003 from http:www.unicef.org/crc/crc.htm Jane Vella, Dr. £2002).Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults, revised ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I l l Williams, Karen Lynn. (1994).Tap-Tap. NY: Clarion Books. World Bank,. (n.d.). Brain Development. Retrieved October 19,2003 from htt.p://wvyw.wor!dbanKorg/cMldreB/why/brain.btm World Bank. (n.d.). Early Child Development:Benefits & Costs. Retrieved October 19, 2003 from http://www.wofldbank.org/cMldreti/benefits.html Young, Mary Etning, M.D. (1996). 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