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The impact of COVID-19, both in quality and quantity, on the field of early childhood education, ECE is immeasurable. However, as research shows, its impact on family child care (FCC), has been worse than other sectors of ECE. FCC providers worldwide have always perceived their work as a service to families and children, yet FCC homes have not received much attention and recognition from researchers and policymakers compared to center-based ECE programs. This phenomenological inquiry with 20 FCC providers in a large urban county in California highlights the financial challenges that FCC providers faced during the early part of the pandemic before they received financial support from the state in the spring of 2021. The cost of running the program was quite high because of reduced enrollment and the regular purchase of sanitary materials. To keep their programs afloat, some participants had to lay off their staff, others kept them without salary, others had to exhaust their savings, and most incurred credit card debt. Most of them also experienced psychosocial stress. Their financial hardships during the pandemic would have been far worse without the emergency funding received from the state. However, as experts warn, the field of ECE needs a permanent solution and the situation could be even worse after the emergency funds run out in 2024. The nation has witnessed the dedicated service of FCC providers during the pandemic, especially to families of essential workers. Much work is needed at empirical and policy levels to support and celebrate the service of FCC providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative impacts of COVID 19 on children's holistic development have been reported by researchers around the world. This qualitative study explored teachers' and parents' perspectives on the impact of physical/social distancing and school closure policies on children's socioemotional development. The study was conducted in fall 2020. The sample included four U.S. Preschools teachers (for 4-year-olds), four international preschool teachers (for 4, 5-year-olds), three U.S. Kindergarten teaches (for 5-year-olds), and 4 U.S. parents of 4 and 5-year-olds. Interviews were conducted over Zoom. Participants shared that the social deprivation experienced by children such as lack of friendships, absence of peer learning and peer communication, loss of play time, and lack of socialization impacted their children's socialization skills, higher order thinking development, mental health, and activity levels. Participants also shared that their children exhibited externalizing behaviors such as acting out, throwing tantrums, seeking negative attention, aggressiveness, lying, and showing disrespect. Participants reported children's life skills acquisition issues such as their over reliance on parents and difficulty in performing routine tasks. Participating teachers who taught 5-years-olds reported lower levels of fine motor skills among their students. The findings of the study suggest that although children have experienced severe academic learning loss during the pandemic, the post-pandemic ECE curriculum must keep a strong socio-emotional and practical life skills focus which contributes to children's overall well-being. Future studies may adopt a mixed method design in multi-country contexts to evaluate the impact of interventions implemented by early childhood programs on children's socioemotional health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper intends to discuss India's humane cultural traditions and its animal protection laws, justify the current need for humane education in Indian schools and preschools, offer examples of humane education curriculum ideas, and highlight the work of animal welfare organizations in India. Since ancient times, reverence and compassion for animals have been woven into India's cultural motif. All major religions in India uphold these beliefs. Hinduism, in particular, has endowed animals with a sacred status and perceives animals within the same spiritual unity that pervades the cosmos. Although not presented formally in schools, children in India grew up listening to stories that highlighted compassion for animals and participated in family rituals that showed reverence for animals. However, such cultural beliefs and practices are losing ground for a host of reasons in recent years. For example, while pet ownership has increased in recent years, incidents of pet abandonment, as well as stories of cruelty towards animals, have also wound their ways into the news headlines. Many animal protection laws have been introduced over the years, yet violations of these laws continue. Laws will not protect the rights of animals in India, but humane citizens will. Humane education programs have the potential to help plant the seed of compassion and justice for all animals early in children's hearts. Teachers may implement a carefully crafted humane education curriculum based on free resources provided by animal welfare organizations worldwide. A review of the literature shows that humane education is still uncharted territory for scholars in India. It is hoped that the article will draw attention to the topic of humane education among Indian researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has profound implications for education of young children worldwide and especially for children in developing economies like India. This article presents a qualitative study that explored the challenges that private school teachers in low budget, mid-ranged, and high fee charging private schools faced in two cities in India. All the private schools in this study also followed the government mandate to reserve 25% of seats for children from low-income families. During the school closure, remote instruction was employed in schools where participating teachers taught. Teachers faced challenges related to parental involvement and children's participation in remote instruction. Parental involvement challenges included parental lack of access to technological devices and no or minimal access to internet for their children to participate in remote instruction activities. Parental lack of support due to their low technological literacy and literacy in general, lack of fluency in the English Language, as well as lack of time also contributed to their children's low participation in remote instruction. Teachers faced challenges in implementing remote instruction with children from different socio-economic backgrounds; however, the challenges were greater with families from low-income backgrounds. The study's findings suggest that governments around the world need to ensure children's access to digital tools and internet services which are essential elements in children's participation in remote instruction. For children in families where parents are unable to support their children's education at home, other support services may be instituted to take the pressure off of parents. Future studies may explore the 'learning loss' that may have resulted from the long school closure during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 2020, a customer thanked a grocery store employee for continuing to work during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, and the cashier replied, "Well, somebody has to pay the rent." Https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2021/01/22/urgent-effective-action-required-to-quell-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-education-worldwide 21 Xafis V. "What is inconvenient for you is life-saving for me": How health inequities are playing out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brief Review of the Literature The world has witnessed various health pandemics prior to COVID-19 outbreak. Since its outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to over 200 countries (Jackson et al., [6]) and infected over 153 million people globally with over 3.5 million fatalities. [Extracted from the article]

According to researchers, the pandemic-induced school closures and disruption of services resulted in a massive regression of academic learning and socio-behavioral development, especially among children in developing economies. Countries have been making efforts to recover the learning and developmental losses incurred by children during the pandemic. A review of the literature shows that there are only a handful of studies that examine learning loss as well as post-pandemic efforts at the school level in India. According to a UNESCO report, India also experienced the second-longest COVID-19-induced school closure in the world. This qualitative study was conducted with primary-grade teachers after in-person instruction commenced in a county in eastern India with a large indigenous population. The purpose of the study was to gather teachers' challenges in implementing in-person instruction during the 2022–2023 school year and the efforts they made to recover the learning loss. The findings showed that children started the school year with limited or no knowledge of foundational math and language arts, displayed a lack of interest in learning, and engaged in disruptive classroom behaviors. However, teachers noticed slow but steady progress over time. The findings urge policymakers to support timely learning interventions and provide material and human resources to schools to recover the learning loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has faced challenges from a variety of viral respiratory illnesses over the past few decades, including the 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the 2009 swine-origin pandemic (H1N1) influenza. However, the disaster management guidelines for Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs in California were limited to earthquake and fire drills before the pandemic. COVID-19 exposed the world's vulnerability to a pandemic and the frailty of early learning programs. The pandemic showed how unprepared the field was for such a disaster and the need for a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan for early education programs. This qualitative study with 20 family child care providers in a large urban county in California explored participants’ preparedness and implementational challenges of emergency guidelines before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and their suggestions for future emergencies. The results demonstrated participants’ lack of respiratory illness training. Despite their best efforts, they encountered numerous obstacles to executing the COVID-19 guidelines routinely and fully. Regular cleaning of surfaces and materials and maintaining social distance were the two hardest rules to observe. The results point to the necessity of post-pandemic adoption of provisions that will be beneficial for providers in both general emergencies and specific disaster circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the beneficial role of paternal involvement for children in influencing educational policies and practice. It presents several views and studies on the conceptualization of fatherhood, the factors that contribute to the construction and reconstruction of fatherhood in diverse cultural and historical contexts and the positive cognitive and academic benefits of paternal involvement for children of all ages. It refers to the opportunities offered by educational institutions to influence the nature and direction of father involvement.

Presents an interview with internationally acclaimed Indian psycholinguist Ajit K. Mohanty, about the issues of language and education of aboriginal children in India. Stand on the current state of aboriginal languages; Estimation of the extent of bilingualism in aboriginal communities in the country and of the language shift among the young; Discussion related to the education of language minority children.

Focuses on the need to design educational programs that address the unique linguistic, geographical, economic and cultural affiliations as well as the needs, potential and interests of each individual indigenous child and his/her family and community. Impact of colonization on aboriginal children; Efforts by international organizations and indigenous communities to counter the effects; Uniqueness of various aboriginal cultures.

Reports on a classroom activity at the Austin Elementary School in Harlingen, Texas involving children's commitment to the welfare of animals. Collection and recycling of plastic ring tops from soda cans to prevent seagulls and other animals from becoming entangled in them; Roles being served by animals in human society; Need for involving children in animal advocacy; Benefits of child-animal relationship.

Focuses on the importance of parental involvement in multicultural education. Ways to get parent s involved in multicultural education; Support for parents to foster a multicultural home environment; Participation of parents in the decision-making processes.

Explores multicultural education in U.S. public schools. Intercultural understanding among minority children; Myths of multicultural education; Guidelines for developing an ideal intercultural program.

Discusses the inadequacy of policies and practices related to multicultural teacher preparation. Exploration of preservice teachers' multicultural literacy; Understanding of the multiple factors involved in student teachers' preparation; Structural politics of higher education and public schools.

Attempts to bring about positive changes in how students perceive people from cultures outside their own. Details on a study which was carried out by the author; Influence which feminism and critical pedagogy had on the study; Effects of the negative impact of cultural stereotypes and ethnocentrism on preparing multiculturally sensitive teachers; Findings of the study.

Recent work in family nutrition suggests a focus on snacking, since children's snacks are often lower in nutrients than foods served at mealtime and have increased in frequency and caloric contribution. Developing healthy snacking habits in early life may impact the trajectory of snacking behaviors later in life. To explore the relationships between snacking patterns and snack-related parenting; and drivers of snacking decisions and desired support for parents. A mixed-methods approach was used among student parents whose child(ren) attended a preschool program at a Southern California university. A modified version of the Snack Intake Frequency Questionnaire and the Parenting around Snacking Questionnaire (P-SNAQ) were used to explore correlations between snacking patterns and snack-related parenting. Three focus groups were conducted to identify drivers of snacking decisions and to guide design of healthy snacking intervention strategies. Focus group transcripts were coded using thematic analysis by 2 independent coders. Survey participants (n = 42) were predominantly female (n = 35) and identified as Hispanic/Latino (n = 19). Findings indicated positive correlations between frequency of offering healthy snacks and reasoning/support for healthy snacks (r = 0.43, P = 0.006) and snack planning/routines (r = 0.37, P = 0.02); a negative correlation between frequency of unhealthy snacks and availability of healthy snacks (r = -0.32, P = 0.04); and negative correlations between parent age and emotion-based snacking (r = -0.46, P = 0.003), snacks as rewards (r = -0.35, P = 0.03), and snacks to manage behavior (r = -0.45, P = 0.005). Focus group findings (n = 11) suggest parents balance priorities when making snacking decisions, including health, behavior control, convenience/accessibility, parent/child roles, and social influences. Parents suggested a snacking-focused class with information on snacking strategies and social support. Findings suggest younger parents may benefit from snacking-focused intervention programs that support healthy snacking routines and alternative behavior management strategies for children. California State University Long Beach Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the attributes of a high-quality early childhood education program worldwide? An group of experienced early childhood educators that represent diverse international backgrounds attempts to respond to this question by examining six dimensions of quality set forth by the Association for Childhood Education International: (1) philosophies and goals, (2) high-quality physical environments, (3) developmentally appropriate and effective pedagogy and curriculum, (4) attention to basic and special needs, (5) respect for families and communities, (6) professionally prepared teachers and staff, and (7) rigorous program evaluation. The article concludes with an annotated list of references, both in professional publications and online, that examine early childhood education from an international perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]