Jobs/roles in the ECE community: National level

As I thought about the roles I would like to have, I thought of national organizations I would like to join. The first, is the national association for the education of young children, NAEYC. I have accessed the website, www.naeyc.org, several times throughout my different courses and teaching career for information. While an excellent source for information for research purposes or help in the classroom, they also offer the opportunity to purchase resources and join the NAEYC. More specifically, however, is that there are job opportunities with the NAEYC which would all require a relocation to Washington, D.C. A need exists for a lawyer, a project manager, coordinators in different areas, and a human resources (HR) generalist. While I do not qualify at all for the lawyer position, if I had experience operating a team or being in charge of adults, there are coordinator positions with my masters degree for which I could apply. The HR position requires HR experience and experience working within an organization so I am not qualified for it at all. The NAEYC is an organization I would like to become actively involved with and one day maybe even work for as the desire of the organization is to further enhance the success of learning for young children.

As I have looked into and become more aware of the children's defense fund, www.childrensdefense.org,  through different courses, I browsed the website once more for this assignment. What I found was that while the national office location is in Washington, D.C. there are other offices located throughout the United States for more local, regional access. The positions available within the children's defense fund require administrative experience which I do not possess and all would require relocation to the office where the job is held. What I am finding is that the positions within organizations require more experience with adults and management then children. So it brings the question to mind how can one acquire experience with adults if like myself, we prefer working with children?

Finally, I looked into the United States department of education. For our country, I believe working with the national department of education could be rewarding, knowing that what you are doing is impacting the lives of children and families throughout the nation. The research analyst position requires a doctorate degree and although for the education requirement for the program specialist I thought I met, once previewing the questions to determine how qualified for the position a candidate is, I realized I did not meet the expectation of writing proposals and speeches. More information can be found at, www.ed.gov.

Of the three, the NAEYC would be the most likely organization I could become a part of to change the field of early childhood.

Exploring roles in the ECE community: Local and state levels

As I have thought about my program coming to an end and how much I want to help advocate for change, I thought about organizations that already exist to promote change. While on the national level, I would like to join organizations like NAEYC, we were asked to find some closer to home and I thought of one I was already a part of, one I found during a previous course, and one my mom was just a delegate for this summer at a national convention.

            The first is found at www.nieer.org. It is the national institute for early education research and strives to connect educators, politicians, and writers to promote positive successful change in early childhood. While a national institute, it is located here where I live in NJ at Rutgers University. Having such a vast array of resources through this site locally may give me an outlet to turn to for references to enhance my ability to advocate effectively for early childhood and children here in the state of New Jersey. Currently I did find out they are looking for data collectors. It is a position for graduate students who can be flexible. With the research source I have available to me through NIEER, it will allow me to connect with the next organization more effectively I believe.

            The second organization I found is advocates for children of New Jersey. This site allows for those who browse the site to make donations, sign up for monthly newsletters, become a part of “action alerts” allowing you to send letters directly to officials on issues, connect through social media, and spread the word through family and friends. Through this site, I can find out what issues are already being addressed here in New Jersey and what avenues I can use to advocate for the concerns and issues I have for early childhood. Currently at this time I was unable to find any current job opportunities but was able to find a list of positions with background information on those who hold the positions as well as a board of trustees list. While both of these would be useful to me and contacting current members of both to join my CoP to further enhance the reach of my goal, the one with members closest to me I believe is the last one I found.

            The New Jersey Educators Association, or NJEA, has members local to my community’s school district, has regional members, and members who represent the state. As I looked through the site, I found the NJEA is currently in need of a variety of positions to be filled. Although I would like to make a difference, the positions NJEA needs requires more public policy and advocacy experience as well as more experience working with professional development of fellow educators which I do not possess. However, I do know that the NJEA has delegates that attend a national convention and vote on issues affecting education nationally. My mom recently went this summer with a fellow teacher in our local district to represent at the convention held in Atlanta. The one downfall I have found about NJEA is unfortunately at present members must either be in college or work in a public school, so someone like myself who was employed at a private preschool is ineligible to join.

            All of these resources could enhance the advocacy opportunities I wish to pursue. In addition, connecting with members of each of these organizations as a part of my CoP will give me more support for the issues I hope to change.

References

www.acnj.org
www.nieer.org
www.njea.org