Amal 'Aliah Binte Jamaludin (S10169795C)

 

Awareness of Early Childhood Issues 

 

This module provided me a platform to venture into the issues faced in the early childhood industry with more depth and room for perspective-taking. The topic that my group chose after heavy consideration was manpower sustainability. With such a broad and vague topic, I had initial reservations on pursuing it which prevented me from going into the project with an open-mind and unbiased notions. Generating the inquiry question was time-consuming as the topic encompasses many other aspects and elements of sustainability. It was decided after much deliberation, that we would focus on factors that cause educators to leave the industry.

 

The time spent researching and peeling away my preconceived misconceptions on manpower sustainability and replacing them with new ones backed with evidence and statistics had really broadened my perspective on the topic's backgrounds, research and current issues displayed in articles and the network. With more background knowledge on the issue, the group started on listing out interview questions for the Principal and making informed decisions on crafting them. It was refreshing and yet, overwhelming to approach the subject with a renewed mindset on the topic. However, after conducting the interview and compartmentalising the transcription, we realised that the centre's needs were not in its sustainability. This stark realisation had stumped me as I had planned out a timeline and a schedule for the group. It was difficult to rebound from the setback as I felt that my efforts were seemingly wasted due to the change in inquire question to "What encourages educators to stay in the industry?"

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It was challenging to suss out the centre's needs as the principal implemented many various methods to have the educators remain in her centre. With intense consultation, our recommendations were to reinforce her methods with tweaks and enhancements with the use of checklists, acknowledgements and an encouragement board to nurture a strong support system. As the centre's own culture cultivates a very encouraging environment for the staff, it was a smooth transition for the trial of the encouragement board. This made me self-reflect on my own virtues I hold dear that would be a deal-breaker for me to remain in the industry, and the supportive environment became my top priority.

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Personal Growth

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Starting the project with four different personalities working towards one common goal moulded me into a more confident team member. We went into the planning process without much knowledge of each other's working styles or personalities. It is always an exceptional learning experience for me to communicate and work cohesively with people of diverse opinions and insights shaped by their personal backgrounds and interests. Our clash in working lifestyles opened up many opportunities for us to communicate clearly of our preferences and assets. With that settled, we utilised our strengths efficiently in the project and prevented further conflicts of interests. 

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An example could be the designation of roles where we assigned tasks based on each other's strengths. Team members with better designing skills were tasked with designing the website and materials while others who had more experience with public speaking and conversational skills played the roles of interviewers. This created more room for each of us to focus on our individual work while updating the group to receive feedbacks and constructive criticism for improvement and cohesiveness of our end products. The responsibility of my tasks had me practice time management skills and organisational skills to create a realistic and measurable timeline that all the members could work with. 

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The whole process and work in progress of our project developed my character and approach to solving conflicts of interest with a measured head and negotiation skills. It made me self-reflect on how much I have stepped out of my comfort zone to be a reliable and responsible team player that contributes to the project. Effective communication skills will be useful when interacting with the children to learn of their learning needs and interests to be integrated in my lesson plans while time-management skills will aid in balancing a good work-life balance in my working life. The skills will be an asset to me in my early childhood practice and I hope to bring these experiences into making new ones in the future.