Poster #79 - Preparing Early Childhood Care and Development Professionals in Myanmar

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Myanmar is emerging from decades of isolation under military rule, and its new democratic government is embarking on a wide range of reforms to promote national development. One critical area of reform is in education. Recently, the government of Myanmar, in partnership with groups such as The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has prioritized teacher education as a key aspect of the education reform effort. UNESCO notes that the government of Myanmar has recognized that, “improvement in quality of teachers is essential to quality education and positive student outcomes”(UNESCO, 2015a). In fact, UNESCO has partnered with the country’s Ministry of Education to fund projects that will strengthen “the curriculum and teaching pedagogy and methodology” (UNESCO, 2015b). Specifically, there is an emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and preparing the ECCD leaders of today and tomorrow to provide young children with the social, emotional, and cognitive skills (21st Century Skills) they need to contribute to the rapidly developing and democratizing country. To this end, in 2018, the Ministry of Education approved the first ECCD Diploma program in Myanmar. As a Fulbright Scholar, I had the opportunity to participate in and conduct research on the launch of this program.
Instructors had been working with international consultants for over two years to prepare for the program. Although the program was announced merely days before the application process began and only two weeks before the beginning of the program, over 300 applicants applied for only 120 available spaces, demonstrating the enthusiasm of students looking for opportunities to learn more about the ECCD sector. Instructors were academics from the departments of Educational Psychology, Human Development, and Educational Policy. Instructors included junior “tutors” as well as senior leaders in the institution, and they had varied levels of background and exposure in ECCD. Students came from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences and intended to use their diploma for a variety of professional goals including starting their own center or becoming a teacher.
Working with the program, I collected survey, interview, and observation data on instructor and student perspectives on their experiences in the Diploma program. I used an inductive, “grounded,” iterative, qualitative process (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Miles & Huberman, 1994) to explore the data and identify themes related to the promise and the challenges of preparing ECCD professionals in Myanmar. Promises include the fact that there was a robust response to the call for applicants, applicants were highly-motivated to participate actively in the program, and instructors appreciated the opportunity to be part of curriculum development and program implementation, which they all agreed was critical for the advancement of education in Myanmar. Challenges include translating international readings and materials into Myanmar language, trying to build on previous knowledge and experience while also introducing new theories and practices from ECCD research, and providing students with examples and practicum experiences that both reflected new theories and practices and were relevant to the cultural, linguistic, and political context of the country.

Author

• Rebecca Silverman, Stanford University
  Presenting Author