If you are a Chicago parent, caregiver or teacher and would find it useful to air your concerns and questions in a safe forum or are interested in meet ups with others in like situations, join the Chicago Childcare and Early Childhood Education Support Group. Message privately or post directly on to group wall or attend group meetings. Members are encouraged to share resources, their experiences a
nd advise in these public forums. Our admin will pose your questions anonymously if requested. "Few of us familiar with early childhood education (ECE) are unaware of its struggle to fulfill its ambitions as a field of practice. Even though in recent years ECE has experienced significant increases in policy support and funding, the field continues to be characterized by sector fragmentation, reliance of an underdeveloped workforce, and uneven public respect, resulting in a divided field of practice, patchy policy support, and capricious public financing. Further exacerbating the field's status is its historic reluctance to step forward and create a desired future of ECE as a field of practice. As Jeffrey Conklin has noted, fragmentation represents a phenomenon that pulls apart something that potentially should be whole. Consider the following: Other than working with children or on their behalf, few commonalities bind ECE in terms of shared knowledge, preparation, qualifications, commitments, or aspirations. Rarely do we think of ourselves as part of something larger than our individual programs or separate sectors. As a field, we lack common expectations for the knowledge, skills, dispositions, or preparation teachers need for effective practice. As a result, the cohesion necessary for ensuring ECE's practitioners consistently and competently facilitate children's learning and developing is lacking." - Stacie Goffin, Professionalizing Early Childhood Education