When I think of research...

Reflecting on the last eight weeks in this course, Building Research Competencies, I absolutely feel that I have grown in my understanding of research and the considerations that go into designing a research project.  There are an incredible number of ethical and logistical concerns that need to be thoroughly evaluated as the research design is created, as well as an incredible amount of thought that needs to be put into what the ended outcome of the project is, and therefore, what the initial question and research design should be.

I particularly enjoyed the discussions we have had regarding qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodology research.  I think that the choice between those three forms of research determines in large part what type of question research is able to answer.  By thinking carefully about these three types of research, researchers should be able to craft their research question in such a way that their research design can yield the outcome they desire.  This is a fascinating process to me.  This is certainly a change in my idea about the nature in research - I had previously seen research design as very black and white regarding which type of research would be appropriate.

I appreciated the carefully designed chronology of this course, as it walked us through the research design process step by step.  Each week allowed us a peek into the next step of research design with enough flexibility to look back at our choices the week before and evaluate whether our project was still on track for what we were hoping to achieve.

I think that the biggest challenge in early childhood research is always going to be that young children are incredibly unpredictable, and highly pliable, all at the same time.  There need to be significant limits set on early childhood research in order to protect this precious population, but at the same time, those limits create significant hurdles to the types of research design available to researchers.

Thanks to this course, I would say that my view of research in early childhood has broadened specifically.  While I may never embark on an eight month research study as a part of a PhD or other research project, and certainly I will never consider myself a research professional, I see opportunities to apply the principles of early childhood research to my own practice.  There is absolutely potential to apply research in a micro setting in order to improve my own best practices, something I hope I will do.  I also hope to be able to better understand and keep up with research in the field, because it is apparent that many professionals in our field are learning things about early childhood at a tremendous rate and we would all benefit to keep up with their work.

Thank you all for your kindness and participation in this course alongside me.  Our discussions and varied opinions certainly add crucial depth and diversity to these online courses.  I wish you each the best of luck with your next course and the completion of your program!

Amy

Resources for International Research

For this assignment, I chose to explore the website for the University of Victoria School of Child and Youth Care's collection of current research coming out of sub-Saharan Africa.  Clicking through current research topics posted on this website, I saw that much of the research focus in sub-Saharan Africa is looking at how to create effective early childhood education programs.  Much of the research is looking into details like assessments, organization, and community coordination of early childhood programs.  I also noticed that a number of the studies took a look at parental involvement in early childhood education.

One of the interesting topics that I noticed in a number of the research projects was taking a look at how to incorporate indigenous traditions into early childhood care.  I imagine these studies are very interesting and very geographically specific.  One of the biggest surprises I had when looking through the early childhood research in sub-Saharan Africa was that there is not more research being done on the relationship between nutrition and development.  Perhaps it was naive of me to expect nutrition to dominate the headlines in early childhood research as it does the news headlines.  There were a few research projects on nutrition or the impact of diseases like HIV, but significantly fewer than I expected.

I found it very interesting how the website presented the community of research in sub-Saharan Africa.  The impression I was given from their website was that there is a very collaborative environment across the continent and that researchers from their initiative are organized into groups based on geography that can then meet and support each other through research.  What a cool idea!

Early Childhood Development (2005). University of Victoria. Retrieved from http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php.

Research that Benefits Children and Families

As I read the topic for this weeks blog, I immediately thought to important research that has been/is being done regarding SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).  SIDS is really interesting and very, very scary because so little is known about the causes of SIDS, and yet researchers have been able to pinpoint a number of risk factors like smoking, co-sleeping, and loose bedding that increase the likelihood of an infant to die from SIDS (Healthychildren.org, 2015).  Such interventions have already saved countless lives of otherwise healthy infants that could have fallen victim to SIDS.  Through the efforts of researchers collecting demographic and lifestyle data from families across the nation, researchers are beginning to understand a little bit more about this devastating occurrence.

One of the things I find really interesting is the introduction of new home monitoring devices like the Owlet ankle monitor that are being marketed as a way for parents to have piece of mind as their children sleep.  As I began this assignment today, I was hoping to be able to find current research supporting the idea that these home monitoring devices have been able to save infant lives from SIDS.  The website and marketing videos for the Owlet and other products like it are full of testimonials from parents who say the device alerted them to an infant who would otherwise have died, but interestingly, it appears that the research has not yet corroborated the companies touting the success of these devices (Sifferlin, 2014).  In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that these devices might even increase the incidence of SIDS (Healthychildren.org, 2015).  I look forward to the opportunity as a young mom to continue to follow this research and research being done on SIDS.

Amy Thompson

Healthychildren.org (2015).  American Academy of Pediatrics.  Retrieved from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/sleep/Pages/PreventingSIDS.aspx?gclid=Cj0KEQiA5oy1BRDQh6Wd572hsfkBEiQAfdTPCggwbMqABIIDYrIXN0TwBy96E_F0Yr7hcFPwHvj6Q7EaAlIw8P8HAQ

Sifferlin, A (2014).  Time Magazine.  Retrieved from http://time.com/3593482/sids-baby-monitors/.

My Personal Research Topic

For my research simulation for this course, I would like to take the opportunity to explore attachment in early childhood, and specifically, how secure or insecure attachments in early childhood influence the development of faith.  The three subtopics that I highlighted last week were to explore the factors in early childhood that lead to secure attachments and how parents and early childhood professionals can contribute to healthy secure attachment formation.  Next, to examine the evidence surrounding attachment in early childhood and whether attachments have been implicated to influence faith development.  And finally, to explore the long term impacts of insecure attachments in early childhood, and whether there is any indicated influence on faith capacity.

I chose these three subtopics because I find the concepts of attachment in early childhood to be extremely important in early childhood development and particularly relevant to us as early childhood professionals in the field.  Spending a year working in children's ministry, I saw so clearly how many different kinds of parents and families there are within a community and how differently this affects the children.  I hope to eventually return to a position in children’s ministry, where understanding and affecting faith development in young children will be my vocation.  I see an opportunity through the church to teach parents about their children’s physical, social, and emotional needs and impact the development of healthy attachments among young families in the church.  I also see the church being a possible source of intervention for children experiencing great stress at home through the provision of education and resources to families.  Lastly, as a children’s minister, it will be essential that I have a firm understanding of how children develop abstract thinking that enables faith and what impacts this process.  I believe that attachment plays a big role in this process and look forward to exploring this further.

Here is a photo of the birth-first grade ministry where I worked in Denver!  Love this place.

 I look forward to reading what each of you have chosen as your research topics.  I imagine that our research topics will all be vastly different and thus very interesting to share!