Getting to Know your International Contacts- Part 3 or Nobody Wrote Back, So I'm Writing about UNESCO

Hello again!

This week I will be doing the alternative assignment of exploring UNESCO's website for information relevant to my professional goals as outlines in my application assignment this week. Without going on at length about those goals and potentially boring my audience with chit chat about me, I will say that a good portion of my goals were about achieving equity, and finding simple, accessible ways to plan educational tools that can reach parents so they may help they children. As such, my look into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization site focused on equity primarily and educational planning.

Here is the link to the site, if you are interested : http://en.unesco.org/

Most of my study and thought about equity has been related to need to remedy lack of equality to to issues of poverty, and language and cultural barriers. As an undergraduate student I attended Mills College, a women's college in Oakland, California, and was a Women's Studies major, so I found it quite... well, almost ridiculous... that my thoughts had not immediately gone to the gap in our curriculum around gender equality. In all honesty, I have been so drawn into what I have been learning in these other areas of inequity that I didn't even think of I explored sections of UNESCO's site around equity. Here are some insights that I learned about the need for gender equity in education around the world:

1) The Dakar Framework for Action was created in 2000 with the intention of eliminating gender disparities in education by 2005 and creating gender equality by 2015. Since then, 59 out of 176 countries have achieved gender parity. (http://www.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/newsletter_2010-1_en.pdf)

2) "1 in 8 girls are married by age 15 in sub-Saharan Africa & South and West Asia." (https://efareport.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/womens-education-helps-avert-child-marriage/). This statistic really floored me and reminded me of how much equity we have achieved in the US. It is easy to forget the freedoms and privileges that we have in this country when we are focusing on trying to improve the problems. This is a good reminder to be grateful while still working for change.

3) One of the most effective ways to combat the above statistic is through education. The 2013/4 EFA Global Monitoring Report showed that education empowers girls and women and gives them the strength, confidence, and freedom to make their own decisions. The study estimates that if all girls finished primary school in these regions of Africa, the percentage of girls married before age 15 would decrease by 14%!

So how is this relevant to my professional development? Well, as early childhood professionals, it is our job to keep the well being of all children at the forefront of our minds and actions. It is easy to focus in on small problems or even big local problems and forget the bigger picture. While I don't think it is possible for me to single-handedly create equality around the globe, I can always keep in mind that there is more to learn; that there are more people to help and learn from; and to remind myself that I have enough privilege to give myself the freedom to work towards this type of change on some level each day. I am grateful for this knowledge.

Thanks for reading and checking in!

With gratitude,
Lauren