GLOBAL HEARTH PROJECT

GLOBAL HEARTH PROJECT

About the Global Guidelines for Early Childhood Education and Care

In 1999, under the direction of Sue Wortham of the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) with Leah Adams and Ulla Grob-Menges of the Organización Mundial para la Educación Preescolar (OMEP), a symposium was held in Ruschlikon, Switzerland to develop global guidelines for early childhood education and care. Early childhood and care professionals representing 28 countries attended the symposium and developed the guidelines entitled, “Global Guidelines for Early Childhood Education and Care in the 21st Century.” You can read about the Global Guidelines at: http://www.acei.org/wguides.htm.

About the ACEI Global Self-Assessment Tool

Using items from the Global Guidelines for Early Childhood Education and Care in the 21st Century, ACEI sponsored a second initiative to form the ACEI Global Self-Assessment Tool. The instrument was first piloted in Chile and the United States in 2000 and again in 2001 in Nigeria, Botswana, China, and additional sites in the United States. By 2002, the instrument development was completed.

The purpose of the ACEI Global Self-Assessment is to provide a practical method for helping early childhood educators in countries around the world to assess and improve program quality. The ACEI Global Self-Assessment contains items for examining program quality in five areas:

Environment and Physical Space; Curriculum Content and Pedagogy; Early Childhood Educators and Caregivers; Partnerships with Families and Communities; and Young Children with Special Needs.

To obtain a copy of the ACEI Global Self-Assessment, go to www.acei.org . The instrument is available in English, Español, and Francçais.

About the Global Hearth Project

In 2001 Belinda Hardin became involved in the Global Self-Assessment initiative by piloting the self-assessment in the North Carolina in the United States and contributing to the revision process. As a result of this work, Dr. Hardin was invited to become a member of the ACEI Global Guidelines Task Force.

ACEI Global Self-Assessment-Spanish Edition Reliability & Validity Study

In 2003, Dr. Hardin received a grant to translate the ACEI Global Self-Assessment into Spanish and conduct a reliability and validity study of the Spanish edition in five Spanish-speaking countries. Known as the Global Hearth Project, this research is currently being conducted in Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, and Mexico with 69 early childhood programs and 138 participants. To get to know the participants, go to our photo gallery.