Teamwork and collaboration in the early childhood field

As we move forward to our professional goals developing effective communication and collaboration skills helps us to be better persons and professionals. Practicing collaboration and communication demonstrate and develops our abilities and strengths as leaders and advocates on behalf of children and families. Collaboration is a fundamental key to achieving our goals!

Working in teams

As early childhood professionals and advocates, we have to work in teams. Children and families benefit when early childhood professionals collaborate for the same purpose. Millions of children need us! Education is the best investment they need to support their healthy development and growth.  

Some examples of teamwork and collaboration are listening for the contributions and opinions of colleagues and families, accepting different perspectives, even if we do not agree, sharing ideas and concepts, facilitating understanding between team members, embracing diversity, connecting with others, acting with integrity, and being kind, respectful, and empathetic with others.

Teamwork and collaboration

Teamwork and collaboration involve effective communication skills. These skills make us responsible for thinking and making decisions creating relationships through trustfulness, fairness, integrity, and respect for ourselves and others with the purpose to improve the well-being of children, families, and the people with who we collaborate.

Values such as respect, acceptance, empathy, and fairness need to be present. It entails working with diversity and equity. It involves presenting information openly, accurately, and regularly among partners practicing listening skills, consensus building, and collaborative problem-solving. The benefits of teamwork and collaboration are present when members open their minds to learn from one another, listen to others, and work purposely for conflict resolution.

As advocates in the early childhood field, we need to develop leadership skills demonstrating the capacity and ability for working with others using effective communication, collaboration, and listening skills to learn, practice, and contribute to the field.

References

Gratton, L., & Erickson, T. J. (2007). Eight ways to build collaborative teams. Harvard Business Review, 85(11), 100–109.

Learn with two rivers. (n. d.). Collaboration and communication. Retrieved from https://www.learnwithtworivers.org/collaboration--communication.html

Molloy, P., Fleming, G., Rojas Rodriguez, C., Saavedra, N., Tucker, B., & Williams, D. L. (1995). Charting progress toward collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/fam01/charting.pdf

_______________________



Diana A. Rivera is an Early Childhood Educator, with graduate studies in Educational Psychologist, and author of Be the voice for children. Diana believes and commits to the healthy development, growth, well-being, and learning of all children. The blog posts share ideas and knowledge about educational psychology, child and brain development, parenting, diversity, effective teaching practices, early childhood education, and care to support the empowerment of children and families.

Popular posts from this blog

Communities of practice in the early childhood field

Image
The early childhood field consists of professionals who share and learn together with passion. Seeing groups of educators sharing their professional experiences and supporting each other is not new, sometimes it is seen by themselves as irrelevant, and it happens very often. What most of them do not realize is how beneficial is the impact of what they share and how powerful in the improvement of performance and practice it offers.
Read more

What constitutes a quality early childhood curriculum?

Image
High-quality services, equity, and accessibility of education are some of the  early childhood education goals  of all childcare centers and programs for enhancing children's learning, growth, and development. The main components of an early childhood curriculum related to the quality of early childhood education require ensuring that the program responds to  developmentally appropriate practices  (DAP) being culturally responsive.
Read more

The role of nutrition in brain development in early years

Image
Nutrition is an essential component in brain development, especially during pregnancy and during the early years, which is the time of most rapid brain formation and development of cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional skills. But it is also important throughout the lifespan. However, deficiencies in nutrition during pregnancy and early years may produce damage to these skills and development affecting school productivity and adulthood. Nutrition deficiencies also depend on factors, like experiences and input from the environment, the timing of nutrient deprivation, the degree of nutrient deficiency, and the possibility of recovery. Brain formation and development in early stages About 22 days after conception, the neural plate and neural tube begin to form, which later becomes the brain and spinal cord. Adequate nutrition including nutrients like folic acid, copper, and vitamin A is crucial in this formation and development. Approximately seven weeks later, cell division creates ne
Read more

Advocating for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice for positive social change

Image
We learn about the sufferings that most diverse people live. Being oppressed and discriminated against because of skin color, or for being a woman, or gay, old, poor, or atheist results in damages to the individual. Many people believe and promote prejudices and biases against their family members, including their children. These practices contribute to the spread of hate crimes, offenses, oppression, microaggressions, and discrimination.
Read more

Establishing positive relationships with children

Image
All people can point to adults who influenced and brought joy (or sorrow) to their lives as children. We remember that person who connected with us by giving us some advice, a toy, playing games, or satisfying our needs, emotionally and physically, accepting and respecting who we were just to make us happy.
Read more

The play: supporting child and brain development

Image
In the last decades, we saw radical changes in kindergarten classrooms. Classroom activities are focusing more on literacy and math than learning through play, exploration, body movements, and using their imagination. This results in children linked in an early childhood curriculum far from supporting their healthy development, adding an increment of academic pressure and stress.
Read more