Friday, October 11, 2013

International Roles in the ECE Community

United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the only UN agency specifically mandated with the responsibility for promoting creativity and safeguarding the world’s diverse cultural heritage.  This organization caught my attention because of its project in Southeast Asia to document traditional children’s games to preserve intangible cultural heritage.   The project is documenting the “process of play” and using it for a child-centered curriculum in the country of origin.  Because my Capstone project focuses on preserving play in American classrooms, this international effort appealed to me.  Although the project itself is staffed, there are “general staffing” opportunities available in the fields of business and education.  Qualifications include a graduate degree in either field, which I have, a working knowledge of French, and familiarity with Spanish.  I studied Spanish for many years, and could brush on my skill set.  French would be a language I would need to learn to qualify for the position.

FHI360 is an international nonprofit human development organization with a mission to improve lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions for human development.  The organization advocates for playful interactive early childhood education classrooms, which naturally appealed to me in light of my Capstone challenge.   An available job opportunity was as a graduate level intern in the field of economic development.  The project is working to advance mircofinancing opportunities.  With my undergraduate economics degree, this work appealed me.  With my early education degree, I was interested in possible microfinancing opportunities for women to support efforts to establish educational cooperatives.  I am qualified for this position since I have a Master’s degree and am proficient in Excel.


The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is charged with the mission to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. This organization appealed to me because of work at the Transfer Center.  Here, researchers are studying play and investigating the effectiveness of learning games as part of successful learning.   An available job opportunity is as a research assistant in Paris contributing to the analysis of education policy.  I am qualified with my Master’s degree in education, but would need to work for two years in educational research before I could apply for the position.

3 comments:

  1. Allison,

    Thank you for sharing the international organizations that interested you. I am so glad that you could find groups that also incorporate the importance of play in their work. If you were not already in the process of opening your own child care facility, I seems as though you would be qualified to apply for two of the positions!

    This assignment helped me to see all of the great work that is going on around the world! It gives me hope that one day all people will have their basic needs met and have opportunities to grow and learn!

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  2. Allison,
    The international organizations you researched are all very great organizations. I like how all the organizations are helpful and meaningful to change and advance the lives of children. Thank you for sharing these resources!

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  3. Hi,
    I have been reading about the UNICEF organization and you are the first person to go into detail about the project in Southeast Asia. Play is very important for children and it is great to see an organization that focuses on that. Also working as research assistance can open many doors for anyone working in the field of educators. It would be so good to have that on your resume. You listed some great organizations, and some great details about each one.

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