Challenges Facing Early Childhood Education

This article discusses the challenges faced by early childhood educators in providing quality education and care for young children. It explores the balancing act between different situations in the classroom, the impact of low teacher to pupil ratio, and the social-cultural challenges faced by educators. The article also provides solutions to these challenges and emphasizes the importance of collaboration between educators and parents.

Running head: CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 1
Early childhood education
[Institution]
[Name]

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 2
Early childhood educators are personnel given responsibility to teach and take care of
children from birth to a maximum of eight years. Early childhood educators are very crucial
for children development since this is the most initial stages of child development in life.
Children at this stage are very eager to learn languages, behaviours, and other classwork like
basic reading and writing skills. Pianta, Downer & Hamre (2016), in their article, The Future
of Children, emphasizes on the four aspects that define quality education in early childhood.
“Definitions of quality in early education, the authors write, generally include four
aspects. The first is a program’s structural elements, such as the length of the
school day or teachers’ qualifications. The second encompasses general features of
the classroom environment, ranging from playground equipment to activities
involving staff, children, or parents. Third, are the dimensions of teacher-student
interactions that children experience directly. Finally, aggregate indices—such as
quality rating and improvement systems—combine measurements across types of
program elements...”
The educators are equipped to ensure that children are progressively developing physically,
mentally, and emotionally. This can be achieved by empowering early childhood educators
with skills and knowledge, which enables them to handle the children effectively. They can
also be provided with tools and equipment that will facilitate children learning. Also, the
relation between the teacher and parents is vital to early childhood education. Parent
involvement in the children learning activities is an encouragement to both the teacher and
the student. Though educators may find their career fun to associate with children, there are
usually challenges that they face at work (Biesta, 2015).

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 3
Early childhood educators face a challenge of balancing between different
situations in class. This may include, balancing between children behaviour, parents, and
regular class activities. Every child has different behaviour. This includes children who cause
trouble by either bullying their peers, and others are used to crying often with no reason,
while some are unwilling to follow the instructions given to them. This may be difficult for
the educator to manage, as well as following the lesson plan of the day (Davidsen, 2018). The
educator is usually in constant communication with the children’s parents. Some parents may
put the educator in a more difficult situation than they can afford. For example, the parent
may want the child to be fed more times than the educator can manage. This results into
conflict between the educator and the parent. At the same time, the educator struggles to
balance between satisfying the parent’s demand, meeting children needs, and maintaining
professionalism. The challenge in balancing between different aspects in class can be solved
by several measures .One of them being enlightening the students on the punishments that
accompany misbehaviour. Also, the teacher and parents can collaborate in ensuring smooth
learning programs. For example, an educator may call for a meeting with parents to discuss
issues affecting pupils.
Low teacher to pupil ratio is also a challenge facing early children educators.
This is due to the high population of children, while the number of professionals is relatively
low. As a result, a huge number of pupils are experienced. This forces the educator to be
given a more significant number of children to manage. This may be a challenge since every
child needs proper attention as the children are at their tender stage in their life. For example,
a teacher-student ratio can be said to be 1:30, meaning that there is one teacher in a class of
30 students. At this stage, their needs are very fundamental and demand urgency. This leaves
the educator with little time to engage in professional development opportunities. The
educator becomes much occupied in managing day to day activities by the end; the educator

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 4
becomes too tired to even focus on other things. Li & Konstantopoulos (2017), in their
research, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, they recorded that;
“Fewer students per teacher make it easier for teachers to accommodate different
learning styles. Some people learn better through hands-on activities while others
learn through taking notes. With a smaller class, it’s easier for teachers to utilize
varying strategies to help students do well.”
In as much as early childhood education has opportunities to advance professionally; most
professionals may lack enough time to enrol in the programs which ensures adequate skills in
teaching (Barton, & Smith, 2015). Low teacher to students’ ratio can be solved by the
employment of more educators in the field. By doing so, the teacher-student ratio increases
significantly, this is an indicator of quality learning.
Finally, early childhood educators’ faces social-cultural challenge in their
working places. The children may be coming from different cultural backgrounds. At the
same, the educator may also be from a different culture. For example, an educator who is an
immigrant in the country finds it difficult to relate with the pupils due to the difference in
culture. This becomes difficult to teach the children with different cultures (Shimahara &
Sakai, 2018). The parents, on the other hand, maybe have certain desires on their children
development. This may include the first language of the children, the cultural values to be
installed in them, and the gender-based roles. Sometimes the educator may be forced to learn
a different language and cultures of different people to fit in the position. The children's
gender-based roles may also differ between the cultures. This may force the educator to
concentrate on the tasks that cut across the majority of the cultural groups. This will also give
the parents the role of teaching the children the specific and unique practices carried out in
their culture, with relation to the child's gender. In this case, the pupils can be grouped

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 5
according to the culture and language. An educator can also learn to be multilingual. This is
to ensure good interaction between the teacher and the pupils. Children can understand best
when the educator speaks in a language that they are familiar with. Eventually a good
performance is achieved.
Early childhood development education is a crucial phase in a child’s life. This phase
of life determines the academic achievement of the child in the later stages. Educators are the
guides to a child’s education. Most of the educators love it when the children understand what
they are taught. Making a positive deference in a child’s life becomes their greatest
achievement and a motivation that softens a hard work. Though it is fun relating to children
at the same time, the field has its challenges. They pass through a lot of problems, in which
they should devise means of facing the difficulties by using relevant solution. Both parents
and educators should merge for smooth learning of children in early childhood.

CHALLENGES FACING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 6
References
Barton, E. E., & Smith, B. J. (2015). Advancing high-quality preschool inclusion: A
discussion and recommendations for the field. Topics in Early Childhood Special
Education, 35(2), 69-78. https://scholar.google.com/
Biesta, G. (2015). What is education for? On good education, teacher judgement, and
educational professionalism. European Journal of Education, 50(1), 75-87.
https://scholar.google.com/
Davidsen, H. (2018). Behavioral difficulties in elementary school. A qualitative study on how
teachers’ think about and experience working with students with behavioral
difficulties (Master's thesis). https://scholar.google.com/
Li, W., & Konstantopoulos, S. (2017). Does class-size reduction close the achievement gap?
Evidence from TIMSS 2011. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 28(2),
292-313. https://scholar.google.com/
Shimahara, N. K., & Sakai, A. (2018). Learning to teach in two cultures: Japan and the
United States. Routledge. https://scholar.google.com/
Pianta, R., Downer, J., & Hamre, B. (2016). Quality in early education classrooms:
Definitions, gaps, and systems. The Future of Children, 26(2),
119-137.https://scholar.google.com/