Using Communication Skills to Enact Change

Speaking in public is not always a comfortable or smooth process; however it is important to be confident and comprehensible when communicating leading policy change. I think one part of being confident when communicating policy change comes from being knowledgeable about the topic you are presenting to your audience, which is legislator. Once educators demonstrate their knowledge about children and families and use their power of advocacy regarding early childhood education, they are able to provide a clear explanation to representatives who do not have a background in education on the matter at hand. Representatives or senators are the only ones that can guide a policy through the process, so in order to influence legislators, your message must be clear and establishing a relationship through face-to-face meetings becomes a more effective way of communicating.

My communication strengths consist of being comfortable and knowledgeable of a subject; therefore, I have no problem talking to small or large groups. In most cases my comfort level on topics like early childhood education, becomes a natural process whether I am speaking or advocating for early childhood education. According to the “communication anxiety questionnaire”, which measures my communication level, it stated that I feel comfortable in most situations and feel confident in anticipating such encounters. I have to be honest, there have been times when I am nervous speaking to different size groups of people, but I make sure to be prepared with an agenda, therefore, I won’t forget to say something that could be of major importance. In contrast to my strengths, according to the “communication anxiety questionnaire”, one of the results stated that I feel somewhat concerned about a number of communication contexts, but probably not all. This mid-point level of communication anxiety is what they call “situational”. I believe the passion of the speaker is what makes the communication effective.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Communication anxiety [Interactive media]. Retrieved

from https://class.waldenu.edu

Pillow-Price, K. L. (2009). Influencing legislation—Advocacy basics. Dimensions of Early

Childhood, 37(3), 18–23.

Social Media's Influence on Policy Issues

The age of technology has provided us with the World Wide Web (www), that became the information system on things we were in search of and we also have the convenience of communicating quickly through blogs, emails, and phone texts. Now social media has become the wave of communication. With social media, opinions can be expressed, braking news can be shared, and information on social issues becomes public. The generation of social media evolved into many names, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. There are so many options to choose from; however choosing a social media that would generate the information needed to the desired population is important.    

A policy that I am interested in, involves “Recognizing Qualified Family Childcare Programs to Implement Universal Pre-K Programs”. Social media could be a route that would generate multiple attention and support to my policy. The use of Facebook and LinkedIn would be the two social media that I would connect to in order to communicate my policy issues. My Facebook audience would consist of colleagues and parents that are in the shared arena of early childcare education and has the same views. These colleagues and parents may share information on my policy to their associated colleagues; therefore adding more supporters of my policy. My LinkedIn audience would be professionals in education and the political field. By linking with those audiences it may also increase addition support to my policy.

The reason I would use those two social media is to exchange opinions that would bring new insight than officials and for government to adopt citizens’ ideas in the policy proposal making and decision stages. One challenge in using both social medium is making sure that the information provided about the reasons for the policy is correct. According to June, Hong, and Sung-Min (2011), it is important that what is said on social media is truthful and carefully stated because once information is posted into social media there is no turning back. Another challenge for using social media is getting additional audience to support your policy, for example, your audience may be the same people you communicate with often. In a case study, “The Advance Michigan Project”, there was an attempt to use social media to engage with stakeholders; however, one of many challenges they encountered was not attracting a wide group of stakeholders in Michigan, but the same audiences they already had (Lampe, LaRose, Steinfield, & DeMaagd, 2011).

In my opinion, social media may have its benefits and challenges; however it is a major source of communication and it all depends on how it is used.

Reference

June, P., Hong, C., & Sung-Min, P. (2011). Social media's impact on policy making. SERI

Quarterly, 4(4), 125–129.

Kagan, S. L., & Kauerz, K. (Eds.). (2012). Early childhood systems: Transforming early

learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Lampe, C., LaRose, R., Steinfield, C., & DeMaagd, K. (2011). Inherent barriers to the use of

social media for public policy informatics, Innovation Journal, 16(1), 1-17.

Reflecting on Early Childhood Systems

When I reflect on what I knew about early childhood systems and public policies, it all seems from rules and regulations, because of my past experience as a family childcare provider. My major concern was making sure I was in compliance with what was required by my state licensing agency, which was Bright from the Start (BFTS). When I was a family childcare provider in the 1990s' there were not any early childhood systems and public policies that provided financial assistance to family childcare providers that I knew of.

After I stopped family childcare and proceeded into the position of an Early Care and Education Specialist at a resource and referral (R & R) agency, I learned that the R&R agency were granted federal funding to assist family child care providers with accreditation, developmental appropriate materials, and professional development training classes; however the agency would recruit family childcare providers by telephone in order to reach their quota. With that type of procedure in place, if a family childcare provider was not contacted they were basically not in the pool for the benefits. In some instances funding would be offered to the same set of family childcare providers due to past experience. Personally, I did not think it was fair to give the benefits to the same family childcare providers over and over again. I took it upon myself to advocate by making sure to recruit different family childcare providers regardless of their status. My reason for doing so was to give family childcare providers an opportunity of creating their childcare program into a quality childcare program.

Presently in one of my roles as an independent state approved early childcare instructor for my nonprofit company, I have the pleasure of meeting and interacting with family childcare providers and childcare center staff. Three goals that might assist me in becoming more effective in my professional role consist of connecting with state agencies that would grant federal funding to my company, so I could offer free professional development training to family childcare providers and center staff. To accomplish this goal, I would have to navigate The Early Care and Education Systems that embraces the full scope of early childhood care and education setting such as family childcare. The goal of including technical assistance to family childcare providers into my services would give me the opportunity to assist them in creating a quality program by applying what they learned from their professional development training classes. Since Quality Rating is evident in the State of Georgia, by navigating the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, I am able to assist family childcare providers with developing high quality childcare services and environments that parents are able see. Another goal that would not only benefit the early childcare educators that are seeking services from my company; are the benefits, which involves myself seeking professional development in order to provide quality services to my participants. Professional Development in Early Childhood Systems would be navigated for the trainee and the trainer as well. As instructors we too have to seek knowledge in order to teach knowledge. Being current with rule, regulations, and policies allow me to guide family childcare providers in the path that is required by the state in order to provide quality services to children and their families.

Build Initiative. (2013). Early childhood systems building. Retrieved

fromhttp://www.buildinitiative.org/TheIssues/SystemsBuilding.aspx 

Kagan, S. L., & Kauerz, K. (Eds.). (2012). Early childhood systems: Transforming early

 learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.