Association for Childhood Education International
Encyclopedia
| Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1892 |
| Annual Conference | The Right to Education: Reaching Every Child April 13-66, 2011 in New Orleans, LA, USA |
| Publications | "Childhood Education," "Journal of Research in Childhood Education," and more |
The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI), a nonprofit
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
membership association, is a global community of educators and advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
s who disseminate information about and advocate for desirable conditions, programs, and practices affecting children, infancy through early adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
.
ACEI members include teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
s, teacher educators, student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s, child care center directors and staff, and other organizations.
History
ACEI was established as the International Kindergarten Union (IKU) in 1892, by educators concerned with the professional preparation of kindergartenKindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
teachers. In 1931, the National Council of Primary Education joined with the IKU to form the Association for Childhood Education (ACE). Many ACE members were professionals with an international focus, and so ACE added “International” to its name in 1946, becoming the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI).
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, prominent members worked in immigrant communities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to improve conditions for children living in slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s and other types of settlement communities. Association members worked on behalf of children worldwide who were living in conditions of poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
or facing other challenging circumstances, such as discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
, war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, and hunger
Hunger
Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food.-Malnutrition, famine, starvation:...
.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, ACEI offered support for kindergarten units that were organized to help refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
children in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the United States, ACEI was hired by the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA) to publish materials for nursery school
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
teachers. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, ACEI sent books, toys, and curriculum materials to teachers and children in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
ACEI was one of the few organizations that took a moral stance against discrimination based on race prior to the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in the United States. In 1949, ACEI denied requests from three state associations to have separate associations for black and white educators. In 1950, ACEI revised its Guide for Groups Wishing to Extend Invitations to ACEI to state that African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
members would have equal access to hotels, restaurants, and public transportation.
In the mid-1960s, ACEI supported U.S. efforts to prepare young children living in poverty for school, and partnered with several organizations to develop training kits for Project Head Start training centers throughout the country.
Mission Statement
ACEI’s stated mission is to promote and support in the global community the optimal education and development of children, from birth through early adolescence, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society.The association delivers the message that every child in every nation should have access to a quality education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and protection of their basic human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
.
ACEI delivers its humanitarian mission based on a platform of four core beliefs.
- Uniqueness. Each child possesses a unique set of gifts and talents. Educators and others invested in the education of children should value each child as a unique and special individual.
- Universality. Key principles join our world together through the common bonds of human dignity and respect. All those concerned with the education of children should uphold these universal principles.
- Quality. Educational experiences are enhanced by instructional strategies and learning environments that offer the very best opportunities for children’s learning within the context of the nation, community, city, town or village in which children live.
- equalitySocial equalitySocial equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
. All children should be educated in environments of fairness where there is freedom from bias or favoritism and where access to, and participation in, educational experiences are the cornerstone of the home, school and community.
Governance and Guiding Strategy
The ACEI Constitution was approved by the membership on March 20, 2009 in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and can be accessed at www.acei.org. ACEI has a Constitution which outlines the governance
Governance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
structure of the organization and was approved by the membership. ACEI Bylaws, developed by the ACEI Executive Board, serve as policies and procedures of the Board.
Structure
ACEI has a structure of country, state, and local Chapters, and Local Networking Groups, throughout the world. Members of ACEI’s Executive Board hold two- to three-year terms; the Executive Director serves as an ex officio member. An International Advisory Council provides additional guidance.Current Programs and Initiatives
- The Love, Me, Teach Me™ campaign promotes the needs and rights of children everywhere.
- The Institute for Education Diplomacy explores and shares the skills of diplomacyDiplomacyDiplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
needed to positively impact the course of global education. - Decade for Childhood explores the many critical issues that have changed the nature of childhoodChildhoodChildhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
and embraces new opportunities to shape childhood’s future. - Preschool Project in Tanzania supports the building of a preschool for young girls in the village of Kitenga, TanzaniaTanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, East AfricaEast AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
. - ACEI is a constituent member organization of NCATE—The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher EducationNational Council for Accreditation of Teacher EducationThe National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education was founded in 1954 to accredit teacher certification programs at U.S. colleges and universities. NCATE is a council of educators created to ensure and raise the quality of preparation for their profession. NCATE is recognized by the U.S....
. ACEI is responsible for the Program Review Process, within NCATE, for institutions seeking national accreditation in elementary education. The overall mission of the coalition is to set national standards that help assure quality and credibility in preparation programs for professional school personnel.
International Advocacy and Outreach
- ACEI and the United Nations: ACEI has Consultative Status at the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and membership in the NGO Committee on UNICEF. - ACEI and OMEP: The Global Guidelines for Early Childhood Education and Care in the 21st Century were developed as a collaborative project between the U.S. National Committee of the World Organization for Early Childhood (OMEP) and ACEI. The Guidelines address the fundamental elements necessary to create quality early care and education environments for young children around the world. An assessment resource is available in nine language and training outreach is conducted.
- ACEI and OMEP have also joined together with a statement in support of the U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Books, Journals, and Publications
ACEI has published dozens of books on such topics as children and play, mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
education, and comparative education (curriculum development theories around the world).
ACEI’s flagship journal is Childhood Education, first published in 1924. Childhood Education is published 6 times a year. Each issue includes peer-reviewed articles on innovative classroom practices; child growth and development theory; timely and vital issues affecting education, children, and families; international programs; and research reviews. Also included are reviews of new children’s books, videos, software, and professional resources.
The Journal of Research in Childhood Education is a quarterly publication featuring peer-reviewed articles that advance knowledge and theory of the education of children, infancy through early adolescence. Issues provide reports of empirical research, theoretical articles, ethnographic and case studies, participant observation studies, and studies deriving data collected from naturalistic settings. The journal includes cross-cultural studies and those addressing international concerns.
Recent Presidents of ACEI
James Hoot (2009–2011)Karen Liu (2007–2009)
Jeanie Burnett (2005–2007)
Jacqueline Blackwell (2003–2005)
Nancy Quisenberry (2001–2003)
Shirley Raines (1999–2001)