Saturday, January 25, 2014

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1



I felt luck to get a response from Nirmala Rao. She is the dean and professor of the Division of Learning, development & Diversity of Hongkong University. She returned my email with her website http://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp00953 and her colleague Dr. Hui li’s website http://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp00926
I explored their interesting and publications, found a research they have done on poverty issue as below
Title: Patterns of Early Development among Poor and Rural Chinese and Indian Children.
Author(s): Rao, N; Zhou, J; Guo, LP; Liu, Q; Li, H
Issue Date: 2007.
I was not able to download the whole text of the article from the list on their website. I decided to write to Professor Rao. I asked her the specific issues of poverty they encounter in their professional lives as well as those they are concerned about throughout the world. I wish she could share their insight on poverty issue or she might send me some her researches on poverty issue. So far I have not heard from her nor Dr. li.
Another conversation partner/podcast participant I have connected is the NQS PLP team through facebook. The team provides my the links as
I have search on the website. The new insights and information about poverty issues I have learned was that children with single parents are at the highest risk of poverty (ECA, 2013). Single parents are likely to reduce income and need to consume more money such as replacing a new house, spend more for childcare. Policy makers are trying to solve the issue. They established a policy that provides the part job to single parents. However, the new policy does not work and put single parents the highest risk of poverty. “The jobs these parents are likely to get are unlikely to be well-paid. Children will be the real losers as a result of this policy” (ECA, 2013). “Push the poor further into poverty” (10 Stories of Single Mothers, n.d.).

Reference
Early Childhood Australia (ECA), (last updated on December 5, 2013), Welfare reform: What it means for sole parents and their children, Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/every_child_magazine/every_child_index/welfare_reform_what_it_means.html
10 Stories of Single Mothers, (n.d.), Newstart is No New Start for Familiesretrieved from http://www.10storiesofsinglemothers.org.au/newstart-is-no-new-start-for-families/