Child Care Professional Development Coordinator

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) represents approximately 200,000 members, including New York City public school teachers and other school employees, child care providers and registered nurses . The UFT is also developing new training opportunities to further improve the quality of child care in the City .

What professional development approaches can help?

Recognizing the needs of staff who are new to their role is key to effective professional development support in this area. In survival mode, we all need help that is targeted to the practical level of how to do things.

WHY - What is the purpose, outcome, goal, reason for the PD&S?

1. Supporting an interest 
2.  Strengthening program identified in an individual and skills in specific development plan curriculum areas
3.  Building leadership
4.   Achieving short or long capacity in particular term service goals members of the staff team 
5.  Leading a change in 
6.  Working towards formal practice (individual, team qualifications or whole service)
7.  Preparing for anticipated 
8.  Performance issues changes in system identified in appraisal (eg National ECEC process framework)
9.   Keeping up to date with 
10.   Ensuring compliance current research and trends
11.   Supporting reflective 
12.   Relationships,practice communication and team work

WHO - Which people need to involved? 

1. Individual staff member 
2. Room team 
3. Team leaders 
4. Assistants 
5. Program staff (eg OSHC, • Age group teams Playgroup, LDC)
6. Staff new to role 
7. Experienced staff
8. Families
9. Committee of management
10. Admin staff
11. Cooks
12. Gardening / maintenance 
13.  Staff who are studying staff
14.  Directors
15.  Managers /Owners/Licensees

Responsibilities:

1. Design and implement the UFT Providers Professional Development Program. 
2. Develop and implement trainings for UFT child care providers. 
3. Manage and support a roster of over 20 part-time trainers, including their mastery of the training content as well as their training delivery. 
4. Maintain a high level of training quality through observation of training, identifying areas in need of strengthening, and ongoing feedback to the trainers. 
5. Identify and review appropriate professional development materials. 
6. Help to identify child care workforce professional development needs. 

Qualifications:

1. Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood or Child Development or a related field with 24 credits in early childhood or child development or Childhood related course work. Master’s degree is preferred. 
2. 5 - 8 years of experience as a certified teacher and/or as a child care professional with state certified training experience. 
3. 5 - 8 years of experience with adult education and adult learning. Can be concurrent with teaching or child care experience. 
4. Demonstrated skills in communication (oral and written), team building, and group dynamics. 
5. Background in managing professional development activity sessions preferred. 
6. Knowledge of Family Child Care is preferred. 
7. Familiarity with organized labor and/or union training programs is preferred. 

Preferred:

1. Background in managing professional development activity sessions. 
2. Knowledge of Family Child Care. 
3. Familiarity with organized labor and/or union training programs. 

Lillian Katz, author  proposing developmental models of professional growth. describes the sequence of professional growth in four stages (Katz 1995). Although there are limitations to conceptualizing learning in ‘stages’, this model can be useful when considering the professional development needs of staff members in child care settings at varying levels of experience.

Lillian Katz - Developmental Stages of Teachers

Stage 1: Survival : During this stage, the staff member is predominantly focused on themselves and their own needs. Surviving the daily challenges of their role and getting through from day to day is the main concern. Many staff at this stage, question their personal and professional competence and
in doing so, their desire to continue to work in their role. The survival stage is associated with being new to a role, so therefore may be re-experienced in times of change, either because of moving to a new role or because of new initiatives in the service.

Stage 2: Consolidation : During this stage, new staff will have developed ways of working each day that they find effective and so begin to broaden their focus to include developing deeper understandings of their role and the characteristics of individual children.

Stage 3: Renewal : In this stage, staff members are highly competent in their day to day work and begin to look for new challenges and ways of extending their expertise.

Stage 4: Maturity : This stage is characterized by continued interest in extending expertise coupled with deepening interest in ideas, philosophy and the bigger picture aspects of the profession as a whole.