Question
Why do we advocate?
Answer
Why do we advocate? What is the purpose, and why is it necessary? There are many reasons why it is beneficial and why we each need to be involved in advocacy. It empowers you as an advocate and helps share others' voices. I once heard someone say, "It's not giving others a voice because they have their own voices. It is helping them find a platform to share their voice." However, they may not have access to a platform to speak out and share their own experiences. As advocates, we can help provide them with that platform. It is very empowering to be able to help others feel heard. It elevates and expands the potential for that person to be heard, whether it's a young child, a member of their family, an educator, or someone else in the field. When we start to advocate, we can create change in the early childhood profession.
Advocacy promotes understanding and respect, which in turn promotes empathy and perspective-taking. It is solution-focused. This is beneficial when dealing with the many challenges we face in early education. Being able to advocate provides a solution to the problem. Nothing is solved when everyone complains and hopes someone else will step up and do something. Advocacy is a solution-focused approach. It advances equity, celebrates diversity, and increases value. Valuing the person you're advocating for is a central piece to advocating. Advocacy emphasizes the child, which is where our value needs to lie. Once changes and perspectives can shift to see the value in the individual child and the strengths that each child brings to the classroom and early childhood education, we'll start to see changes in the early education field. Advocacy is our responsibility.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Elevate and Empower Through Advocacy, presented by Sarah Ozuna Brown, MS.
