The e arly Childhood eduCaTor - ECEBC · The e arly Childhood eduCaTor ... Bringing Out the Voices of Early Childhood Educators ... 26 Book Reviews—Let Children Take the Lead with

The early Childhood eduCaTor

Spring 2009 Vol. 24, No. 1

ThE Journal oF EarlY Childhood EduCaTors oF BriTish ColuMBia

Leadership – The ECE Way2009 eCeBC leadership iNsTiTuTe parTiCipaNTs

May 21 to 23, 2009 Best Western Richmond Hotel and Convention Centre & Vancouver Airport Marriott Hotel

Richmond, BC

Conference is just days away! We hope you can join us! This year’s conference highlights include:

Exciting innovative Friday and Saturday program format to suit everyone•50 workshops on topics including advocacy, research projects, and fundraising •Sit-down lunch buffets for all delegates on both Friday and Saturday•Larger meeting rooms•A Thursday night IKEA shopping trip•A 1980s-themed Friday Night Gala celebrating ECEBC’s 40th Anniversary!•This year we are pleased to have a Friday keynote presentation on “Leadership the ECE Way” by Toni Hoyland •and Denise Marshall from the ECEBC Board of Directors. On Saturday, we welcome keynote speaker Glenda Mac Naughton from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Register online at www.ecebc.ca. The Conference Registration booklet is also available at www.ecebc.ca.

Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia

38th Annual Conference

Celebrating 40 years of ECEBC

LeadershipInnovation & Inspiration

The Early Childhood Educator Spring 2009 3

This electronic reproduction is for use by ECED students of Northern Lights College.

FOCUS: LEaDErShip—ThE ECE Way 7 ECEBC’s 2009 Leadership Institute

by Rita Chudnovsky

12 2009 Leadership Initiative: Communities of Innovation

14 We Can “Do” Leadership Our Own Way by Kim Atkinson

16 Learning How to Advocate for Higher Wages by Emily Mlieczko

17 Learning How to Share Our Knowledge by Kim Bowen

18 2009 Leadership Institute in Photos by Shawn Nygren

20 Susan Harney: Advocating for the Rights of Children An Interview with Susan Harney

21 Enid Elliot: Bringing Out the Voices of Early Childhood Educators by Michelle Gilmour

23 Jacquie Ennik-Laquerre: A Leader on the Front Lines by Michelle Gilmour

DEparTmENTS 4 Editorial—Leaders in Early Childhood Education

by Michelle Gilmour

5 President’s Report—Standing Strong Together by Vi-Anne Zirnhelt

6 Executive Director’s Report—Leadership—The ECE Way by Sheila Davidson

25 Professional Development—Providing Meaningful Professional Develop-ment for Staff: A Personal Perspective

by Bev Superle

26 Book Reviews—Let Children Take the Lead with Wordless Picture Books by Anna Swanson

28 Professional Development—The Leadership, Administration, Management (LAM) Program

by Beverly Christian

29 ECE Training—Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Practices and Training in BC

by Alejandra Sanchez

31 Advocacy—Building Local Knowledge of Child Care in Victoria by Jan White

33 In Memoriam: Lenora Pritchard by David Wu

34 Supported Child Care—A Changing Face: Reflections and Predictions on ECE

by Dan Galazka

36 Membership Application Form

37 ECEBC Bursary Program

38 Classifieds/Professional Development

ContentsBoard of Directors presidentVi-Anne [email protected]

past-presidentToni [email protected]

Secretary-TreasurerBrenda [email protected]

Director of CommunicationsMichelle [email protected]

Director of professionalismJoan [email protected]

Director of personnelMary [email protected]

Director of ConferenceViolet [email protected]

member at LargeLynne [email protected]

member at LargeDenise [email protected]

ECiN-articulationRoni [email protected]

ECEBC StaffExecutive DirectorSheila DavidsonTel: 604-709-6063 E-mail: [email protected]

acting Office CoordinatorLynne GriffinTel: 604-709-6063 E-mail: [email protected]

Office manager/ Leadership administratorMaria MejiaTel: 604-709-6063E-mail: [email protected]

4 The Early Childhood Educator Spring 2009


Early Childhood Educators of BC2774 East Broadway Vancouver, BC V5m 1y8 Tel: 604-709-6063 or 1-800-797-5602Fax: 604-709-6077 E-mail: [email protected] site: www.ecebc.ca

Director of Communications Michelle Gilmour

Editorial Committee Peter Ashmore, Sarah Chapman-Chen, Ruth Fahlman, Barbara Johnston, Lynne Reside, Susan Swanson

Editor Barbara Johnston

Design and Layout Barbara Johnston and Avi Goldberg

Cover photo and all Leadership Institute photos Shawn Nygren

ThE EarLy ChiLDhOOD EDUCaTOr

The Early Childhood Educator is a publication of ECEBC and is distributed to members four times a year. Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECEBC. Subscriptions are available to institutions and to individuals ineligible for membership for $40 annually. For permission to reprint material from The Early Childhood Educator, contact ECEBC in writing at [email protected]. Advertisement rates are available upon request. All advertising is subject to editorial approval. ECEBC does not assume endorsement of commercial or non-commercial advertisers in this publication.

publications mail agreement no.: 40024602return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:ECEBC2774 East BroadwayVancouver, BC V5m 1y8

Editorial

The Early Childhood Educator is printed on 100% recycled paper.

Leaders in Early Childhood Education

Leadership comes in so many forms—leading a classroom full of eager ECE students; leading a group of chil-dren in a new song, game, or science experience; leading a rally of ECEs to the steps of the Legislature, and in a hundred other ways. Many ECEs are natural leaders, and, like many leaders, they don’t recognize this skill within themselves.

I hope you will find inspiration in the articles that make up this issue of the Journal. You will learn about ECEBC’s first Leadership Institute and how ECEs from communities around the province are developing their leader-ship skills. We have also included interviews with three inspiring ECE leaders, who share their perspectives on leadership.

The field of ECE in our province is teeming with leaders who work in a variety of ways to ensure that our work is recognized and valued, sometimes without even knowing they are doing it. And while we may not yet have convinced politicians to have the courage to go down the road of ensuring accessible, affordable, high quality child care, I have great hope that we are definitely getting there. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama said, “change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Now is the time, and we’re gathering our strength and putting our voices together in a meaningful way, which I think can only produce good things.

Another way we can all come together to gather strength and renew and rejuvenate ourselves is at the ECEBC Conference, May 21 to 23. I look forward to seeing you there!

And finally, I encourage you to contact us with your thoughts on the Journal. Let us know if any articles have inspired you, challenged you, or even irritated you! Your thoughts and comments are what make the Journal even better, and I’d love to start a dialogue with our readers from across the province. Contact us at [email protected].

Michelle Gilmour,Director of Communications



President’s Report

Standing Strong TogetherI learn every day how leaders, at all levels in our field, are enhanc-ing and moving the importance of early learning and care forward in the province. The Early Childhood Educators of BC are standing strong and working together.

Over 80% of responding members voted yes to increasing ECEBC membership fees, to retain our af-filiation with CCCF. Thank you very much for your responses. You truly voted as leaders. In spite of the eco-nomic downtown, you have agreed to this increase. Your votes show that you value the work done by the CCCF, the societal well-being of our profession, and our daily work with children and families. ECEBC was the only association in the CCCF al-liance to ask members to vote on the membership increase. The CCCF respects our membership vote and, in turn, is committed to continuing to hear your voice in Ottawa.

The conference calls between the ECEBC Board of Directors and branch chairs have been very valu-able and informative. We recently discussed how we can better sup-port branches and what it means for you. We also discussed the current campaign for ECEBC’s $20 an Hour Strategy, and the need to update our current constitution and bylaws. Branch chairs shared with the Board the importance of using clear, concise language in ECEBC’s new constitution and bylaws. We want the constitution to reflect who we are and include bylaws and poli-cies to enhance collaboration for

cause currently not all early learning and care programs are universal. And yet, as leaders, you are coming forward, asking for a living wage. You are standing strong, collaborat-ing, networking, and leading within your community.

We are in the final days leading up to our annual conference. We hope you will join us for ECEBC’s 2009 Conference “Leadership: Innova-tion and Inspiration.”

Vi-Anne Zirnhelt, President

purpose (Constitution) and Bylaw Changes at ECEBC’s annual General meeting

At this year’s Annual General Meeting (Friday, May 22, 2009 at 4:00 pm at the Best Western Richmond Hotel and Conference Centre), the Board of Directors of ECEBC will present changes to ECEBC’s constitution and bylaws. The changes will simplify and update the bylaws and bring us more in keeping with 21st century language. Expanding ECEBC’s purpose (constitution) will better describe the work our association currently does and will allow us to apply for registered charitable tax status.

Please join us for discussion about the changes and add your voice to the voting process.

The draft document will be posted on the ECEBC web site and cop-ies of the draft document will be available at the AGM. If you would like a copy before the meeting, please contact our executive director, Sheila Davidson, at [email protected]

We look forward to your participation.

members, our current and future funders, and all those involved with early childhood.

ECEBC’s $20 an Hour Strategy is making a difference. I hear how many of you are going to your em-ployers and asking for higher wages. In some instances, I’ve heard how employees are asking their unions to listen and value our culture and history when negotiating a contract. As early childhood educators, you are unique in your body of knowl-edge, and your work is always open for discussion and flexibility.

You stand strong together when you negotiate higher wages. You know you may be asking working parents to pay a higher fee for service be-



hood education does not receive the same societal value that elementary education does. You are frustrated with the disparate and fractured public policy that makes up early childhood learning in this province. You are frustrated with the lack of vision and lack of planning. You know you should be paid a living wage and you are working for this change to become a reality for you and your colleagues.

As I write this column, we are in the midst of a provincial election. By the time you read this, the election will have been decided. As early childhood educators, we are looking for leadership from a political party that recognizes the value that early learning and care brings, not just to children and families, but also to society at large. We are looking for a party that is ready to stand up and show bold leadership by stating emphatically that the evidence is

Executive Director’s Report

It is wonderful to see the spring Journal dedicated to leadership. I am absolutely convinced that we are on the cusp of change, and this change will define us for years to come. We are recognizing that change is not going to happen for us if we sit passively and wait. There is a shift in attitude happening with ECEs across the province, and it is fascinating to observe. Leaders are emerging and are asserting that, as early childhood educators, we are unique and that our work has great value and is important to society.

I feel that being your executive director is a gift, and part of that gift is visiting ECE communities throughout BC to talk and listen to members. I am continually struck by what I see and hear. You love your work and believe intensely and passionately that your work is important and worthwhile. You are often saddened that early child-

Leadership—The ECE Wayclear and that they are prepared to develop a vision and a plan that will develop services in our province for all children when and where they need them. We need to see a plan that is affordable, accessible, and pays early childhood educators a living wage. I long for the day when we see this kind of leadership!

I know you will find the spring Journal a thought-provoking pub-lication. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and I hope to see many of you soon at our Confer-ence “Leadership: Inspiration and Innovation.”

Sheila Davidson, Executive Director

Sheila Davidson talking with Jessica Frank, a 2009 Leadership Institute participant from Mt Currie D’arcy.

Be sure to join us for our 38th Annual Conference

May 21 to 23, 2009

Best Western Richmond Hotel and Convention Centre & Vancouver Airport Marriott

Hotel, Richmond, BC

Celebrating 40 years of ECEBC

LeadershipInnovation

& Inspiration

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ECEBC’s 2009 Leadership Institute

As part of its evolving Leadership Initiative, ECEBC hosted a five-day Leadership Institute from January 28 to February 1, 2009. The Insti-tute was held in Vancouver at the ECEBC office.

A total of 23 participants attended the Leadership Institute. They all came from the 10 identified Com-munities of Innovation. Each of these communities had submitted a proposal outlining their willingness to undertake a community-based project to build the leadership ca-pacity of early childhood educators to raise the profile of and respect for the work of ECEs in their commu-nities. From close to 40 proposals, the ECEBC Leadership Initiative Advisory Committee selected 10 diverse communities and projects to work with in 2009. (See a list of the Communities of Innovation on pages 12 and 13).

Each Community of Innovation identified two or three licensed-to-practice ECEs to attend this Leadership Institute (and two future Leadership events) and to play an ongoing leadership role in their community projects. As much as possible, communities were encour-aged to send emerging ECE leaders rather than well-established or expe-rienced leaders. One exception was made to the requirement that par-ticipants hold valid BC ECE Licenses to Practice. Lower Post, a northern, isolated First Nations community, has recently reopened their child

care centre but has no fully qualified ECEs in their community. Two com-munity members from Lower Post who are receiving their ECE training attended the Institute.

The Leadership Institute was de-signed to integrate three strands:

Building an ECE Culture of •Leadership

Building Leadership Capacity•

Community Project •Development

Institute ReflectionsBased on active observation and reflection throughout the Institute and participant feedback, the fol-lowing key reflective and evaluative themes emerged.

Participant Engagement To help create an ECE culture and community of leadership, the Leadership Institute was longer and more intensive than most profes-sional development activities. There was some question about whether it would be possible to sustain the par-ticipants’ interest levels and active engagement for the full five days. However, participants reported that the duration and intensity were strengths rather than problems. While participants and facilitators were tired by the end, participants maintained an incredibly high level of energy and a thirst for leadership development throughout. They reported that the length of the Insti-tute made it possible for them to de-

By RITA CHuDnOVSKy

Focus: Leadership—The ECE Way

velop relationships with each other, to process much of what they were learning, to see their own growth, and to feel more empowered and confident.

As some participants said in their final feedback:

“The five days, while long, were help-ful in that it was not rushed but gave us time.”

“[Next time] I suggest that we do at least four to five days.”

“I am sad to hear the May [Institute] is only three days because five days with all these wonderfully passionate friends seems too short now that we are preparing to say goodbye.”

To a large degree, this high level of engagement demonstrates the com-mitment and leadership capacity that participants brought to the In-stitute. It suggests that the focus on identifying and involving “emerging leaders” was appropriate and should continue.

Culture of Caring One of the explicit goals of the Institute was to support ECEs to trust that the values and skills of their practice have a significant contribution to make to broader community leadership. Rather than training people in a particular set of leadership skills from other sectors, we designed the Institute to enable participants to acknowledge and build on their existing leadership skills.



Focus

ECEBC put considerable effort into making the Institute a welcoming, supportive, and safe place for criti-cal conversation. As one participant commented, “The tone and ener-gy… was upbeat and supportive.”

In addition to reflecting this goal in the Institute’s content and pro-cesses, ECEBC worked hard to demonstrate a culture of caring in the logistical arrangements for the Institute. Significant effort went into travel and hotel arrangements, wel-coming participants to the city, pro-

viding good meals, offering transit information and pre-paid fares, and organizing social activities.

While the meeting room at ECEBC offices was not ideal (small without windows) and not all meals worked for everyone, the effort to consis-tently reflect a culture of caring was not lost on participants. When asked about the things that worked for them, responses included:

“Assistance through every detail.”

“Accommodations, friendliness, con-nections, snacks.”

“Accommodations, travel, food, goodies, expertise, knowledge.”

“I have never travelled to the ‘bigger city’ and it was very organized in a professional way.”

“How well we were taken care of— thanks!”

Another aspect of the culture of car-ing was reflected in the relationships that participants established with each other. As one participant put it,

“Knowing that you are not alone can be a powerful thing. Then, knowing that there is a network of passionate people you can refer to is even more powerful.”

This suggests that a cohort model (keeping the same group of ECEs together over the course of the year) is an important element of the Ini-tiative and should continue.

In summary, one participant’s feed-back eloquently describes the Insti-tute’s ability to demonstrate that a culture of caring is leadership.

“I didn’t expect…to be validated in a redefined model of leadership. I have been surprised and so pleased to be shown that our ‘ECE way’ can be used effectively in the broader com-munity and that I don’t need to try to lead in a way that isn’t me.”

“[The Institute] modelled a leader-ship style that is effective and power-ful without being intimidating. The skills and empathy you model show that leadership can be balanced.”

Art therapist, Lorraine de la Morrandiere.

Rita Chudnovsky, ECEBC’s Leadership Initative coordinator.

“I didn’t expect…to be validated in a redefined model of leader-ship. I have been surprised and so pleased to be shown that our ‘ECE way’ can be used ef-fectively in the broader commu-nity and that I don’t need to try to lead in a way that isn’t me.” - Leadership Institute participant

Jen Moses, Leadership Institute advisor.



Integrated Content and Process As noted above, the Institute was designed to integrate three core strands. Content was delivered through a variety of processes, formats, and activities to model different leadership approaches and skills. Whenever possible, partici-pants were encouraged to consider the effectiveness of the process used to deliver the content so that they could integrate these strategies into their emerging leadership.

The Institute included presentations on a number of key leadership top-ics including:

Diverse perspectives on •leadership

ECEBC’s $20 an Hour Strategy•

Framing Leadership Messages•

BC’s Child Care Policy •Landscape

The Economics of Child Care •

Participants also worked together on large and small group activities specifically designed for the Insti-

tute on creating an ECE culture of leadership and on community project development.

Many participants valued the op-portunity to work on their own community projects in detail and wished there had been more time to share ideas about their projects with other teams.

Creative and innovative approaches were also integrated into the Insti-tute, including:

Art Therapy Approaches. This approach built on existing ECE practice skills. Lorraine de la Mor-randiere, an art therapist, designed and facilitated activities for partici-pants to use art materials to express their emerging leadership gifts. Over the course of the Institute, the group created a wall mural and personal touchstones to take home. For some, the use of art pushed their comfort zone. For others, it was an important creative outlet.

Storytelling. This approach also built on existing ECE practice skills.

Richard van Camp, a master Ab-original storyteller, spent an after-noon with the group sharing stories and encouraging participants to see the power in their own stories. This was a highlight of the Institute for many participants.

Outreach Visits. Teams of partici-pants from each community made outreach visits to 10 individuals in Metro Vancouver. The purpose was to provide participants with a place to practice explaining their projects to others and to receive feedback from supportive, knowledgeable individuals. A number of very posi-tive connections were made and the

Focus

Sharon Nazaroff and Natalie Lucas, participants from the West Kootenays work on an art project.

Master storyteller and author, Richard van Camp.

Rather than training people in a particular set of leadership skills from other sectors, ECEBC de-signed the Leadership Institute to enable participants to acknowl-edge and build on their existing leadership skills.

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visits were a highlight for many participants.

While some individuals noted that, for them, a particular activity was challenging, the group responded very positively to the holistic nature of the experience rather than to individual elements of the Insti-tute. Things that worked for them included:

“The whole process. Presentations were very informative, resources were easily understood…Facilitators were approachable and understanding.”

“…the whole experience. It is appar-ent that a lot of thought and planning went into the event.”

“There isn’t anything I would change. All the discussions were very helpful.All the speakers were phenomenal.”

“The flow. The content—an amazing process to work through the entire week.”

“The variety of activities, sharing of experiences and stories, meeting resource people from the community and having an opportunity to look at our own projects.”

“The content of the program—in-formative, different voices, reflecting back our common beliefs and values to gain new words to express our profession.”

“Fantastic content—lots of informa-tion but not overwhelming.”

“Variety of learning activities—verbal, PowerPoint, hand outs, group activities, field trip. The keynote speakers were awesome—informa-tive, interesting, relevant.”

“The thought and organization. The variety of presenters/presentations. Logical progression of skills.”

“Amazing, wonderful, memorable, rewarding, exhilarating, emotional, reflective experience.”

Links to Community of Innovation ProjectsThe biggest lessons for ECEBC re-late to the relationship between the Community of Innovation projects and the Leadership Institute.

It is evident that one of the key strengths of the Institute is that it was not a stand-alone training

event. Rather, the Community of Innovation projects were integrated into the Leadership Institute and continue to provide a context for the development of participants’ leadership capacity.

Participants were supported to ap-ply their learning to their specific project. And, they know they will continue to receive support through the Leadership Initiative and will have the opportunity to participate in two more leadership events.

Participants report that, as a result of their experience at the Institute, they are returning to their commu-nities with increased confidence to play leadership roles in their com-munity projects.

However, it became clear leading up to and during the Institute that not all participants were equally involved in the initial develop-ment of their community projects and that not all participants were equally involved in the community group that were expected to lead the projects.

Left to right: Shawne Sanders, participant from Lower Post; Toni Holyand, Leadership Institute advisor; Sheila Davidson, ECEBC Executive Director; and Kim Atkinson, a participant from Victoria.

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There are a number of factors that contributed to this situation includ-ing:

The relatively short timeline for •Community of Innovation ap-plications.

ECEBC’s openness to receive •Community of Innovation pro-posals that were not yet fully developed.

The under-representation of •front-line ECEs at many com-munity early childhood tables.

The lack of understanding that •this is not a traditional grant program.

The ECEBC focus on emerging •leaders.

These challenges can and will be resolved, and the process will also help ECEBC rework some aspects of our approach to seeking and select-ing Communities of Innovation.

Specifically, in the future we will more clearly and explicitly work to:

Articulate the relationship be-•tween Community of Innova-tion projects and the Leadership Institute.

Create the expectation that •Community of Innovation proj-ect ideas will evolve and change at the Institute.

Define “emerging leaders” and •their ongoing role in the com-munity projects.

Provide sufficient time for com-•munities to engage in an inclu-sive process.

These are precisely the kinds of lessons that ECEBC expected and hoped to learn during the first year of our Leadership Initiative and we look forward to incorporating them into our future plans.

Conclusion and Next StepsThere is no question that the Lead-ership Institute met and exceeded our expectations. The participants’ level of engagement and commit-ment, the calibre of the presenta-tions, the diversity of approaches and activities, and the ability to inte-grate and model a culture of caring as a key component of leadership all contributed to its success.

ECEBC is now focused on devel-oping effective ways to support Institute participants and their communities to proceed with their exciting projects.

Through work with participants at the Leadership Institute, ECEBC has developed budget and work-plan templates that communities will complete over the next month. These templates will form the basis of a contract between ECEBC and the community project sponsoring registered charities to which the funds will flow.

ECEBC’s leadership coordinator will be in regular contact with In-stitute participants to support their leadership, to provide additional resources, and to work with them to shape the next Leadership event in May 2009 so it meets their needs. She will work with participants to support their abilities to talk about the Institute and their leadership journeys in their own voices.

Through the Journal, web site, and upcoming workshops, we will continue to keep members and the broader community updated on the Leadership Initiative.

Rita Chudnovsky, the Leadership Initiative coordinator seconded from Douglas College, designed and facilitated the Institute with active involvement from a number of key individuals.

Leadership Institute Advisory Committee

Jan Carrie

Darcelle Cottons

Chris Gay

Toni Hoyland

Karen Isaac

Jen Moses

Alan Pence

Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw

Vi-Anne Zirnhelt

Thanks to Vancity Community Foundation

ECEBC would like to thank Vancity Community Foundation for their ongoing support of this important Leadership Initiative. We are confident that this is the work we need to do!



Liard aboriginal Women’s Society, Lower post (North)Community Project: Leadership within Culture

A project to support the leadership capacity of the staff in the Ts’ Udane Kq Day Care Centre by engaging par-ents, Elders, and community members in integrating traditional knowledge and culture, and to involve ECEs in organizing and orchestrating language and culture through the Elders and community members.

Leadership Institute Participants: Shawne Sanders Fanny Vance

Seabird island Band, agassiz (Fraser)Community Project: Cultural and Language Empowerment

A project to empower ECD staff to advocate the im-portance of early childhood development to the Elders, community, and chief and council, and to implement more culture and language into the daily ECD pro-grams with input and involvement from the Elders, community, and chief and council members who have knowledge to share.

Leadership Institute Participants: Carlene BrownConnie JoePamela Hope

Okanagan Branch of ECEBC (interior)Community Project: Fostering Your Gifts

A project to support the leadership capacity of early childhood educators from Oyama to Peachland by showcasing and sharing ECEs’ skills, talents, and strengths with families, each other, and the broader community.

Leadership Institute Participants: Kim BowenAngela RoyKim Chernenkoff

West Kootenay Early Childhood Educators Diversity Group (interior)Community Project: The Salmon Speak

A project to support the leadership capacity of early childhood educators in South Slocan by sharing children’s perspectives on community issues in the hope of changing the community’s view of children as “innocents” to that of important members of their community.

Leadership Institute Participants: Natalie LucasSharon Nazaroff

2009 Leadership Initiative Communities of Innovation

Focus

On left side (front to back): Jamie Anderson, Dee Conley, and Sharon Poslowsky of Campbell River. On right side, (back to front): Carlene Brown, Pamela Hope, and Connie Joe of Seabird Island.



prince rupert (North)Community Project: Prince Rupert: A Child-Friendly Community

A project to support the leadership capacity of ECEs by working to have Prince Rupert declare itself a child-friendly community and integrate child-friendly poli-cies into its community plan.

Leadership Institute Participants: Emily MlieczkoKatie WahlDuane Jackson

pemberton, mt Currie, D’arcy Sea to Sky (Vancouver Coastal)Community Project: Early Childhood Educators Retreat

A project to support the leadership capacity of early childhood educators through public awareness activi-ties in May (Child Care Month) and a retreat to cel-ebrate and value the work of ECEs in the area.

Leadership Institute Participants: Tami Overbeck Jessica Frank

Sunshine Coast Early Childhood Development planning Table (Vancouver Coastal) Community Project: Voice

A project to provide a greater sense of connectedness, easier access to continuing education and qualifications, and increased community awareness of ECEs’ role in our society.

Leadership Institute Participants: Gwen WalwynElizabeth Kool

Campbell river (Vancouver island)Community Project: Creating Connections

A project to create a database of ECEs in the area and create unity and strength through thoughtful dialogue on our values. This will increase their skills at being able to articulate the value of our profession to the greater community.

Leadership Institute Participants: Sharlene PoslowskyDee ConleyJamie Anderson

Victoria (Vancouver island)Community Project: The Wonderment of Learning

A project to create a presentation using photos, chil-dren’s art, video, and sound to showcase and make visible the incredible complexities and learning that goes on everyday in early childhood settings. The presentation will help give a voice to early childhood educators by reflecting their knowledge as researchers and collaborators.

Leadership Institute Participants:Danielle DavisKim Atkinson

Dee Conley and Jamie Anderson from Campbell River displaying their Leadership Institute certificates.

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What happens when you put 23 ECEs into one small room for five days? If you are an ECE, you know exactly what happens. You talk and you connect. You share a common language and common values so connections are made quickly, easily. You laugh together and cry together. You share the stories of the exhilaration of the job, and the exhaustion of the job. You laugh at having hands and fingernails free of fingerpaint stains. You talk of the satisfaction of successes and the frustrations of inadequate re-sources. And when it’s over flowers and cards are given, as are hugs. And more tears flow.

From January 27 to February 1 at the first ECEBC Leadership Institute all this occurred as one would expect. But there was so much more.

We Can “Do” Leadership Our Own Way

As so many great events do, this event began as a dream. ECEBC had a vision of gathering together ECEs and giving them the support, the tools, the confidence, and the money to implement leadership projects in their home communi-ties. They hoped to begin construct-ing a culture of ECE leadership that is community based and built on our unique strengths and our core

values. They dreamed this dream so hard that they made it happen. And we 23 were the lucky recipients of the fulfillment of that dream.

Building capacity for leadership in the ECE community was the overriding theme of our five days together. And for that we needed a lot of information. And wow, did we get a lot of information! Presenta-tions included information on the political landscape of child care and education, the economic reality and social implications of the lack of affordable child care, and startling historical and statistical facts on Canada’s low ranking internation-ally in gender equality and spending on child care. A communications expert coached us on framing our message. We discussed presenta-tion skills, target audiences, how to

By KIM ATKInSOn

And in the course of the care-

fully planned exercises sprinkled

throughout the five days an

amazing idea emerged: as ECEs

we can “do” leadership our own

way. We don’t have to change

who we are.

Kim Atkinson (left) makes a point as Dee Conley (centre) and Joyce Preston (right) listen.

Kim Atkinson (left) hugging ECEBC executive director Sheila Davidson.

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create a budget, how to define the outcomes we hoped for, and much more. It was enough information to make our heads spin!

But perhaps more important than the information was the discussion around redefining leadership itself. We discussed the general lack of leadership in the ECE community and our collective fears and reticence of taking on leadership roles. And in the course of the carefully planned exercises sprinkled throughout the five days an amazing idea emerged: as ECEs we can “do” leadership our own way. We don’t have to change who we are. We are nurturers and caregivers. We value and listen to others. We respect differences and

During the closing circle Joyce Preston shares her thoughts and observations. Left to right: Kim Atkinson, Dee Conley, Joyce Preston, and Lorraine de la Morrandiere.

To be leaders in our field and in our communities, we first have to value our work. In our gut we know what we do is important, but we don’t talk about it much.

we serve healthy snacks. We check in with how everyone feels. We are smart and flexible and resourceful. We sit in circles. This is how we “do” leadership.

But, and make no mistake, this is a big BUT, to be leaders in our field and in our communities, we first have to value our work. In our gut we know what we do is important, but we don’t talk about it much. We give of ourselves to the families and children we work with, without giving to ourselves. If we don’t begin valuing our work, who will?

The five days of the Leadership Institute exceeded all my expecta-tions. I came away renewed, reaf-firmed, and equipped with skills and knowledge to build on. And the credit for this great experience goes directly to the women with the dream. Sheila Davidson, Rita Chud-novsky, and Toni Hoyland modelled leadership in the very best ECE way. They exude warmth, kindness, humour, and respect. They were

constantly gauging our response to each presentation—were we tired, overloaded, hungry? We were given opportunities to share fears, reflect on our gifts, and use our hearts and our heads.

But also in the best ECE way, they demonstrated intelligence and vast knowledge throughout the five days. They know their stuff! Each can rattle off statistics, dates, historical data, and policies with an eloquence that will send you out the door with a placard over your shoulder!

And, rounding out the best ECE way, there was Maria Mejia, the goddess of all things practical. She dispensed maps, guided us on the bus, organized meals, and knew exactly where to go to find the best sushi.

The five days were intense. And now we have gone back to our commu-nities full of energy and ideas. Our projects have been given shape and focus, and we feel empowered. If we are overwhelmed, we know those women with the dream are only a phone call away. And in May we gather again to share our progress. And we will share in the most ECE of ways.

Kim Atkinson, an ECE from Victoria, is a 2009 Leadership Insti-tute particiant.



Learning How to Advocate for Higher Wages

I vividly remember the first day of the ECE course I took in Kam-loops in 1991. I was so naive. My expectations were that I would get this cute job that I could do until I had my own children. What other profession allows you to play all day long?

From the instructors at my college and the mentorship of my first em-ployer, I found out how important my job was. With this knowledge, I had real intent in every action I took with the children. But almost 20 years ago, when I started out in the field, many of the child care centres were paying their staff minimum wage to start. The reality of the low wages made me angry and I wanted things to change.

Over the years, I pleaded to many boards and parents for higher wages and explained how undervalued I felt. They were sympathetic to my plight but they would explain that there was just no money in the bud-get to support increases in wages and offer benefits. This is how things were going to be. Like all good ECEs, I continued finding money for our program, recycling materials from my home, and accepting all donations. During the early years of my career I was an ECEBC member, but I felt like a victim. I felt nothing was going to change so why waste the little bit of money I was making on membership? I stopped renew-ing my membership.

I moved to Northwestern BC in 2000 and I kept plugging along

doing my best with what I had. I continued with my education and was amazed with the growth in our field. The scientific evidence that validates the importance of our work and affirms what we know about how children learn and re-spond to the world have kept me in this profession.

I was still coasting along playing the victim when, pow! In 2006, the newly elected federal Conservatives came into power and immediately cancelled the National Child Care Plan. I couldn’t believe what they were doing. How dare they take away these agreements to begin building a national child care sys-tem? These agreements were so long awaited. When our federal transfer funds were stopping, how did our provincial government respond? They tried to cut our provincial funds and remove our Child Care Resource and Referral programs in 2007. This is when I took an active stand against cuts to our field. Our protests made a difference; even though not all funding was reinstat-ed to its former levels, something had changed for me when I joined the protests against the funding cuts. I felt I had a voice, I felt my col-leagues had a voice and, for once, we were united. I rejoined the ECEBC, our provincial organization.

Since then, many powerful life-changing experiences have hap-pened for me. One of them was attending ECEBC’s Leadership Institute in January to meet other emerging ECE leaders and work on

Prince Rupert’s project to develop a program to make our community a child-friendly community.

During the Leadership Institute I also learned more about ECEBC’s $20 an Hour Strategy. Afterwards, I was ready to talk to my board about wages once again. I went to them not as a victim but as an important person in the children’s lives. I ex-plained the importance of my role and everything the staff offers. They agreed that it was time to reexamine our wages. The board members did their research and met a few times to discuss the issue. One night after a closed meeting they called to in-form me that all staff would receive a substantial raise.

So what the Leadership Institute did for me was remind me that we are a strong and unique community. Our work is important and united our voice is strong.

Emily Mlieczko, an ECE from Prince Rupert, is a 2009 Leadership Institue participant.

By EMILy MLIECZKO

Focus



I just completed school in May 2008 and have already had many wonderful opportunities to become a strong leader in my community. I am always looking for new and exciting challenges so, when I was presented with the opportunity to be part of the ECEBC Leadership Initiative, I was excited.

I believe it’s very much our respon-sibility as early childhood educators to advocate to the bigger community every chance we get. We have a very strong understanding of childhood development and I don’t believe we share it enough with the rest of the world. It’s too easy for us, as ECEs, to be underestimated because the majority of people don’t recognize or understand our field. Believing in ourselves and our knowledge is a huge part of our professional careers. The importance of our job

is to be there for children and to advocate as professional early child-hood educators.

Think about those words for a sec-ond: early childhood educator. It is an important title and we should not feel embarrassed about it; we should be proud of it.

ECEBC’s Leadership Institute was an experience like no other. I met some amazing people with great leadership skills, people who were so passionate about and dedicated to their jobs that their energy spread to everyone there. I felt so at ease communicating with ECEs from other communities at the Insti-tute and this led to some amazing networking opportunities. Sheila Davidson, Rita Chudnovsky, Toni Hoyland and many other speakers were so passionate and proud of

Learning How to ShareOur Knowledge

Darcelle Cottons, Leadership Institute advisor; Angela Roy and Kim Bowen of Kelowna, and Lynne Griffin, ECEBC’s acting office coordinator.

their work that it created a sense of belonging and community during our time together.

Those five days were just so incred-ible, words aren’t able to describe it. I have definitely brought back moti-vation, passion, determination, and energy to our project in Kelowna. It’s all part of becoming an emerging leader in our community and this Leadership Institute was undoubt-edly the beginning of my leadership journey. I know we need to take ac-tion and stand tall as ECEs!

Kim Bowen is a passionate ECE from Kelowna who is a 2009 Leadership Institute participant.

Believing in ourselves and our knowledge is a huge part of our professional careers.

By KIM BOWEn

FocusPh

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2009 LEADERSHIP INSTITuTE IN PHOTOS

PHOTOS BY SHAWN NYGREN

Katie Wahl, Prince Rupert

Kim Atkinson, Jamie Anderson, Sharon Nazaroff, and Natalie LucasShawne Sanders, Lower Post

Duane Jackson, Prince Rupert

Danielle Davis, Victoria



Tami Overbeck, Pemberton D’arcy

Sharlene Poslowosky, Campbell River Carlene Brown, Agassiz

Jessica Frank, Pemberton D’arcy

Liz Kool, Sunshine Coast




Focus

What led you to a career in ECE?

One thing I’ve learned about myself is that I’m comfortable taking the path of most resistance. I didn’t fol-low a logical career path, and my career choices didn’t always seem logical to others. Some see ECE as the beginning step towards a career teaching in the public school sys-tem. For me, it was the opposite. I began my career teaching grade three and primary music, but I soon discovered the research surround-ing early brain development, and wanting to make the most profound difference on children’s learning and development, I decided to change my teaching environment and in-stead chose to work with children three- to five-years-old. And where I wanted to work most was in a full-day program.

For me a daycare setting was the ultimate in work environments. I love daycare! I love the pace of the day, the exuberance of the kids, the imagination, and the squeals of delight. But it was the early morning shift that stole my heart and sealed my fate. For me, there was nothing better than 6 am—the sleepy kids, still in pyjamas, who arrive, their eyes not quite open. I love the “hand-off,” the still asleep child passed from mother to my arms with just a simple sigh. I love the child who runs in the door with

a bellowous “hi teacher!” his mom looking tired already, “he’s been up since 4 am,” she explains. I love naptime, I love art, I love sharing time, and I love the camaraderie of the women I worked with.

What different positions have you held in your career?

During my 30 years, I’ve worked as a teacher, an administrator, a day-care designer, a practicum and ECE instructor, a business woman, and a consultant. I completed my MA, shared information with others for free, volunteered, put in long hours, attended every course I could, and tried to practise what I preached. I worked hard to respectfully pay my dues to our field. Along the way, those who knew more generously shared their wisdom and knowledge with me. So while I’m still trying to figure a lot of things out, here’s what I know for sure:

Inviting practicum students into •our programs made me a better teacher. Their enthusiastic “new-ness” was contagious and their never-ending questions chal-lenged by beliefs.

Becoming connected to a net-•work of early childhood educa-tors saved my sanity and had a profound effect on shaping my strength as an advocate.

Individuals and teams can create •wonderful programs. But to build a true system of child care, to be-come the true professionals we know we are, to ensure the rights of each child and her family to a quality space that’s affordable, we must let go of our autonomy. We must think beyond our own pro-gram. Child care must be grown and nurtured as a public good not a business.

Bending the rules, if done for the •right reason, always makes the world a better place.

How do you define leadership?

I’ve studied leadership, challenged it, and tried to live it with the high-est degree of authenticity. But its true meaning, for me, is tied to the faces of the women who have nurtured and cared for me. Women like Kay Britton, who first mentored me, helped me shape my ideas, and gave me confidence to speak with my own voice. Ruth Fahlman and Gyda Chud, who invited me into the world of anti-bias education, who profoundly influenced me as a

Susan Harney: Advocating for the Rights of Children

Continued on page 24

Advocating to make the world better for children is not an op-tion in life; it is a requirement.

Susan Harney, chair of the Coalition of the Child Care Advocates of BC, has been a prominent leader and strong

voice advocating for children and child care for 30 years. We invited her to share her thoughts on leadership.



Focus

Enid Elliot has worn many different hats over the course of her career, and when I first e-mailed her to ask if I could interview her for the Journal, she wasn’t sure if she was the best candidate for a discussion about leadership, saying, “I’m not really a leader in that I set out to do this. There was a vacuum and I was sucked in!” By the time our hour was up on the damp Saturday afternoon we met, I knew that she was definitely a leader, but maybe just not in the ways many of us would think.

I first asked Enid what led her to early childhood education. She said she had always enjoyed working with children, but when it came to finding a career, “[ECE] didn’t seem like a career.” However, after com-pleting her BA and working in a few different settings, she completed her Master’s degree in ECE at Berkeley over 30 years ago.

“For me, it seemed a way of trying to make the world a better place,” she said. “A way to create more equity, which seemed very important when you saw how unfair the world was.” Among her many different experi-ences, Enid worked in a Head Start program when she was 18 and also spent time in the Peace Corp, work-ing in an orphanage in Turkey. These experiences made her realize her own privilege and cultural heritage.

Enid has always believed that work-ing with children is a hopeful place

to be to make changes. “People look to their children as symbols of hope,” she said. And she always thought that working with children was the best way to deal with issues where hope was needed, like pov-erty. “I tried to change jobs many times, because it [ECE] didn’t pay well,” but she has always remained connected to the work, recognizing its continued importance.

Over the years, Enid has done sev-eral different things in the realm of ECE. In the late 1970s she started a preschool program in Vancouver, “a kind of social support” is how she described it. It had a wide range of children attend, and Enid smiled as she recalled going into the program in the morning, setting everything up, and then going out in her VW bug to pick up the children who couldn’t get there any other way. She’d take them back to the pro-gram, hoping that her volunteer adults would arrive for the day to help her, and then after the program was over, she’d take the kids home. We laughed as we agreed that her program wouldn’t get off the ground these days, but she said it served a real purpose back then, and you just did what was needed to make it work.

Enid has also taught courses on quality child care and integration in the Continuing Education Program at UBC, and worked for a time in the school system in a child and

youth counselor-type role, doing play therapy with children who had trouble in their classrooms.

More recently, she has been work-ing with the Investigating Quality Project within the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria, teaching at Camosun College, and writing the support document for the Infant Toddler section of the New Brunswick cur-riculum framework. She is also involved with the Canadian Coun-cil on Learning, working with the Early Childhood Work Group of the Health and Learning Knowledge Centre on Health Literacy.

With all of her varied and diverse experiences, I asked Enid about her path from where she started, to where she is now. “I realized that in a lot of ways there was a real need to articulate and make real the experience of the work that’s done with children,” she said, noting that the experience of the work was often not articulated in a way that made it visible. This led Enid back to school to complete her doctorate, and she has also published a book, titled We’re Not Robots: The Voices

Enid Elliot: Bringing Out the Voices of Early Childhood Educators

“I realized that in a lot of ways there was a real need to articu-late and make real the experi-ence of the work that’s done with children.”

InTERVIEW By MICHELLE GILMOuR



of Daycare Providers (SUNY Press, 2007). She is trying to help find the language that we can speak, so our voice (as ECE’s) is not dismissed. She believes that we need to keep moving into that position of power and voice, and not give up.

Enid indicated a couple of things that she felt were resources for her in her work. One was her relation-ships with people. This came as no surprise to me; in my experiences with Enid, I’ve always found her to be a quiet presence, a great listener. I’ve read this phrase,“Listen, listen, listen, and then ask strategic ques-tions,” and this describes Enid’s communication style. She said she finds that her relationships with people she has worked with have been sustaining, and that she was fortunate to be a part of some really good early childhood settings and teams, where she found herself in some inspiring situations with some inspiring people.

Enid also said that she recognizes and understands the complexity and real artistry of working with children. She told me “a lot of people forget that forming relation-ships with children is really an art form and takes a certain level of creativity, understanding, and car-ing,” and said that she uses the same

principles as she continues to move forward—caring, social justice, and taking on other’s perspectives as best you can.

I asked Enid what she saw as lead-ership qualities. She said a leader is someone who stays true to the principles of the work and does not take the “dominant hierarchal stance” of leadership but instead works with people, supporting them to move forward. “I like moving with people,” she said, “and trying to include as many voices as I can. If I have the ability to smooth things away, then I will.”

“A good group will be honest with you,” she told me, “and you have to pay attention to that.” She works with the Regional Child Care Coun-cil in Greater Victoria, and she says that there was a vacuum that she stepped into when no one else had time to do it. But, she tried not to take it over, because they are a group that works together. Enid acknowl-edges that at times a “tough” leader is needed and says she isn’t one. That is another benefit of being part of a group, though; everyone brings dif-ferent strengths and roles can shift as necessary. Enid also believes in reaching out to as many people as they can, because “inclusion is really important; we don’t serve anyone if we aren’t including as many voices as possible.”

Finally, as our time was winding down, I asked Enid who some of her mentors were and which lead-ers she looked up to. She indicated that she does a lot of reading, and often the people she finds inspiring are those she reads about. She also finds she has different mentors for

different things. She said that Nelson Mandela was someone she admired, for being able to go through the experiences he did and come out of it with so much graciousness and wisdom. “We don’t admire gracious-ness enough,” she told me, “that ability to carry oneself with grace through life.”

Enid did her Master’s degree in ECE at the University of California, Berkeley, with Millie Almy, who she considers a mentor. Enid described her as a “wonderful person” who was a leader in the ECE field and extremely knowledgeable. Millie had run Kaiser-sponsored child centres during the Second World War. These programs provided good experiences for children while providing laundry and meal servic-es for their working mothers. Enid thought it was very interesting that programs like that could operate during war time, but that in peace-ful times these types of services aren’t available.

Enid finished by saying that she takes a lot of inspiration from the numerous people she’s worked with, in Victoria and all the other communities she’s worked in. She is constantly impressed by the dedication and care they bring to their work, and what she called the “unsung” things that they do for the families they work with. “There are a lot of inspiring people around,” she said. It’s a good reminder to all of us to look for and appreciate the inspiration from the people we interact with every day.

Michelle Gilmour is the Director of Communications for ECEBC.

“A leader is someone who stays

true to the principles of the work

and does not take the “dominant

hierarchal stance” of leadership

but instead works with people, sup-

porting them to move forward.”

Focus



Jacquie Ennik-Laquerre: A Leader on the Front Lines

I first met Jacquie Ennik-Laquerre when I was elected to the ECEBC Board of Directors in 2002. Jacquie was a quiet and committed mem-ber of the Board, who always had a thoughtful perspective to offer. She was very humbled and honoured when I asked if I could interview her for an article in our leadership issue.

“Truthfully, I didn’t fully understand ECE when I applied to the program at the College of New Caledonia,” said Jacquie. “I had been accepted to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in their dance teaching program, but I was only 18, and I felt I was not ready emotionally or financially to be that far from home so soon out of high school. I was always drawn to children, as I taught dance to young children in Prince George, so I thought ECE would be a good fit…but I didn’t realize it was child care until my first day of classes!”

After that first day, though, Jacquie was hooked. She looked forward to her classes every day, and couldn’t wait to get to school. She says it felt like she was meant to be there.

After completing her basic ECE and Infant Toddler certifications at the College of New Caledonia, she went on to also complete her Special Needs certificate through distance education with Northern Lights College. She has continued her education and professional develop-ment through completion of Level One of the Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE), and some of the

Supported Child Development/In-fant Development Program courses offered at UBC. She also makes time to attend a variety of workshops and conference, and enjoys presenting as well. “I find I learn a lot from the people at those workshops, and re-ally enjoy that experience.”

After graduating from the College of New Caledonia in 1994, Jacquie worked on-call and found herself in a few different settings, until finding herself at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in 1996. She has been there ever since, telling me, “I’ve invested my experience and skills at UNBC for so many years because I really feel like this was meant to happen.” She is cur-rently the program supervisor, Cub’s Corner Toddler Centre at UNBC.

Jacquie told me about the fabulous mentor and leader she found in Anne-Marie Prediger at UNBC. She felt that Anne-Marie really modelled professionalism to her staff and helped Jacquie continue to lay the good foundation of her own personal philosophy that had been started during her time in college. “Anne-Marie had a huge influence on my career,” Jacquie said. “It might sound cliché, but she really allowed me to spread my wings and fly, to be myself and make mistakes and learn from them.”

From her early days in college, it was evident that belonging to ECEBC was very important, and Jacquie was fortunate to be able to attend ECEBC’s conference while

she was a student. It opened her eyes in a broader way to the work that ECEBC did. She remembers seeing professionalism at its best in many of her early experiences in ECE, both in practicum and work experiences, and in a strong local ECEBC branch in Prince George that highlighted the important work being done both locally and across the province. “Anne-Marie had an expectation, and it was a good one, that all her staff [at UNBC] were members of ECEBC.”

Jacquie believes that a good leader is one who not only has leadership skills but also has mutual respect within a team. She recalled expe-riences working and observing people within the field who would not value each other’s ideas or be-liefs, and she told me she worked to ensure that she didn’t do this. “My experience with Anne-Marie was that, no matter what, she never made a person feel bad about an idea or experience. She understood that they needed to have that expe-rience, and learn from it, and I have taken this for supervising the staff in the program I work in.”

Jacquie thinks of her co-workers as mentors as well, with their support, mutual respect, and give-and-take helping them work together so well every day. “It has always mattered to me, in my view on leadership, that the people I come into contact with in my role as an ECE professional see how I appreciate them for who they are. I see value in letting them

InTERVIEW By MICHELLE GILMOuR

Focus



know how hard I see them work-ing, what talents I see in them, and how their strengths make the team stronger. Many of my colleagues over the years come back to me and say how much they appreciated that I took the time and energy to let them know they matter to me and they are valued for the gifts that they share. I would leave them cards, write notes attached to their pay cheques, or give them simple gifts or a meaningful gestures of thanks for all that they did to make the program and centre what it is.”

Jacquie is a fan of inspirational books and is particularly fond of Mr. Rogers. “One quote that re-ally resonates with me is from his book Many Ways to Say I Love You: ‘I think I’ve been interested in children because my parents and grandparents—my early teachers—really valued children. For them, children were to be seen and heard, and what we said and thought mat-ter to them.’” She continued telling me that her grandmother was a kindergarten teacher for well over 35 years, and Jacquie always saw the respect and love she had for children. As well, her mother is a nurse, which influenced Jacquie’s sense of the importance of profes-sionalism and working for the better good. “Although my mom worked in a different field, she had drive and dedication, and she would always strive to be the best. I’ve carried that with me into my work as an ECE.”

“I’ve surrounded myself by a vision of best practice and respect for self, others, and the environment. Chil-dren require a legacy of dedication, trust, and desire that they are cared for in an environment of optimal learning—they are the student in a life of learning but also the teacher.

I view it as a partnership. We, as a strong ECE team, provide a safe, stimulating setting, and it will only continue to grow from there.”

Jacquie’s drive and dedication took her into her roles on the ECEBC Board of Directors, and the Caledo-nia Branch executive. She told me “it was amazing to me to work with such a strong leadership of women” on the Board. She sat on the Board from 2000 to 2002 in the positions of Member at Large, Director of Professionalism, and Director of Conference, taking a brief hiatus and coming back to the Board in 2005 for another two-year term. She can remember Anne-Marie talking about the people who were so pas-sionate about ECE—Sheila David-son, Linda McDonell, Gyda Chud, to name just a very few—and was honoured to be able to work with such women, who she felt knew and showed best practice so well.

Another Mr. Rogers quote that Jac-quie wanted to share with me before we said goodbye really struck me as well. “The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing...and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.” Jacquie followed this up for me by saying that she felt this was a very passionate statement but that she didn’t necessarily think it fit our field fully because ECEs don’t look for that worldly success per se; they don’t say, look at what I do. “Maybe we need to do this more,” she said, “but, we’re here because we love what we do, and we’re good at it.”

Michelle Gilmour is the Director of Communications for ECEBC.

teacher of young children and col-lege students. Women like Dianne Goldberg, Rita Chudnovsky, and Maryann Bird, who welcomed me into their world of advocacy and leadership, and who, after 20-plus years, still remain loyal friends and sisters. Women like Sharon Gregson, who taught me that energy can be limitless and it is always better to be daring. BC is a magical place when it comes to leadership in child care. When Canada finally does the right thing and a national child care system is realized, it will be, in large part, because of the dedica-tion, sacrifice, and vision of BC’s child care advocacy community.

Our future leaders? I think of my daughters who have dedicated their working lives to standing beside women who have lived with abuse, women from the downtown east side, women who others would try to marginalize. Women, like my daughters, who continue the fight to ensure that women’s rights are upheld, and that women’s voices are heard. And I think of my granddaugh-ters, who remind me every day that the struggle to ensure the rights of children is our respon-sibility, that advocating to make the world better for them is not an option in life; it is a requirement.

Susan Harney, continued from page 20

Focus



I have been considering the concept of professional development lately. I want the same things for the staff at Mt. Seymour Preschool that I want for myself: the opportunity to reflect deeply about our practice and its underlying values and the inspira-tion to propel forward to improve our practice.

In April 2008, my staff at Mt. Sey-mour Preschool and I were fortu-nate to participate in a week-long study tour of the early childhood centres in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Get-ting the staff to Reggio has been a long-time dream of mine and it was finally realized when I was awarded the Prime Minister’s Certificate of Excellence in Early Childhood Education in 2006. The award came with $5,000 and the preschool board of directors supported my desire to send the staff to Italy for a study tour by matching this amount from grant money received from the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

A Reggio study tour is an intense week of lectures, workshops, and tours of six centres. We were among 400 participants from around the world so it also afforded the pos-sibility of gaining different perspec-tives of early childhood education during free-time discussions. We completed the tour with an ex-panded attitude of learning to learn, an increased understanding of the importance of openness to change, and more willingness to discuss

Providing Meaningful Professional Development for Staff: A Personal Perspective

opposing points of view. These are points discussed by the pedagogista Tiziana Filippini in The Hundred Languages of Children (p. 116) as she describes her professional de-velopment work with teachers in Reggio Emilia.

On day one of the tour, Carlina Rinaldi, president of Reggio Chil-dren and director of the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre in Reggio Emilia, gave an introduc-tory lecture titled “All Children are Intelligent” in which she spoke about the values of Reggio Emilia and their impact on education. She challenged all of us to look up values in our dictionaries and work to con-sider how to define our systems of learning using our cultural values. It was a challenge we three decided to take up as we sat that night in a Reggio restaurant, fueled by pasta and wine.

In September 2008, with a new year waiting for us, we embarked upon the task of defining our values and reflecting upon how they drive our program. During the summer I had read the book Learning Together with Young Children—A Curriculum Framework for Reflective Teachers by Deb Curtis and Margie Carter and discovered in it a self-assessment tool that I thought would provide us with some guidance in this task. This exercise has not been easy. It has been difficult to find the time for discussions and reflections. We each work on a section individually in our

own time and then meet together at the end of our working day at one or two month intervals. The questions aren’t difficult, but they do provoke us to reflect, discuss, and consider our individual perspectives. Staff member Nonie Meger says, “We talk about allowing the children to have opportunities to voice their ideas, to hear other’s ideas, and to understand that there is no right or wrong perspective, and this process allows us the same opportunity. The discussions help me understand better how reflection affects our plans and allows us to change.” Staff member Ellen Muirhead says, “This process has been a good one to build the team. It makes us look at our program from different areas, think about what we do, and makes us more intentional. For me, the im-portant part is the image of the child. I ask myself, has it changed?”

After the first exercise, we invited parents to participate by placing a sheet of paper on the wall and asking them to record words or phrases that came to mind as they considered their beliefs about chil-dren. That exercise itself provided us with reflection and discussion material as we observed that only a few parents recorded their thoughts. Did they felt uneasy about writing in public? In what other ways can we elicit parents’ perspectives? Involv-ing parents in a meaningful way is a topic of discussion we will continue

Professional Development

By BEV SuPERLE

Continued on page 27



Lee, Suzy. Wave. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008.

Lehman, Barbara. The Red Book. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

Wiesner, David. Flotsam. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Wordless picture books provide op-portunities for children to step out of the role of receptive listener and try on the various hats of storyteller, decoder, expert, and leader. Even without using text, these books still usually offer rich narratives—some simple, some extremely complex—communicated in a variety of visual languages. Using wordless picture books can encourage creativity, build narrative skills and visual literacy, allow for collaborative construction of a storyline, and leave room for multiple narratives without privileging one as “cor-rect.” These books allow children to turn the tables and read a story to an adult, to each other, or to col-laborate as a group to construct a narrative together. Because of their

nature, wordless picture books might not be ideal in a large circle time; they are probably better suited for individual, one-on-one or small group exploration. They are also an excellent resource for families to use in telling stories together, and allow any family member to be an active storyteller in any language with any level of literacy. The recent titles described below are just three of many in the long-standing tradition of wordless picture books.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that lack of text makes these books sim-ple, easy to understand, or limited to a very young audience. Just as we learn to decode written language, we also have to learn to decode pic-tures, deciding where on the page to start if there are multiple images, making sense of how time and se-quence of events are portrayed, and deducing cause and effect. Of these three books, Wave is the most acces-sible for younger children, whereas the plot of Flotsam is complicated enough to provide a fun challenge for a four- or five-year-old, and

would even be engaging for young school-aged children.

Wave is a whimsical and straight-forward story of a visit to the beach. With simple strokes and a limited palette of charcoal combined with blue and white acrylic (using some digital manipulation), Suzy Lee tells the story of a playful girl, some seagulls, and a wave with a person-ality of its own. The brilliance of the book is in the attention to detail in the story of the conversation be-tween girl and wave: the nuanced portrayal of the girl’s shifting mood, the flock of gulls that echo her body language, and the cheeky character of the wave itself. The charcoal and acrylic illustrations are clean, sim-ple, and exuberant. There is no real danger associated with the ocean, which may make the book less rel-evant in certain communities where respect for the ocean is a matter of survival, but overall this is a visu-ally appealing book that portrays a sense of playfulness, exploration, and discovery.

Let Children Take the Lead with Wordless Picture Books

Resources

By AnnA SWAnSOn



Flotsam is David Wiesner’s mas-terful depiction of what happens when a camera becomes a piece of flotsam. Though also based on a visit to the seashore, this book has a much more complex plot with intricate watercolour illustra-tions, which are often arranged in comic-like frames. In this story, a boy finds an old-fashioned under-water camera washed up on shore. When he has the film developed, he discovers surprising fantastical worlds below the surface including giant mechanical fish, underwater alien spaceship landings, air bal-loons made of blowfish, and other strange secrets of the sea. The last picture on the roll of film shows an image of a girl on a faraway shore holding another photo of another child on yet another shore. As he delves deeper into this one photo, using his magnifying glass and microscope, the boy discovers the many children from shores across the world that have participated throughout the years in this mys-terious ritual. The illustrations are stunning and the plot compelling; it’s no surprise this book won the Caldecott Medal in 2007.

In The Red Book by Barbara Leh-man, a girl in the city happens upon a red book and opens it to find a map of a faraway island that mag-nifies in scale, frame by frame, to reveal a boy walking on the beach. He finds his own red book, which in turn opens to a detailed cityscape that magnifies until we see through a window to a girl reading a red book with a picture of a boy on an island looking back out at her. It is hard not to be transported by this gentle and whimsical story about

to explore as it seems to us that parents are interested but we have to figure out how the discussion can take place. However, when we compared our list of words with the parents’ list of words about children we found that we shared the words “capable” and “unique.” Knowing that we have some common beliefs about children makes us curious to seek additional commonalities.

When the process of reflection and assessment is complete, we will create a written document of our thoughts and ideas and keep it with our policies and procedures manual so we can refer to it regularly as we consider what we do in the program in light of our values.

As coordinator of the preschool, I feel that this exercise is providing us with the opportunity to more fully understand the “why” behind the “what” we do in the centre. It allows us to feel proud of the many things we do but to realize that our journey will never end. It is also allowing us to build a team with a common vision and philosophy, which, I believe, is the essential piece in creating a quality centre. It meets my criteria for excellent pro-fessional development. I am curious about other administrators’ criteria for staff professional development and I wonder what other centres do to promote reflection and dis-cussion and design common goals with staff.

Bev Superle is the coordinator of Mt. Seymour Preschool in North Vancouver.

Meaningful Professional Develop-ment, continued from page 25

friendship, happenchance, magic, and the wonder of maps. In this case, the text is replaced by maps with their own particular visual language, and the plot is moved for-ward to changing scale and shifting points of view. It is also a Caldecott Honor book.

In this last example, the story uses the age-old device of a magical book with the power to pull an unsus-pecting character into the world of the story. In this case, the book itself is a replica of the magic object from the story within. How apt that this is a reflection of the power of wordless picture books to open the world of story to children without having to depend on an adult intermediary.

Anyone who works closely with children will know that children have many ways of actively engaging with stories, whether it be by creat-ing, sharing, retelling, performing, decoding, or translating stories from one medium to another. Wordless picture books are simply another tool to encourage children’s creativity and offer them a lead role in the storytelling process.

LIBRARY TIP: To find more word-less picture books in your local library, try entering “stories with-out words” in a subject or keyword search. Or ask your local librarian. We love interesting questions; you just might make someone’s day.

Anna Swanson is a writer and a chil-dren’s librarian with the Vancouver Public Library.

Resources



Leadership. It’s a word that conjures up many images and ideas and yet the skills that are required to be-come a strong leader are often an illusive skill set for many of us. Add the words “administration” and “management” and many a strong early childhood educator will run from the room.

The reality is that our field, with its diverse programs and services, along with the complexity of the work we do with children and fami-lies within an ever-changing po-litical climate and unstable funding structures, requires strong, vision-ary leaders that have a knowledge of administration and management responsibilities.

While ECE training provides a strong foundation for work with children and families, many early childhood educators quickly find themselves with responsibilities that reflect the business side of child care. With little or no formal training or experience in this area, ECEs rely on learning while “on the job” and hope to find helpful men-tors and teammates with whom to struggle through the unknown waters of management.

In the late 1990s many program directors recognized these com-mon struggles and, turning to the “Child Care Sector Occupational Standards” (May 1997), designed a management curriculum specifi-cally for the field of ECE. In the year 2000 the Leadership, Administra-tion and Management in Child

The Leadership, Administration, Management (LAM) Program

Care curriculum was piloted in Vancouver. Affectionately know as LAM, it is a 60-hour training pro-gram designed specifically for the early childhood education field. The curriculum is separated into six 10-hour modules, each one covering a different topic. While a facilitator is in place for the training, guest specialists can be invited to speak about each topic in a more in-depth manner. The six topics are: Module I: Leadership in Child Care. An opportunity for participants to explore the elements of effective leadership in child care settings.Module II: Understanding Our Child Care Context. An examina-tion of the socio-political environ-ment in which child care services currently exist.Module III: Overview of Program Administration. A look at func-tions and tasks related to program administration.Module IV: Human Resources in Child Care. A look at the compo-nents of effective human resources management in child care settings.Module V: Financial Management in Child Care. A look at effective financial management in child care settings.Module VI: Family, Board, and Com-munity Relationships. A look at the role of administrators and managers within organizational contexts.

This curriculum is unique in that it was created for early childhood educators by early childhood educa-

tors. Participants discuss and brain-storm relevant and current issues daily faced within their scope of management responsibilities. One of the strengths of the curriculum is the opportunity to spend time with colleagues who are facing similar challenges. The opportunity to learn from others’ successes is as valuable as hearing that others are facing similar challenges. “I’m not alone!” is a common sentiment heard from participants, followed with a sigh of relief and renewed strength to tackle the challenges commonly faced. Learning, debating, and laughing alongside colleagues provides op-portunities for networking while discovering new ways to approach management challenges.

Currently, Vancouver Community College offers the six modules be-tween November and April each year through their continuing edu-cation office.

If you’d like to learn more about the LAM curriculum and how to bring it to your area, contact Lesley Richardson at Vancouver Commu-nity College Continuing Education office.

The Child Care Sector Occupa-tional Standards are available at www.publications.gov.bc.ca/search.aspx

Beverly Christian contributed to the development of the LAM curriculum and has been the LAM facilitator for Vancouver Community College for the past several years.

By BEVERLy CHRISTIAn

Professional Development



IntroductionAt Douglas College, the Child Growth and Development courses that are part of the Early Childhood Education Program have tradition-ally emphasized the teaching of developmental psychology that explains the image of the child ac-cording to pre-defined stages and categories in relation to ideas of normality and abnormality. Since the fall of 2005, the third- and fourth-year courses that focus on children’s growth and development at Douglas College have changed their focus. The students reflect on and question various theories and philosophies in ECE with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of them. A further goal is to think in terms of a positive image of the child, one that may be unexpected and beyond the theories we have learned to apply.

As one of the course assignments, students work in groups and then present their experiences and ob-servations with a child or group of children to the rest of the class for questions and perspectives. The presenting group then responds to the questions and comments and writes a final summary incorporat-ing the perspectives they received from their audience as well as from teachers or parents with whom they shared their experiences or observa-tions of the children. The process is referred to as the “collaborative critical reflective protocol,” and what follows is a theoretical explanation of why we have gone in this direc-

tion and what we hope the students will gain.

Pedagogical Documentation This process of pedagogical docu-mentation and interpretation func-tions as a way to contest and decon-struct the students’ understanding of developmental psychology and to learn about the construction of the images of children and their discourses by referring to critical theories. The deconstruction of developmental psychology by refer-ring to post-structural perspectives has been a strategy to critically consider the interpretations of the images of children.

Dahlberg and Lenz Taguchi explain the theoretical background that has supported our understanding of pedagogical documentation and the practice of deconstruction. Accord-ing to Dahlberg, “Adopting a post modern perspective, pedagogical documentation does not claim that what is documented is a direct rep-resentation of what children say and do; it is not a true account of what has happened. Pedagogical documenta-tion is a process of visualization, but what we document does not rep-resent a true reality any more than claims about the social and natural world…it is a social construction where pedagogues, through what they select as valuable to document, are also participative co-construc-tors.” (Dahlberg, 2000, p. 23)

According to Lenz Taguchi, “De-construction is about disrupt, desta-bilizations, undermining and chal-

lenging taken-for-granted notions, values, practices, and pedagogy ‘as usual’. The major challenge in deconstructive talk is the require-ment for self-reflection—thinking about what and why we see, hear, and value” (2004).

Pedagogical documentation and deconstructive analysis have been the strategies or tools that have nur-tured and oriented the students’ new understanding in post-structural perspectives and the construction of themselves as critical pedagogues that question their previous knowl-edge about the construction of the child, of themselves, and of the learning contexts.

The Interpretation of Students’ Reflections and PracticesPacini-Ketchabaw (2008), proposes professional development as “events [that] can be seen as rhizomatic stories of immanent becomings, as nomadic spaces where con-stant, heterogeneous and surpris-ing transformations are the norm.” Philosophically, my interpretation of the students’ pedagogical reflec-tions and practices are based in the understanding of an ontology of becoming.

The strategies to explore the stu-dents’ reflections and practices have been the use of documentation of children’s learning as the source for analysis. The documentation has been recorded with video, photos, children’s production, and tran-scription of dialogues. Additionally,

By ALEJAnDRA SAnCHEZ

Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Practices and Training in BC

ECE Training



a collaborative critical reflective protocol inspired by the “Rounds for Teachers” at Project Zero, has functioned as a methodological strategy to deconstruct the chil-dren’s discourses and actions. As part of this protocol, the students and instructor pose questions and offer assumptions and interpreta-tions to study, revisit, and interpret documentation. The protocol em-phasizes the use of different lenses and theoretical frameworks to inter-pret the children’s documentation. Students have been asked to read documentation by referring to dif-fering paradigms of developmental psychology theories and post-struc-tural perspectives discussed in early childhood studies. Additionally, the students collect “multiple readings” referring to the same documenta-tion by dialoguing with different au-diences, such as the children (those that participated in the documented experience and others), parents and relatives, teachers/educators, and community members who might have an interest in the documen-tation. The collection of multiple readings has served to contest the students’ construction(s) of the image of the child and their own understanding of pedagogy. The multiple readings about children’s documentation have revealed the complexities of the construction of the image of the child, the educa-tor, the school community, and the learning environment and these readings have opened new possibili-ties to practice pedagogy.

This journey with students and col-leagues of reflecting and interpret-ing the images of childhood using alternative discourses of pedagogy has contested the traditional teach-ing practices of the paradigm of

developmental psychology in the Early Childhood Education Pro-gram at Douglas College. Moreover, the post-structural literature offered to the students has challenged and problematized their educational body of knowledge about the de-velopment of children, the educa-tors’ and families’ role, and the characteristics that define a learning context. For example, power rela-tions identified in adults’ hidden agendas have been discussed in our collaborative critical reflective protocols. Students have reflected in “adults ‘hidden agendas’ arising from dominant discourses that in-form teachers’ thinking and doing exude a powerful, palpable presence in every classroom…”(Davis, 2003, cited in Lenz Taguchi, 2006).

The students have also recon-ceptualized the construction of their self-images as advocates of “new” perspectives and teaching/learning practices. The practice of deconstruction that has emerged amongst the community of learn-ers in the classroom has supported the students to gain confidence and to adopt an inquiry attitude about the pedagogical practices that they encounter in the early childhood education field.

Discursive Productions of Early Childhood StudentsIt has been a thought-provoking en-deavour to document the students’ thinking in the Early Childhood Education Program at Douglas College. It seems that their peda-gogical understandings have been contested and changed. The stu-dents’ reflections have occurred when they encounter, get familiar with, and reflect in collaboration on the proposals, language, tools,

and strategies of post-structural perspectives. The students’ think-ing has expressed the complexities of problematizing what they have considered their “will of truth” (explained by Mac Naughton, 2005). On one hand, the students realize that they are immersed in disrupting a developmental psy-chology body of knowledge that is a logical and a familiar discourse for them. The students realize that they have been subjects of study under this lens and they have also been subjects that reproduce the same dominant discourse when they interact and interpret children’s identities and discourses (children’s interests, initiatives, thoughts, and actions). On the other hand, the students become aware that famil-iarity with this dominant discourse, its linearity, and its universality has restricted the possibilities of multiple readings when examining and interpreting the images of the child. The students also express the complexity that the post-structural literature presents to them. Post-structural statements explained by Mac Naughton such as the “truth does not exist” (Mac Naughton, 2005, p. 5); “uncertainty is the state to live and act, practices of liberty disrupt regimes of truth that gov-ern us and uncover subjugated knowledge…” (Mac Naughton, 2005, p. 74), and the “understand-ing of how uneven power relations operates in different regimes of truth through specific discourses” (Mac Naughton, 2005, p.74), are a few examples of the alternative understandings that the students encounter and reflect on in relation to their experiences with children, teachers, families, and learning environments in the early child-Continued on page 32

ECE Training



By JAn WHITE

Over time the Greater Victoria Re-gional Child Care Council, a group of passionate and committed early childhood educators, has accumu-lated knowledge about the strengths and abilities of our early childhood community. Similarly to the rest of British Columbia we face a crisis in child care in Victoria. For the past several years the Victoria Regional Child Care Council has worked to actively raise the awareness in our community about the challenges facing families and educators. We have met with elected officials, businesses, and media to inform our broader community about the complexities of the current system and the difficulties many families are facing. Business and local gov-ernment began to ask the obvious question: so how do we solve the child care problem and what is it going to cost our community?

In February 2008 the Victoria Regional Child Care Council, in partnership with the regional coalition PLAY (Partnership in Learning and Advocacy for Young Children), asked two consultants, Lynell Anderson and Dan Rosen, to help us create a plan for costing and implementing child care in our region. Our goal was to build on our current strengths and expand opportunities for families.

“At the moment the picture of care and education for our youngest

citizens is fragmented, lacking co-hesiveness and structure. Perhaps now we have a wonderful opportu-nity to introduce some fundamental changes.” (Regional Child Care Council, Vision, 2008)

The Victoria Regional Child Care Council met regularly collecting and organizing information to share with Lynell Anderson and Dan Ros-en. Our goal was to build our own capacity to articulate our situation and the possible solution. Thus it was important for our group to have a strong knowledge of the child care situation and be able to speak about the details of the plan. We wanted to be clear about this important invest-ment to our community.

Over the following eight months, the consultants and members of the Victoria Regional Child Care Council spent many hours in meet-

ings to gather local information, understand the fiscal elements, and determine what type of plan was appropriate for Victoria. Lynell Anderson guided the discussions by placing local issues in the context of broader public and fiscal informa-tion. This capacity building was critical to the project and to the long-term vision of the Victoria Regional Child Care Council. The plan builds on strengths already in existence in the community, factoring in current child care spaces and programs as part of the system of service. The plan identified four areas of invest-ment with four phases of implemen-tation including new public funding, staff compensation, parent fees, and the creation of new spaces.

As the project neared completion, members developed a communica-tion plan to identify five strategies that would assist in building local

Advocacy

Building Local Knowledge of Child Care in Victoria

A group of ECEs in Victoria has raised awareness of the crisis facing child care in their region. Jan White outlines the steps they took.



knowledge of this plan. Strategies included a cross-ministry briefing of the report, presentations to the local ECE chapter and broader commu-nity, media releases, and connecting with local municipal representatives to share child care briefs.

In September 2008, Lynell Anderson and Dan Rosen completed “Build-ing Our Strengths, A Child Care Plan for Victoria” and the Victoria Regional Child Care Council was ready to launch this plan and dem-onstrate a commitment to finding local solutions for our community. Over the next few months, mem-bers of the council took turns to present the information and speak to the fiscal realities of providing a comprehensive system of child care. The media and members of govern-ment were interested in learning what the plan had to offer.

The plan was the product, but as im-portant was the process of bringing together a group of early childhood educators to take up leadership roles in sharing our vision with the Great-er Victoria region. This project has provided the foundation for future advocacy beyond its membership by developing a plan and a tool that can be used elsewhere. The Greater Vic-toria Regional Child Care Council believes their ability to find solutions will assist other stakeholders in ad-dressing child care in communities across British Columbia.

To read the plan visit www.playvictoria.org

Jan White is an early childhood consultant in Victoria, providing direction, planning and support on early years’ initiatives.

Vision StatementGreater Victoria regional Child Care CouncilEstablished in 1999 the Victoria Regional Child Care Council rep-resents the capital region and provides a forum for families, service providers, the community, and government to share perspectives and take action on various child care issues in this region. We are supportive of and are working towards an inclusive, accessible, comprehensive child care system. As a volunteer community organization we aim for a range and diversity of voices and perspectives.

All children in the Greater Victoria Region are entitled to an enriched, exciting, and secure early childhood experience. Their families de-serve recognition and support of their provision for their children’s well-being.

The Victoria Regional Child Care Council believes that a comprehen-sive early childhood system will reduce inequities between and among children, families, and neighbourhoods and provide assurance to fami-lies that their children’s well-being is a community priority. We aim to focus on the implementation of a quality early childhood system by addressing three aspects: the creation of additional child care spaces, the recruitment and retention of early childhood educators, and the reduc-tion of fees for families for whatever type of service they require.

As a community, we are responding to the acute child care crisis with a comprehensive early childhood plan for the Greater Victoria region.

hood education field. The students’ encounters with post-structural discourses and terminology locate them in situations in which their choices will define their position of understanding the learner and the curriculum. It has been rewarding to identify changes in the students’ interpretations and the connection with their realities.

Alejandra Sanchez is an instructor in ECEC at Douglas College.

References

Dahlberg, G. (2000). In Policy, Prac-tice and Politics. NZEI Te Riu Roa Early Childhood Millennium Conference Proceedings. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Educational Institute.

Lenz Taguchi, H. (2004). Decon-structing and Transgressing the Theory—Practice Dichotomy in Early Childhood Education. Institute of Education in Stockholm. Stockholm, Sweden.

Lenz Taguchi, H. (2006). Nordic Childhoods and Early Education. Information Age Publishing.

Mac Naughton, G. (2005). Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies: Applying Post-Structural Ideas. New York, NY: Routledge.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2008). “Rhizo-matic Stories of Immanent Becom-ings and Intra-Activity: Professional Development Reconceptualized.” Paper submitted to EECERA. Stavanger, Norway.

Reconceptualizing ECE Practices, continued from page 30

Advocacy



Our hearts are heavy over the tragic loss of our dear colleague, Lenora Pritchard, Aboriginal child care advisor with the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society. Lenora died as a result of a tragic car accident on northern Vancouver Island on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. She was on her way to Port Hardy and Alert Bay to present training workshops to the communities there as part of her work for the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society.

Lenora Pritchard was a member of the Musqueam First Nation in Van-couver and the Tsimshian First Nation of Metlakatla, BC. She had a long history of working as an early childhood educator in various Aboriginal communities in this province. She possessed a wealth of cultural knowl-edge and a deep commitment to working with communities, children, and families. Lenora was also a proud member of the Northwest Coast First Nations dance group The Git Hayetsk Dancers: People of the Copper Shield. Lenora is survived by her mother, Heather Pritchard, and her three-year-old daughter, Alisa, as well as a large extended family.

Lenora graduated from Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario, with her Basic Early Childhood Education diploma and received her Special Needs and Infant Toddler Post-Basic certificates from Northwest Community College in Terrace, BC. During her work in the Aboriginal Child Care field in the past 15 years, Lenora cited creating a 32-seat daycare for the Lake Babine Nation as a memorable project and she was very proud to be involved in all aspects of the development of this child care centre. During the two years she worked at ACCS, Lenora travelled tirelessly throughout the province to do training workshops in FASD, LEAP, Nobody’s Perfect, Adapting Cultural Curriculum, and so much more.

At the MCFD Child Care Awards of Excellence ceremony on March 7, 2009, The Honourable Linda Reid, Minister of State for Child Care, pre-sented a Memorial Award to Lenora’s family in honour of Lenora’s life and legacy to the Aboriginal ECE field. Her mother, sisters, and daughter were in attendance.

Lenora’s passing is a great loss, not only to her own family and our agency, but also to all the communities and ECE/ECD programs that benefitted from her cul-tural wisdom, joy, and infec-tious enthusiasm for life. She will be greatly missed.

David Wu, BC ACCS

In Memoriam: Lenora Pritchard September 20, 1967 to January 27, 2009

Trust Fund for alisa’s Education

BC ACCS asks community members in the ECE field to remember Lenora’s family and to support our Trust Fund for Alisa’s education.

BC ACCS has established a donation account for Lenora’s daughter, Alisa, at TD Canada Trust in the names of “Kar-en Isaac and Lynn McBride in trust for Alisa Pritchard.” Karen Isaac is the executive director of the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society (ACCS), and Lynn McBride is a child care advisor with ACCS.

Donations can be made at any TD Canada Trust branch, to Branch #9640, Account #6434306

Donations can also be made by mailing a cheque or money order (payable to “Karen Isaac in trust for Alisa Pritchard”) to ACCS, which we will then de-posit to the donation account for Alisa. The mailing address for ACCS is:708–100 Park Royal SouthWest Vancouver, BC V7T 1A2

Our goal is to raise $15K or more to help Lenora’s family provide for Alisa’s education. As of April 28, 2009, we have raised over $4,534.

With profound gratitude for the beautiful life of our colleague, friend, and beloved sister,

The BC Aboriginal Child Care Society: Karen Isaac, Lynn McBride, David Wu, Scott Na-hanee, and Melissa Meyer.

In Memoriam



A Changing Face: Reflections and Predictions on ECE

Early childhood education in BC has seen an incredible evolution since its official inception in 1969, when a group of preschool teach-ers and daycare workers banded together to share expertise. Since the establishment of a provincial association for early childhood educators four decades ago, there has been a notable shift in the context of early childhood settings. During my years as a volunteer, teacher, behaviour interventionist, and now autism spectrum disor-ders consultant, I have witnessed four fundamental shifts that have changed the landscape of early childhood education. These include the moves (1) from segregation to integration; (2) from adult-focused skill-and-drill to collaboration and child-centred approaches; (3) from nurturer to learning facilitator; and (4) from reactionary disciplinarian to positive proactive educator. A review of these changes leads me to four predictions for the future of ECE in British Columbia.

From the mid-1980s to the present, there was first a thought, grown to an expectation, that children with exceptionalities be included in ac-tivities and settings with their non-disabled, age-appropriate peers. This move away from special edu-cation and segregated placements toward inclusive environments has returned extremely positive results in teaching tolerance and acceptance, and appropriate social skills. But these outcomes have been achieved at a price. Higher expectations on staff to know how

to adapt and modify environments, activities, and curricula have led to increased levels of stress and staff attrition. This, coupled with a chronic lack of spaces in quality ECE settings, has prompted families and community groups to become more organized and vocal, pushing daycare and preschool issues onto governmental election platforms.

A second fundamental shift in the ECE environment has been the changing toolbox of strategies and approaches used by ECEs. In years gone by, flash cards, structured play, and teacher-guided activities were common ways to instruct preschoolers. Through strong re-search and changing philosophies, ECEs have moved to a much more child-centred approach to teaching students. Creating a learning atmo-sphere with children at its core has fostered creativity, group problem-solving skills, and a greater sense of inquisitiveness.

As a behavioural consultant at the school district level, I have worked with educators preparing children for their transition from preschool to kindergarten. In this capacity, I have witnessed a third change: in-creased focus on preparing students for their first elementary experi-ence. With an emphasis on develop-ing pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills, as well as gross and fine mo-tor development, today’s parents expect children will be “ready” for kindergarten and have all the skills necessary to be successful learners on day one. This has led to a height-ened pressure on teachers to act not

only in a nurturing role, but also as a facilitator for each child in our care. ECEs are therefore more account-able to parents for skills acquisition and reporting, and to kindergarten teachers—not only to have students ready to learn, but also to have dealt with problem behaviours that might interfere with learning.

Finally, I have observed a fourth interesting change that leads me to my first prediction. Classrooms have evolved and become far more complicated places, while at the same time, expectations on what we can accomplish as educators have soared. Since ECEs are often the first ongoing “outside” relation-ship children develop after birth, ECEs are often the first to identify children with potential challenges. Parents rely on this first outside experience to either identify issues or concerns with development or validate their own perceptions. Either path can lead to a referral to health professionals for further screening, identification, or possible diagnosis. The supportive role ECEs play for the guardians of children they teach has grown from informal chats to an almost therapeutic rap-port with parents, who seek counsel, reinforcement, and/or validation of their actions.

Children with autism are a good case in point. With the average age of diagnosis falling between three and four, ECEs are among the first to recognize autism’s effects. It’s also a condition we may feel somewhat “educated” about, thanks to celeb-rity supporters making careers out

Supported Child Care

By DAn GALAZKA



of gaining media attention for the autism cause. But in all the media fanfare, there is rarely serious dis-cussion of the crucial importance of an early diagnosis. Early diagnoses are clinically linked to improve treatment outcomes, helping chil-dren with autism reach their full potential. Thus, quickly identify-ing this important health issue is a responsibility that lies not only with parents, but with all of us working in an early learning environment.

Hence, my first prediction: ECEs will increasingly be expected to as-sume responsibility for referring to local health units or community pe-diatric health programs for screen-ing and assessments. In turn, pres-sure will be placed on ECEs to focus their learning on the characteristics and identification of developmental, social and emotional, and learning disabilities.

Second, ECEs will be expected to become early intervention special-ists, recommending or delivering structured remediation. Staff will have to collaborate with a far greater number of professionals to develop and implement these interventions and to collect useful data on growth. Accountability for implementation and treatment, program planning, and support will increasingly fall under the purview of the early childhood educator. Will additional resources be available for this shift to occur with success?

This question leads to my third prediction. I believe ECE facilities will see a growing number of direc-tives from provincial governments regarding when and how supports will be used in daycare, preschool, and other ECE settings. New legis-lation or regulations will be created around levels of support, screening, child and staff composition—sim-

ilar to elementary and secondary school settings. Political influence may come in the form of a crown agency, a new division within exist-ing ministries responsible for early childhood, or even the creation of a new ministry to deal with children from zero to six years old.

Finally, and on a positive note in this rocky economic time, I predict there will be federal government involvement in the creation of more spaces in ECE settings. When times are tough for a country and its economy, investing in educa-tion (especially early education) continues to show positive results in a number of ways: supporting parents’ return to the work force (increase spending power); im-proving the educational readiness quotient of children entering the school system; and demonstrating the value of early childhood support to the rest of the community.

Having shared these observations and predictions, I offer a very quick review of the services required to address the changing early child-hood education landscape. There are four key supports ECEs will need to achieve continued success when dealing with exceptional chil-dren. These are: (1) a place to refer families; ideally, a central location or home base for parents and their children; (2) access to professional teams that will coordinate assess-ment, diagnosis, and interven-tion processes in a collaborative “wrap around” service model; (3) enhanced training, and a better understanding of characteristics of a variety of disabilities, and (4) access to expertise in adapting and modifying activities and environ-ments, including building positive behaviour support plans.

While developing these new skills

and capacities will take considerable time and effort, it’s important for ECEs to know that a new resource is available to provide some, if not all, of these four critical supports. Monarch House, a new autism treatment and diagnosis facility, located in Burnaby, has been de-veloped to help ease some of the pressures felt by BC’s educators and health system. The facility is the first of its kind in Canada taking an in-tegrated “under one roof ” approach to assessing and treating children with a wide range of developmental disabilities, including ASD.

In the same way that ECEs support children in a learning environment, Monarch House does so in a clini-cal environment—guiding families after diagnosis through education and customized interventions. For children whose developmental needs go far beyond a classroom’s capacity, ECEs may refer families to the centre’s team of doctors, oc-cupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, behavioural consultants, naturopaths, coun-sellors, and psychologists. Tour invitations are extended to parent advisory groups, school district staff, and any interested ECEs.

As we actively participate in the next 40 years of ECEBC evolution, more positive changes will surely take place. It is my hope we will continue to assist our children and their families by being open to adopting new teaching practices and techniques, identifying exter-nal resources where required, and truly collaborating with parents, developmental clinicians, and other educators.

Dan Galazka (EdD cand) has re-cently been appointed as director of clinical services at the newly created Monarch House Autism Centre.

Supported Child Care



q $115: Full member (New) $9.58 monthly

q $110: Full member (Renew) $9.17 monthly

q $95: Student Member (New ) $7.92 monthly

q $90: Student Member (Renew) $7.50 monthly

q $100: Associate Member (New) $8.34 monthly

q $95: Associate Member (Renew) $7.92 monthly

note: new ECEBC membership fees, which are effective April 1, 2009, reflect the Canadian Child Care Federation rate increase.

• Full member—has an Early Childhood Educator’s Licence to Practice from the Province of BC (copy of Licence required with application). Eligible to vote on provincial issues and at the Annual General Meet-ing.

• Student member—is in the process of becoming professionally qualified in the field of early childhood education or in the process of completing 500 hours work experience (signature of instructor/supervisor required).

• associate member—holds post-secondary certification (certificate, diploma, or degree) in a related field, or has been a full member of ECEBC and is now retired from the early childhood education field.

paymentq Cheque

q ViSa q masterCard

q pre-authorized payment (down-load this form at www.ecebc, complete, and attach)

Card no.:

Cardholder:

Expiry date:

Signature:

ECEBC...• Istheprofessionalassociationforearlychildhood

educators in British Columbia.

• Issupportedanddirectedbyitsmembers.

• Liaiseswithotherearlychildhoodassociations.

• ParticipatesindevelopingECEtrainingprograms.

• Promotesprofessionaldevelopmentandhighstandards of practice.

• AdvocatesforECEpractitioners,youngchildren,and families.

membership provides...• Anopportunitytoparticipateinshapingchildcare

practice and policy.

• MembershipintheCanadianChildCareFederation,which includes Interaction, the CCCF’s magazine.

• AsubscriptiontoThe Early Childhood Educator, ECEBC’s professional journal.

• A Code of Ethics.

• Bestratesatourannualconference.

• Awidevarietyofprofessionalcontactsandpublications.

member informationname

Address

City/Province/Postal code

Home phone

Work phone

E-mail

Place of employment

Signature

Signature of instructor (students only)

Referred by

return to:ECEBC 2774 East Broadway Vancouver, BC V5M 1y8E-mail: [email protected] | Fax: 604-709-6077Web site: www.ecebc.ca

mEmBErShip appLiCaTiON FOrm

membership Categories (please check one)



ECEBC Bursary program

The Bursary Program is a partnership between Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) and the Vancity Community Foundation with funds from the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The goal is to assist ECE students with the cost of Basic and/or Post Basic Early Childhood Education Programs at approved institutions.

Bursary applications are now eligible for $200 per course (maximum of $1000 per semester).

Bursary Schedule for 2009

Courses that fall within the months of

Dates of Bursary Applications OnLy

Deadline for submission of Copy of the Transcript

Summer Semester Bursary 2009

May to August 2009 June 1 to July 10, 2009 September 30, 2009

Fall Semester Bursary 2009

September to December 2009

October 1 to november 13, 2009

January 30, 2010

Bursary application FormsApplication forms are available on our web site www.ecebc.ca or by calling (604) 709-6063 ext. 3

you may submit your applications forms by: E-mail: [email protected] (you may submit your application form on-line)

Fax: (604) 709-6077

Mail : ECEBC Student Bursary Program 2774 East Broadway, Vancouver BC V5M 1y8

(Please submit only one application form per person)

For more informationFor more information on eligibility criteria, how to fill out your application form, and how to submit your transcript, visit the ECEBC web site at www.ecebc.ca.

Important information for students attending private colleges:Vancity Community Foundation holds and disburses the funds for the ECE bursary. As a public foundation, Vancity Community Foundation is only able to make disbursements to qualified donees as outlined in the Income Tax Act. Private colleges do not meet the criteria for disbursement under the Income Tax Act. Consequently the Early Childhood Educators of BC will not be able to accept applications from students attending private colleges.

For a list of private colleges that are nOT eligible for the ECEBC Bursary, please go to the ECEBC web site at www.ecebc.ca.



SUBmiTTiNG CLaSSiFiED aDS

If you would like to submit a classified ad in the next issue (Summer 2009 issue) of the Journal, ECEBC must receive your ad by July 31, 2009. There is a $10 administrative fee for each classified ad printed in the Journal. Ads must not exceed 50 words. E-mail your classified ad to [email protected].

CLaSSiFiEDS/prOFESSiONaL DEVELOpmENT

WESTCOaST WOrKShOpS

Weaving Curriculum into Children’s ExperiencesDate: Saturday, May 30, 10:30 am to 12:30 pmPresenter: Jacqueline EwonusCost: $35Back by popular demand! Art, Math, Science, and Social Studies are bigger than the “centre” space we give them in our programs. We will explore topics that children show interest in and how to fos-ter children’s knowledge in those topics through active exploration throughout these curriculum areas. You will come away with ideas and questions to take back to children in your program.

Refreshing Our RootsDate: Wednesday, June 10, 7:00 to 9:00 pmPresenter: Gyda ChudCost: $35The history of our profession is built on the contributions of many who gave their theories, their advocacy and their passion. Join us to review several theoretical perspectives that continue to guide best practices in our field; to refresh our knowledge-base and to re-energize our com-mitment to children and families.

Field Trip FunDate: Saturday, June 20, 200910:30 am to 12:30 pmRegistration begins: May 7Presenter: Rebecca ClarkeCost: $35Looking for new and affordable outings for your kids? Learn about different and exciting places to take young children throughout the lower mainland. Discuss tips for making field trips meaningful, stress-free experiences.

Invitations to LearningDate: Wednesday, July 15, 7:00 to 9:00 pmRegistration begins: June 8Presenter: Roni CahenCost: $35Explore the many ways “loose parts”, “found objects” or “beauti-ful junk” can engage children and enhance their learning and develop their creativity.

Let’s Get Physical!Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 7:00 to 9:00 pmRegistration begins: June 8Presenter: Gyda ChudCost: $35All too often, children’s physical de-velopment is left to small amounts of time outdoors or in a large gym. We stand, watch, and help where we can; yet generally take quite a passive role. However, there is fascinating research available now to help us plan with purpose and interact with intention in the physi-cal development domain. Join us to learn more about enhancing physicality in your program and helping parents understand more about ways that active play contrib-ute to this critical area of children’s development.

Team Building Strategies: “We are going to build a team”Date: Wednesday, August 12, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pmRegistration begins: July 9Presenter: Christine HibbertCost: $35Replace the word “team” with the word “house” and people will want to adopt a structured approach. The same goes for successful team building. Taking people off for some fun is not team building. Traditional “away-day” options are team bond-ing exercises and that is different. Come to this workshop to learn how to accomplish true team-building.

Registration Information for Westcoast WorkshopsTo register, download and fill out the Spring 2009 Saturday & Evening series flyer and registration form at www.wstcoast.org.

Phone 604-709-5661 with •VISA payment informationFax registration form to •604-709-5662 with VISA information.Mail registration form and •payment to:

Training Registration Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre 2772 East Broadway Vancouver, BC, V5M 1Y8

Drop by Westcoast Child Care •Resource Centre with registra-tion form and payment Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Professional Development continued on page 40.



www.ccrr.bc.ca1-888-338-6622Your Community’s Best Source of

Child Care Information & Resources



WESTCOAST ONLINE JOB POSTINGS

Westcoast Job Postings is a well-established provincial job board for

the early childhood community in BC. Last year alone over 560 jobs

were posted for the province of BC. Check our web site for new rates

and packages for longer-term postings. We now offer a package for a

6 month standing job posting for casual and substitute workers.

What do employers like about the Westcoast Job Board?

Are you looking for work? Use Westcoast’s JOB SEARCH page to

browse the postings. You can organize your search by type of care,

your qualifications, preferred location, or leave the fields blank to see

everything there is on offer.

Visit www.wstcoast.org and click on JOB POSTINGS in the naviga-

tion bar on the left-hand side of the page, or call 604-709-5661, or

1-877-262-0022 for more information.

“I like the

direct focus on

ECE applicants”

“Good exposure,

good price, and

very convenient”

“Ease of

posting and the

response rate”

“It is a

respected

resource”

CLaSSiFiEDS/prOFESSiONaL DEVELOpmENT

Have you got your INFORM Guide?

It is time to get your copy of the 4th edition of the Westcoast INFORM

Guide: An Administration Manual for Non-Profit Child Care in BC.

This very popular guide is back and better than ever. New features

include: budget tool kits, an appendix, and a CD of downloadable

templates you can customize for use in your own program.

Contact Westcoast Child Care

Resource Centre at 604-709-5661

or Toll Free at 1-877-262-0022 or

visit www.wstcoast.org and click

on Marketplace on the left hand

navigation bar.

VaNCOUVEr COmmUNiTy COLLEGE

Drawing to Learn, Not Learning to DrawDate: Monday, June 1, 2009, 7:00 to 9:30 pmLocation: VCC Downtown Campus, 250 West Pender StreetRegistration: $35 CRN: 20435Facilitator: Michelle de Salaberry Drawing is one of the 100 languages of children. Come to this Reggio inspired workshop where you will learn about the LINE Family and it’s application to helping children un-derstand the different kinds of lines that make up a drawing and which allows them to draw with more intention and observation. You will also learn more about using draw-ing as a way for children to build on their own knowledge, theories and ideas to become more confident and successful in using drawing to understand and learn. Come and look at new ways of setting up a drawing centre in your room. What pens, pencils to use and ways to use stories to stimulate drawing.

BUrNaBy SChOOL DiSTriCT CONTiNUiNG EDUCaTiON ECE

prOGram

Responsive Curriculum: A New Way to Look at How We Plan for ChildrenDate: 7 Sessions, begining May 26, 2009Instructors: Roni Cahen and Bev SuperleLocation: Burnaby South High SchoolCost: $115Please phone 604-664-8888 to register



NAMC offers two diploma programs for adults interested in earning their Montessori teaching certification:• Birth – 3 years (Infant/Toddler program)• 3 – 6 years (Early Childhood program)

NAMC’s programs are manageable and have been designed specifically for busy educators with demanding personal lives. If you can devote 3 hours a week to your studies, you can become a certified Montessori teacher in 7 months.

Our programs appeal to people who are interested in:• Working as a Montessori teacher• Transforming an existing center into a Montessori center• Opening their own Montessori center

Earn yourMontessori Teaching Diplomawithout missing a minute of WORK!

Become a Montessori Teacher!

www.montessoritraining.netToll free: 1.877.531.6665North American Montessori Center


Montessori… developing in harmony with life

An in-depth study of child development from Birth to 3 years of age Learn in detail how to prepare the Home Environment and the Infant Community Environment according to Montessori principles Those with an ECE Licence will qualify for an Infant Toddler Educator Licence Parents prepare to be better parents –learn how to prepare your home

Anyone working with babies, infants, toddlers and parents - or planning to be a parent – this programme is for you!

****************************************

To work with children 3 to 6+ years of age In-depth and contemporary study from September to July Early Childhood Education Equivalency for your ECE Licence

est. 1982 #200 – 8555 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 3J9

Telephone: 604-261-0864 Fax: 604-261-2805 E-Mail: [email protected]

Website: www3.telus.net/montessori Accredited by: Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) www.montessori-ami.org & (PCTIA) www.pctia.bc.ca

Financial Assistance Available for those who qualify.

Summer Course – One-time offering

Observation, Practicum and Written Assignments between summers

LA153 � EASY-RIDE FIRSTTRIKE (1-3 years)

LA154 � EASY-RIDESCHOOL TRIKE (3-6 years)

Each vehicle has a sturdy, school-friendlydesign that’s virtually maintenance-free

Safe, no-pinch handles that keep kids from oversteering

Plus extra-rugged treads that providesuperior traction on any surface!

Top-Notch Trikes...Only from

WINTERGREEN!

Telephone FREE:1-800-268-1268

Online:www.WINTERGREEN.ca

Fax FREE:1-800-567-8054

LA152 � EASY-RIDE 3-WHEELSCOOTER (3-6 years)

LA158 � EASY-RIDE SCOOTERTRIKE (1-3 years)

These top-qualitytrikes can be found

on pages 94-95of our 2009

Learning MaterialsCatalogue.

Early Childhood Educators of BC 2774 East BroadwayVancouver, BC V5M 1Y8

Tel: 604-709-6063 or 1-800-797-5602 Fax: 604-709-6077 E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: www.ecebc.ca

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Documents

The e arly Childhood eduCaTor - ECEBC · The e arly Childhood eduCaTor ... Bringing Out the Voices of Early Childhood Educators ... 26 Book Reviews—Let Children Take the Lead with