Kindful Psychology is a clinical psychology practice in Thunder Bay with some great resources on mindfulness and self-compassion. We have added the following resources under the Educator Resources section:
Visit their website for more resources and ideas, including pre-recorded meditations: https://www.kindfulpsych.com/resources
“Listening is a complex state. It involves the abandoning of oneself as we come to know that we are only one being within this vast universe”
CARLINA RINALDI, 2001
View our Calendar for upcoming events!
The Indigenous Professional Learning Team is extending an invitation to early years professionals to attend our upcoming Knowledge Exchange Gathering.
July 21, 2020 from 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EDT
This month Elders, Knowledge Keepers and early years professionals will share about the importance of Indigenous song and dance in relation to belonging, wellbeing, expression and engagement for children in the early years.
Be sure to register by Monday July 19, 2020 at 4:00 pm EDT.
Click HERE to register.
We are excited to announce that Lori Huston will be sharing her graduating work from the Master of Education in Early Childhood Education program at UBC. Please e-mail us at early.years@tbdssab.ca to join us for this amazing learning opportunity.
We had a wonderful conversation last week about pedagogical documentation. Three educators joined us who each play a different role in our community – one educator in child care, one supervisor of a before and after school program, and one EarlyON coordinator. This diversity of experience made for a unique dialogue and the opportunity to share different perspectives. We all read the article, Curiosity, Curriculum, and Collaboration Entwined: Reflections on Pedagogical Documentationby Pat Tarr.
As we discussed the article, an interesting dialogue came up around interrupting children’s play. Traditionally, we have been taught to ask children open-ended questions – “what are you building?” “what do you think will happen when you stack another block on top?” We felt that this can sometimes interrupt and change the direction of children’s play, and we agreed that we should be thoughtful in deciding when is a good time to enter children’s play and ask questions. It was said that we need to give ourselves permission to take a step back and observe more.
As the conversation continued, we began thinking about how educators pick and choose what they feel is worth documenting. Tarr (2010) states in the article that “what we choose to document reveals and reflects back to us what we consider important, as well as help us to see ourselves as educators within the educational relationship” (p. 12). This conversation reminded some of us about another article by Pat Tarr that talked about ethics and biases in pedagogical documentation. We shared mixed feelings about this article, and some of us plan to dig a little deeper to decide if or how the information fits with our practice. You can access the article here: Reflections and Shadows: Ethical Issues in Pedagogical Documentation,.
Finally, one of the educators bravely shared her documentation with us. She wondered, “is this documentation?” There isn’t one right way to document children’s learning; taking time to practice documenting and experimenting with different techniques can help educators to feel more confident. We discussed our questions and curiosities about this documentation, and a new idea was shared about “stories from home” (Hedges, 2010). Essentially, “stories from home” is a form that goes home for families to fill out and share a story that took place with their child outside of the early learning setting – it’s getting the families to document!! We discussed that this would be a great way of getting to know children and families better, and building stronger connections between, for example, child care and home.
Let us know what you think about these ideas or about the articles provided in the chat below.
References
Hedges, H. (2010). Blurring the boundaries: Connecting research, practice and professional learning. Cambridge Journal of Education, 40(3), 299-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2010.502884
Tarr, P. (2010). Curiosity, curriculum, and collaboration entwined: Reflections on pedagogical documentation. Canadian Children, 35(2), 10-14.
Tarr, P. (2011). Reflections and shadows: Ethical issues in pedagogical documentation. Canadian Children, 36(2), 11-16.
We wanted to say a special thank you to Ari Vainio and Jaymie Rusnak for hosting a conversation on communicating with parents during COVID-19. Ari and Jaymie had many clever ideas to support communication with families during these trying times. One unique example is their “virtual playdates”. Ari and Jaymie have scheduled times where families can pop in on Zoom and have a virtual visit in the program. This allows parents to get acquainted with the environment where their child spends so much of their day, and to meet some of the other children that their child plays with. Another creative idea that they shared was offering parents the option of going for a social-distanced walk (when the public health direction allows). Ari and Jaymie shared that they would go for social-distanced walks throughout the Lakehead University campus with families as a way of getting to know each other better. This provided families with a sense of comfort and trust in knowing who they are leaving their child with each day.
While there were many great ideas shared throughout the conversation, we were still left feeling like it wasn’t enough, and that we wish we could have a closer relationship with families right now. This presented as a good reminder for all of us that we are doing the best we can in the circumstances that we are dealt with currently.
Let us know how you’ve been connecting with families in the comments below.
Did you know that 97% of Canada’s early learning and child care workforce are women? We wanted to take the time today to say how grateful we are to work alongside so many amazing women who are supporting children and families in our community!
“there are many stories to be told, each one of which deserves listening to and each one of which can be questioned or contested” (Moss, 2019, p. 7)
One of the influential people for us currently is Peter Moss who is an emeritus professor of early childhood provision at UCL Institute of Education, University College London. Moss is the author of many articles and books regarding early childhood education.
Peter Moss likes to talk about early childhood education in relation to stories. He quotes Bruner (1990) when he says “mankind has an innate tendency to communicate and to make sense of existence through stories (Moss, 2019, p. 4). Synonyms for “story” are discourse and narrative. Moss talks about “dominant discourses” and “alternative narratives” in early childhood education. He describes a dominant discourse as one that has become particularly influential, or “mainstream” (Moss, 2019). Dominant discourses have a powerful influence as they insist they are “the only way to think, talk and behave” (Moss, 2019, p. 5).
We live in a time where there is a very strong dominant discourse of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism has framed much of our lives over the past 30-40 years (Moss, 2020) and has become deeply entrenched in our thinking. At its core, neoliberalism focuses on standardisation and accountability (Baltodana, 2012) and can be summed up by the quote “what gets measured gets managed” (Moss, 2019). This may help to explain why we have been focused on quality for so long. Quality is well within the neoliberal discourse as it identifies standards and is a measurement for accountability. Therefore, quality too is a dominant discourse.
Peter Moss, and many others, are suggesting that we need to come up with alternatives to these dominant discourses. He reminds us that we all have different perspectives and values which means that there does not have to be one right answer or one single way of doing things. In particular, he suggests that the way we think about and do education does not have one right answer. He believes that those who feel there is only one right way to do education are denying diversity and complexity (Moss, 2020).
As a result of this thinking, Peter Moss has adopted the concept of “alternative narratives”. Alternative narratives include other theories and perspectives (stories) that resist mainstream thinking. They allow for multiplicity and choice in the way we view early childhood education, and what we believe is important. As an example, alternatives to mainstream thinking include: Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, Montessori, and Te Whāriki. We are not looking to have you recreate one of these pedagogies; our new approach is not about recreating and making more of the same. We are hoping that you will learn alongside us, listen to the many different ways of thinking about early childhood education, and define what is important to you and what “story” you would like to tell about early childhood education.
Peter Moss does attest that it can be difficult and unsettling to break free from dominant discourses and embrace alternatives because the dominant discourses (e.g. neoliberalism and quality) have become so commonplace. However, we, as a community, are experimenting with an alternative. We are confident that there are better alternatives to quality and we believe in the potential of our community (you) to think in new and revolutionary ways. As stated by Foucault (1988), “As soon as one no longer thinks things as one formerly thought them, transformation becomes very urgent, very difficult and quite possible” (as cited by Moss, 2020, p. 106)
References
Baltodana, O. (2012). Neoliberalism and the demise of public education: The corporatization of schools of education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25, 1487–1507. doi:10.1080/09518398.2012.673025
Moss, P. (2019). Alternative narratives in early childhood: An introduction for students and practitioners. Routledge.
Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. & Moss, P. (2020, July). Early childhood pedagogy: Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw interviews Peter Moss. Journal of Childhood Studies, 45(2), 98-111.
The staff at Kanata Research Park Family Centre have put together an exhibit to “[celebrate] the sounds of children, of families, of nature and living things, of imagination, of democracy, of community, of tension, of reunion, and of connection” (para. 2). They reflected on the eerie sound of quiet within the child care centre when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down their programs, and the beautiful sounds when the children returned.
You can find a link to the virtual exhibit in the COVID-19 section of our Portal.
