Course Descriptions

This course provides students with an overview of the British Columbia legislation, the administration of child care programs and the role and responsibility of staff in child care administration to ensure the health and safety of children in care.

Students will examine frameworks for difference across issues of gender / sexuality / cultures / ethnicities and disability within the context of early years settings.

This course is the first of a two part series of courses providing students with an overview of developmental research and theory for children from conception till 8 years of age. In this course students will be introduced to the history of child developmental theory and research. Students will also examine early learning, motor development, physical growth and development (including brain development) and emotional development.

This course is the second of a two part series of courses providing students with an overview of developmental research and theory for children from conception till eight years of age. Students will examine social and cognitive development as it relates to children’s participation in early learning settings. The role of play in early learning will be examined and critiqued. During this practicum, students will also review current research on language and literacy acquisition in the early years.

Based on the philosophy that play provides the foundation for children's growth and development, this experiential workshop course focuses on learning environments, curriculum planning, and teaching strategies.

This course has two modules that provide students with the knowledge and abilities to create caring and learning environments for young children. In the first module emphasis is placed on practising and applying skills developed from understanding basic communication principles and techniques. The second module emphasizes the importance of planning environments to support the learning of all young children in early childhood settings.

In this course, students will become familiar with a variety of guidance/ teaching strategies focused on responding to the needs of the individual child. The focus of this course is to support students in their ability to promote each child's self-esteem, sense of belonging, and participation with others. The role of the adult and the arrangement of the environment will be examined. Students will develop a personal philosophy of guidance.

The student will acquire further knowledge, experience and skill in planning, implementing, and evaluating learning environments for groups of children.

In the first part of the course, students will have opportunities to develop skills in order to observe, record and document the behaviour of young children. Students will begin to support and extend children’s interests and play through spontaneous and planned inclusive activities. Interpersonal skills with adults and children will also be developed. During the practicum, students will use his/her daily Teacher Journal and sponsor teacher suggestions to reflect on his/her own significant learning. Based on observations, students will be able to begin to interpret children’s engagements and develop responsive programming strategies.

This course engages in a critical analysis of current development research and theory focusing on children aged birth to eight. Critically examining the concepts such as readiness, inclusion, gender, diversity in order to understand how developmental theory can construct barriers to quality early childhood education.

This course provides an introduction to the history and philosophy of ECCE. Major contemporary issues are examined. International childcare is discussed.

The student will gain knowledge of the broad concepts and principles involved in the effective administration and management of a child care centre and the skills required to fulfil the role of a manager/director/administrator.

The ECCE program includes three applied theory practicum courses. In each successive course, students extend their knowledge and skills developed in the previous practicum. This course is the second course in the sequence. Students will continue to develop skills in observing, documenting and understanding children and their play and develop programming that honours individual differences, family and cultural practices. Students will be expected to participate as a member of the teaching team.

The ECCE program includes three applied theory practicum courses. In each successive course, students extend their knowledge and skills developed in the previous practicum. This course is the third course in the sequence. Students will continue to develop skills in observing, documenting and understanding children and their play and develop programming that honours individual differences, family and cultural practices. During this practicum, the student will be expected to participate as a member of the teaching team.

This course explores the relationship between families, children’s programs and communities. Students will consider the role of Early Childhood Education in Society and our professional responsibilities to young children and families. The study of program qualities, policies and teacher/family communication will be examined with respect to family diversity, supportive relationships and with sensitivity to the issues currently affecting children, families and programs.

The student will develop an awareness of the early childhood educator's role and responsibility in preparing a safe, healthy environment and in planning routine procedures for infants and toddlers. The focus will be on planning schedules, routines, space and program activities for infants and toddlers. Individual and small group activities which promote self esteem, language, social behaviours and self-help skills will be planned. Goal setting and effective guidance will be discussed.

This course will examine strategies for collaborating with parents, adapting programs, implementing individual intervention goals and helping children to communicate with one another.

The student will develop an awareness of the early childhood educator's role and responsibility in preparing a safe, healthy environment and in planning routine procedures for infants and toddlers. The focus will be on planning schedules, routines, space and program activities for infants and toddlers. Individual and small group activities which promote self esteem, language, social behaviours and self-help skills will be planned. Goal setting and effective guidance will be discussed.

This practicum course requires a 25-day practicum in an inclusive centre for children birth-to-three years. Throughout the course students will reflect in depth upon their previous teaching experiences in relation to the current practicum placement. The intent of the practicum is to implement opportunities for planned and spontaneous programming and consider respectful interactions with young children. Furthermore, throughout the practicum a student will demonstrate advanced professional competencies, knowledge and reflective skills.

This course will examine strategies for collaborating with parents, adapting programs, implementing individual intervention goals and helping children to communicate with one another.

This course provides students with the opportunity to examine all aspects of negotiated curriculum. Topics will include the image of the child, the investigative environment, learning materials and the basic principles of documentation.

The course aims to give students the ability to interpret a broad and historical review of the development of the different concepts of globalization. A critical and questioning approach to the influences of global trends on child-rearing processes and development will be encouraged. The course will critically examine the concepts, terms, definitions and debates of globalization as influences for early childhood practitioners.

This course will give the student an understanding of the concept of early literacy and its significance in early childhood care and education.

This course will give students the development tools and strategies for organizing the work of the pedagogista in ECCE organizations. On completion of the course, student will have the ability to define the role of pedagogista in our communities and be able to critically examine the ethics and politics in ECCE organizations. Students will also learn how to investigate the role of progettazione: concept and practice, and how to build listening and dialogue in communities of learning.

This course is the second course in a 2-part sequence. This course continues to examine the philosophy as well as tools and strategies for organizing the work of the pedagogista in early childhood organizations. Key areas of study will include the pedagogy of listening within the context of particular ECCE learning communities; critical examination of the ethics and politics in early childhood organizations and perspectives on developing "projetazzione".

The Advanced Practice stream has two applied theory practicum courses. This course is the first course in the sequence. Please note this stream cannot be used to obtain a post basic license to practice from the BC Early Childhood Registry. The practicum placement will be in an approved setting which has an early years mandate. Students will gain advanced practice skills in programs supporting young children and their families. Students will conduct in-depth examination of the program delivery, mandate and legislation associated with the program. Student will incrementally demonstrate advanced practice, knowledge and reflective skills.

The Advanced Practice stream has two applied theory practicum courses. This course is the second course in the sequence. Please note this stream cannot be used to obtain a post basic license to practice from the BC Early Childhood Registry. The practicum placement will be in an approved setting which has an early years mandate. Students willgain advanced practice skills in programs supporting young children and their families. Students will conduct in-depth examination of the program delivery, mandate and legislation associated with the program. Student will incrementally demonstrate advanced practice, knowledge and reflective skills.

This course explores the notion of outdoor education and nature-based education in an early childhood context. The major emphasis will be on how children and educators can develop an ecological identity by engaging in outdoor spaces/curriculum.

Based on the philosophy that play provides the foundation for children’s growth and development, this experiential workshop course focuses on learning environments, curriculum planning, and teaching strategies that support children’s engagement with concepts of numeracy. The course will focus on how young children use and understand mathematics in everyday life, in their play and in their daily living.

In this course, the students will acquire further knowledge, experience and skill in planning and implementing long-term investigations with children. They will engage with pedagogical practices related to curriculum that reflect the BC ELF and current research. Further, the course will extend students work with pedagogical narration as a practice use to interpret children’s engagements and to develop responsive programming.

This course will introduce students to current early childhood theories and approaches that understand pedagogy as situated and relational. This course examines the role of the pedagogista in the ongoing development of West Coast Pedagogies in early years classrooms. Throughout the course students will learn within an interdisciplinary approach to pedagogy and place so as to generate contextual pedagogical dispositions and sensitivities.

This course will explore the philosophical and pedagogical aspects of narrations that promote practices and inquiries that support pedagogical work that listens to children’s interests, desires, experimentations and movements. In order to understand the purposes and processes of pedagogical narrations, students will critically contextualize documentation in early childhood education.

This practicum course requires a 25-day practicum in an inclusive centre for children birth-to-three years. In this course, the student will develop programming that honours individual differences, family and cultural practices. An in-depth examination of inclusive practice will be a guiding factor throughout the practicum. These skills will incrementally demonstrate the student’s advanced professional, practice, knowledge and reflective skills.

This course examines the social, political, and economic factors and the relationships between these factors and families in a variety of cultural contexts. A study of socio-cultural theories will build a more complex picture of the relations between individual and cultural processes. Students will be able to formulate a professional response that includes families as active participants in the care and education of their children.

This course explores leadership, advocacy and policy within the context of current political and philosophical dialogues in ECCE. Key topics will include an examination of relevant legislation, government policies and regulations; roles of advocacy groups; policy development; relationships with governmental and non-governmental organizations and the role that Early Childhood educators play as advocates in a global context.

This course is designed to examine contemporary issues in early childhood care and education in order to expose students to current developments in the field. International, national and local aspects of early childhood policy, practice, professionalism, curriculum and learning environments will be considered. There will be an in-depth examination of a range of current political, social, professional and community issues relevant to early childhood practices.

This course is an introduction to the tradition of practitioner research in Early Childhood Care and Education. Students will learn the rudiments of critical teacher inquiry and explore research as an ongoing aspect of one's teaching practice. The course focuses on the dispositions, concepts and skills involved in designing and conducting educational research projects. It introduces a range of qualitative research methodologies. Students will begin framing a research question and designing an independent research project.

This course will provide students with an understanding of various social justice frameworks and the complexities of translating them into early childhood care and educational practices. Topics include an examination of social justice issues from an ethical perspective; an assessment of power dynamics and privilege in contemporary and historical societies; and a focus on the relationships between ethics, early childhood care and education and human rights at both theoretical and practical levels.

In this course students carry out an extended, in-depth curriculum project investigating an idea, material, process, story, or topic with children, document the project using the processes and practices of pedagogical narration, and present the project in a public presentation. Students will be assisted in finding appropriate placements to engage in an in-depth curriculum project with children 0 to 5 years of age that reflects the pedagogical intentions in the BC Early Learning Framework.

This course explores artistic ways of knowing and researching in early childhood contexts. Students will be offered the opportunity to consider alternative forms of educational research, understand the arts as a mode of inquiry, and to conceptualize the early childhood art studio as space of research.

This course explores ways that educators can facilitate children’s artistic engagements and productions and support their fluency with/in different artistic media and processes. It aims to help educators develop sensitivities towards working with children in their experimentations and fabrications and consider how we might enter into what is already happening.

This course examines the philosophy and pedagogy of education for organizing the work of the pedagogista in early childhood contexts. Drawing on the thoughts of curriculum theorists, educational philosophers, and Indigenous scholars, students will critically examine a variety of pedagogies within diverse disciplines. The key topics of this course include the ethics and politics in early childhood organizations, teachers' pedagogical dispositions, and reconceptualizing early childhood curriculum and pedagogy. This course suggests that pedagogy is inevitably situated, responsive, interdisciplinary and compositional.

This course explores the notion of outdoor education and nature-based education in an early childhood context. The course includes an intensive field study component that involves students participating in outdoor activities. Picking up the threads that wove through EDUC 383, the major emphasis of this course will be gaining knowledge regarding how to ethically engage in outdoor spaces/curriculum with young children.

This course introduces students to postqualitative research methodologies engaging with a range of poststructural and posthumanist theories to unsettle Eurocentric and anthropocentric frameworks. Students examine positivist research terms such as reliability, validity, representation, and objectivity from a postqualitative lens. Postqualitative methods such as decolonizing methods, multispecies ethnography, a/r/tography, queer/queering methods and narratives/writing are explored to consider new ways of engaging in research that acknowledges the complexity and contradiction of lived experiences. Moving beyond data analysis as a process of coding and accessing, themes, students engage in data analysis methods that make possible new understandings of data. The goal of this course is to invite students to disrupt research as a quest for certainty and universality in order to make space for provisional and diverse ways of being in the world.

This course uses poststructural including posthumanist theories and a reconceptualist perspective to reimagine alternative ways of understanding childhoods in the 21st century. Students explore the concept of subjectivity to make visible how subjects are produced and maintained in educational practices. Woven throughout this course is an analysis of how particular neoliberal subjectivities within education routinely marginalize specific groups of children and families. Students consider alternative educational practices that emerge from a perspective that all children are strong, resilient and resourceful. Attention is given to the messy, complex and often contradictory lives of that contain entangled multiple relationships with humans and more than human beings.