Early Childhood Education: Advocacy, Leadership and Management

Children’s communicative practices, language, literacies, and literate identities are co-constructed within a range of relationships. In this course, students learn to co-create and evaluate curriculum to enhance and develop children’s communication and literacies through multimodal meaning making practices. 

Literacies and Play explores how to recognize and extend upon children’s wide range of experiences and immerse children in an interactive, positive, playful, and language rich environment. This course focuses on the facilitation of high quality literacy and communication curriculum for young children that recognizes the value of play.

In early learning and childcare centres, inclusion is necessary to ensure each child has a positive learning experience and sense of belonging. Students reflect upon their own experiences, values, and biases to create an awareness of the connection between one’s views, privileges, and implementation of the curriculum.

Diversity and Inclusiveness has a focus on exploring inclusiveness and equity with children as it positively builds the learning community and the local community. “All children regardless of race, religion, age, linguistic heritage, social or economic status, gender, or ability are entitled to inclusion in everyday activities and routines” (NB Curriculum Framework).

Also, students examine Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how students can successfully integrate the UDL principles within their own early learning and childcare centre practices.
 

Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) encounter children with exceptionalities and/or challenging behaviours who require guidance and support. Using the theory and knowledge gained in the previous course, Guiding Children Positively, further positive guidance strategies are introduced and explored in-depth to increase an ECE’s ability to successfully support all children in their care.

Advanced Positive Child Guidance focuses on children living with exceptionalities or exhibiting challenging behaviors and their possibly underlying causes (mental health, physical health, environmental, sensory, confusion, frustration, etc.). Students also explore the cognitive, physical, emotional, social, and behavioural differences often associated of children with varying exceptionalities. Throughout the course, the emphasis remains on the uniqueness of an individual child and the evidence-based practices, which support specific child-centred guidance methods.

Nurturing environments are the backbone of positive early learning and childcare communities. When children are included and respected, the opportunities to learn increase which produces higher quality experiences and outcomes. Students explore how to purposefully plan and organize their environments in relation to the curriculum and learning community.

Creating a Learning Community examines the importance of reciprocal relationships with children as well as observations of their interests and reactions to learning experiences. Students develop ways to increase children’s sense of belonging, engagement, responsibility, cooperation, and reflection.  
 

Early learning and childcare centre administrators must ensure their organization is professionally run and meets the needs of children, families, and staff. Early Learning and Childcare Administration provides an introduction to the skills required of an administrator to successfully open, operate, and manage a centre or day home. Students explore various strategies related to financial management, marketing, communication, and evaluation of programming.

Successful early learning and childcare centres require knowledgeable and communicative administrators whether they work in large centres with multiple people or in a dayhome run by one individual.

In early learning and childcare, advocacy takes on multiple forms involving different facets within the field. Advocacy in early learning and childcare centres introduces the importance of advocacy to the profession including its effects on early learning and childcare throughout the world. Students explore how they view advocacy and learn to advocate for the care and education of young children, their families, early childhood educators, and the profession.

When children play outdoors in nature, it’s been shown to positively impact their overall development and well-being. Indoor play cannot accurately replicate outdoor play as a person has to actually experience and connect with the outside world. For instance, watching a video about snow does not provide the same experience as standing outside catching a snowflake on one’s tongue during a snowfall. 

Outdoor Play and Nature focuses on outdoor play opportunities in the natural world and constructed play spaces, including how to consistently incorporate them into early learning and childcare centres/homes. Students reflect on their own outdoor play experiences to gain insight into their personal feelings and see how their personal feelings can affect their own practices. 

Within this course, the selection of outdoor environments is examined to ensure equitable access and opportunities are present for all children (without the need for adult intervention). Also, Canadian children experience four seasons, so students learn to create programming for outdoor play in all seasons. Other topics include environmental responsibility, Indigenous values and the natural world, healthy risk-taking and curiosity, and documentation of outdoor experiences. 

Leadership is often associated with a position of authority, such as a manager or supervisor. However, leadership practices are demonstrated in a variety of ways that are not necessarily predetermined through a position of authority.

Leadership From Within affords students the opportunity to explore various beliefs and viewpoints of leadership as well as expand upon their own perceptions of leadership. Students are offered the chance to consider their own leadership style by analyzing their own values, attitudes, belief systems, personal and professional goals and experiences and reframing it within the context of early childhood education.

The field of early learning and childcare is continually changing and becoming increasingly complex. Therefore it is important to have effective leadership skills to create and sustain high quality learning and care settings.

Leading Through Relationships explores the necessity of establishing professional, trusting, and reciprocal relationships to become an effective leader. Students develop leadership skills in relation to effective communication, critical thinking and reflection, coaching, and mentoring. Also, this course explores the professional knowledge, skills, and ethical considerations required of leaders in early learning and childcare. 

Over the course of history, families in Canada have become increasingly diverse. It is essential to maintain an awareness of the diversity of families in order to form and maintain reciprocal relationships.

Families and Diversity explores the diverse nature of families from a current perspective to develop a broader sensitivity to the unique strengths and challenges of families in our society. Students also examine differing parenting styles and parent-child relationships through a variety of cultural lenses. 

As early childhood educators, students develop techniques to maintain a family centered and culturally sensitive atmosphere in order for an early learning centre to show value and belonging for all children and their families.