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Presenters:

• Rachel Brophy, Professor, School of Early Childhood, George Brown College
• Bernice Cipparrone McLeod, Professor, School of Early Childhood, George Brown College

This workshop challenges the way educators talk and teach about diversity in ECEC. We will compare new innovations to more traditional ways of approaching and measuring “diversity” and think about how these varying methods respect and inform the experience of ECE students. We consider the importance of representation, creating space for conversation and critical thinking, and the possibility of re-imagining our classrooms, and what this might offer the field.

Conversations on Diversity: Re-imagining how we think about diversity with ECE students (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Shannon Fuller, Assistant Deputy Minister, Early Years Division, Ministry of Education

New opportunities for families, educators and providers are opening in Ontario. The province is committed to the largest single expansion of childcare in its history. The federal government is again playing a role in ECEC after a long absence. Local governments have new responsibilities for planning and managing a wider scope of service providers. This workshop helps providers and practitioners understand the new developments and how they can participate.

Renewing & Expanding Ontario's Early Years & Child Care System (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Debra Mayer, Early Childhood Education Consultant, Manitoba Education and Training

Children’s transition into school is an emotional and complex time for any family. This transition may be even more challenging for families with children with additional support needs. Four Government of Manitoba departments/branches recently released an early childhood transition protocol to guide multidisciplinary partners in easing the transition of young children from their early learning program into school. The protocol helps service partners to reflect on any changes that may be needed within each agency’s own processes.

Protocol for Early Childhood Transition to School for Children with Additional Support Needs (PDF Presentation)

Presenters:

• Janet Hare, Policy Analyst, Public Health Agency of Canada
• Stephanie Cerutti, Research Analyst, Public Health Agency of Canada

Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities provides culturally appropriate early childhood development programs for First Nations, Inuit and Métis children (3-5 years old) and their families living off reserve in 134 communities across Canada. The six guiding program components of Indigenous culture and languages, education, health promotion, nutrition, social support and parental and family involvement are linked to performance measurement and evaluation results describing program delivery and outcomes for children, families and their communities.

Promising practices from Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Lisa McCorquodale, Faculty, Fanshawe College

This workshop challenges ECEs to reconsider their work and the role they play in society. It shares an appreciation for how ECEs can critically reflect on normative expectations for working parents and how the relationship formed between mothers and ECEs has the potential to push public policy. Additionally, the findings support an advocacy role that professionals can play in advancing the position of both the field and working families.

Mothering: Reclaiming Feminine Voice (PDF Presentation)

Presenters: 

• Kristy Timmons, Doctoral Student, Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study
• Janette Pelletier, Professor, Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study

This workshop explores the influence of educator and child expectations on children’s self-regulation and literacy outcomes in kindergarten. Despite the growing body of literature on the factors that influence student achievement and educational outcomes, there is limited research exploring how these factors may influence each other when both educator and child expectations are taken into consideration. Furthermore, most of the literature exploring these relationships involves older students. More research is needed to understand these relationships with children in the early years.

Influence of educator and child expectations on children’s self-regulation and literacy outcomes in kindergarten (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Melanie D'Souza, Research Faculty, School of Health Sciences and Community Services, Red River College

The Abecedarian approach is internationally recognized as a strong, evidence-based early childhood intervention strategy, designed for families living with a wide range of disadvantages. This session provides an overview of the Abecedarian project in Manitoba, highlighting the international body of research, preliminary findings from the Manitoba intervention, new initiatives within the project, and the ongoing training, mentoring and support offered to ECEs implementing the approach.

The Abecedarian Approach (PDF Presentation)

Presenters:

• Tamara Augsten, Policy Development Officer, City of Toronto, Children’s Services
• Lorraine Mcleod, Manager, City of Toronto, Children’s Services

Raising the Village is an initiative of the Toronto Child and Family Network, a collaboration between many child/family service providers. Raising the Village uses data from various sources to establish a common outcomes measurement framework. This workshop highlights the tools and resources developed to inform equitable service planning, including the race and gender toolkits and the Child and Family Inequities Score (a composite index of several socioeconomic variables). These innovative tools can inform collaborative service planning to address inequities.

Raising the Village: Providing data on child well-being to support equitable decision making (PDF Presentation)

Presenter:  Isabelle Vinet, General Coordinator, Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development and Executive Director, Centre de Psycho-Éducation du Québec

The capacity of early childhood education and care to promote equity is dependent on the policy it operates under, the practice it fosters and knowledge of early childhood environments and their impacts. This workshop uses the Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development as a resource for policy development, educator training and practice and reveals what we know, and what we do not know, about how inequity impacts children’s development.

Equity in Early Childhood Education and Care: What the research says (PDF Presentation)

Presenters: 

• Michal Perlman, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
• Linda White, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
• Petr Varmuza, Doctoral Student, University of Toronto

Considering the tragedies that have occurred in unlicensed care it is puzzling that governments continue to allow unlicensed family child care to operate. Despite the high stakes even basic information about unlicensed care, such as the number of children in care and the types of families using the care are unknown. This session provides information on usage rates based on parent reports from a national dataset. Different oversight models for unlicensed care and the costs associated with these are discussed in light of the data.

Understanding usage patterns and oversight of unlicenced family child care in Canada (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Zeenat Janmohamed, Chair, George Brown College, School of Social and Community Services, School of Deaf and Deafblind Studies

Families arrive in early childhood programs with histories in race, social class and immigration status. They may also bring Indigenous ways of knowing and have expectations that practitioners are not prepared for. Policy development and practice in the early years can make the transition from dominant assumptions about children and families to a social justice paradigm that recognizes the role of power and privilege in early child and family support programs.

Social Justice Education in the Early Years (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Kamini Kamdar, Kindergarten Teacher, York Region District School Board

Examining the Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten curriculum in light of Te Whariki (New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum) and the Reggio Emilia philosophy, participants learn how to identify the “funds of knowledge” that support children’s learning and family engagement in early childhood education, and their influence on democratic participation, equity and inclusion.

The Impact of Curriculum Approaches on Equity in Early Childhood Education Settings (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Lisa Wolff, Director, Policy & Education, UNICEF Canada

The UNICEF Index of Child Inequity reveals how far Canada allows the most disadvantaged children to fall behind the “average” child. The swirling debates about broad income inequality in Canada have largely overlooked the impacts on children. The session shows how inequality is shaping child and youth well-being. Inequality starts early, therefore we have to intervene early.

UNICEF Report Card 13: Fairness for Children: Inequality in child well-being within wealthy nations (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Brian Russell, Provincial Coordinator, Dad Central Ontario

Children learn important skills through how their fathers play, read and interact with them. Attachment theory shows that men’s style of interacting with their children supports children’s academic success. Participants will gain an understanding of the literature and discuss ways to engage fathers to support an equitable education for children.

My Dad Matters: Engaging Fathers in Young Children’s Learning (PDF Presentation)

Presenters:

• Hopi Martin, Kindergarten Teacher, Toronto District School Board and Early Years Flextime PhD Candidate, 91����, University of Toronto
• Haley Higdon, Educator, Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto and Project Lead, Natural Curiosity

Have you ever wondered how Indigenous perspectives relate to learning about the environment in the early years? Have you ever wondered what Indigenous perspectives and principles apply to all of us, and how these can be supported in any learning environment? This session hopes to light the fire of your professional inquiry by exploring how an Indigenous lens to environmental inquiry transforms learning in the early years.

Indigenous perspective on environmental inquiry in the early years (PDF Presentation)

Presenter: Emis Akbari, Professor of Early Childhood, George Brown College

Early childhood education and care viewed through an equity lens must consider who is served (the child); who is doing the labour (their gender, race, immigration status); where the labour is being performed (as a public service, as a market service, in private households); and under what conditions (waged, unwaged, unionized/non unionized etc.) — all of these factors impact the quality of services, the family (parental employment,gender equality, work/life balance)and society (equity gap/social cohesion/inclusion).

Early Childhood Education and Care, the Great Equalizer (PDF Presentation)

Presenters:

• Miranda Mackie, Manager of Services – Special Needs Resourcing, Child & Community Resources
• Noreen McChesney, Manager of Services, OEYCPC/Specialized Services, Child & Community Resources

Research links high-calibre leadership to better outcomes for young children. Effective leadership is vital to the success of education and care setting; and we recognize that without skilled and committed leaders to help shape teaching and learning, the opportunity to create and sustain high-quality learning environments is minimized. Leadership can be professionally developed and includes elements that recognize identity, influence and responsibility, respect and purpose.

Leadership Development for Equity in Early Childhood Settings (PDF Presentation)

Presenters:

• Michelle Munroe, Manager, Parent Engagement, Toronto District School Board
• Nancy Angevine, Family Engagement Consultant, With Equal Step

A critical step in making schools places where all children can learn is for educators to first see how their own cultural values operate in the classroom. This includes how they expect children to take part in discussions, to whether they expect classroom materials to be shared or used individually and whether they will, or will not, engage families.

Culturally Relevant Family Engagement Strategies for the Classroom (PDF Presentation)