Revising BC’s policy regarding ECCE through a new Early Learning Framework (ELF )
Early Learning Framework
The Unit for Early Years Research and Development is taking the lead in implementing British Columbia’s Early Learning Framework.
What is the Early Learning Framework?
The Early Learning Framework is a document developed by the British Columbia’s Ministry of Education, with input from various partners, including early years researchers and practitioners from across the province.
The Early Learning Framework breaks new ground in setting a vision for the early years in British Columbia. The framework is based on the image of the child as capable and full of potential–an image that powerfully resonates with the portrayal of children in internationally respected early learning and child care programs. This image contrasts with that typically expressed in North American early childhood programs, which tend to see children as vulnerable and in need of protection, with early childhood educators directed towards prescriptive rather than reflective practice.
BC’s framework envisions early learning as a dynamic process, actively supported by families and other adults who care for and teach children in their homes and communities. Children, adults, and environments play distinct but interacting roles in promoting early learning. Importantly, the framework also recognizes children’s strengths and abilities to shape the early learning environment as an important foundation for their growth as citizens of the future. The framework recognizes the child as an active constructor, with others, of knowledge and of making meaning of the world.