Category: Uncategorized

Nowrouz Mubarak!

we are going into the year 1403

Nowruz is a combination of Persian words نو now – meaning “new” – and روز ruz – meaning “day“.

To celebrate the start of the solar new year family members gather around a ‘haft-sin’ which is a table consisting of seven symbolic things taken from nature and their names begin with the letter ‘S’ in Farsi!

The arrangement this year was put together by a family at Cedar Place with homemade sweets.

On January 26th I participated in one of UVIC’s Anti-Oppression workshops, “Strong Voice: Rematriation as Resistance.”  It was the first of a series of workshops that I highly encourage you to check out.  You do not need to take them in succession as each workshop is easy to follow as a stand-alone experience.

If you’re curious, Celine also attended the 2nd workshop, “Hear Someone’s Voice Before You See Them: Anti-Oppression Key Principles, Knowledges, and Equity-Focused Action-Based Frameworks.”

Info about the workshops can be found here:

https://www.uvic.ca/equity/education/anti-racism/index.php 

I hope to continue sharing and breaking down some of what was discussed in “Strong Voice” but here is a brief summary.

Yahlnaaw our facilitator from Tagu Consulting contends that rematriation is concerned with the stories and identities of objects and bodies, restoring ancestral and feminine values (like fertility, knowledge, nurturance), and protecting/maintaining those bodies’ and objects’ relation to one another and to their original land.

Where “repatriation” is the passive return of objects and bodies to their ancestral homes (often damaged, disrespected etc), rematriation ensures that objects, bodies, and the land are restored respectfully and that all intersecting relationships are considered.  Land back is not enough.  Restored liveable land back should be the norm.

All anti-oppression work must be guided by rematriation.  If “indigenization” and “decolonization” are not guided by this concept, they have been whitewashed.  How does this resonnate?

Such powerful things to think about.  I look forward to sharing more.

Chinese New Year is like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter all rolled into one…It’s all about food and family for two weeks.” Daniel Low (in Arrais, Times Colonist, 2024), Wong Sheung Kung Fu Club, Victoria, BC

Chinese New Year is a time to feast and to visit family members. Many traditions of the season [honour] relatives who have died. The last event of the 15-day celebration is the Lantern Festival. People often hang glowing lanterns in temples or carry them during a nighttime parade. (Britannicakids.com)

Celebrating the Lunar New Year with food, family and lion dances

 

Communities and governments will work in partnership to affirm children as citizens who are valued members of their communities and contributors to their societies. Adults will work to ensure a space where pride of languages and cultures are cultivated, and in which children can take up social and traditional responsibilities. As part of their efforts to understand, value, and accept responsibility for promoting early learning, all levels of government and all communities will work together to nurture and support children and families, and to support parents, grandparents, and other family members in their efforts to promote children's learning and overall well-being. (BC ELF, 2019, pp. 12-13).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[W]hen you ask people to think about what it means to be human and our relationships with our plant and animal relatives in lands and waters, there’s like a leap that people have to take.

The first leap is always an affective leap—it feels so good to be outside, it feels so good to be listening to birds and watching the waves. All of that is important but it doesn’t help us to answer these larger questions of how do we understand territory, how do we understand migration, how do we understand our responsibilities to one another, how do we understand our stories, and how do we live our stories. So, the second leap is socio-political and temporal…

Walking is really powerful for lots of reasons. And walking along with reading land I don’t think is sufficient. I think it gets us to some of the affective spaces, but not necessarily spaces of reimagining, or remembering, or creation. The story part is vitally important and we have to ask who are we storying with, and what are we storying, and what are we storying towards. It’s not just about telling a story. It’s about the purpose, and the lived relations, and the *axiological dimensions. (Ananda Marin in Bang, Marin, Wemigwase, Nayak, & Nxumalo, 2022, pp. 158-159)

Reference:

Bang, M., Marin, A., Wemigwase, S., Nayak, P., & Nxumalo, F. (2022). Undoing human supremacy and white supremacy to transform relationships: An interview with Megan Bang and Ananda Marin. Curriculum Inquiry, 52:2, 150-161, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2022.2052635

*From Google: What is the meaning of axiology in education?

Embracing Indigenous Knowledges

Post by Hannah

When many of us got our ECE diplomas there was very little included in the curriculum about diversity. Even less about Indigenous knowledges. I completed my diploma in 2008, and our main discussions on diversity were centred around having photographs and books about other people and places (not Canada and not white people), and the ethics around celebrating holidays in the centre. I don’t remember learning anything that was specifically about Indigenous cultures.

Because of this, some educators, myself included, have had a lot of learning and un-learning to do in recent years (Calderon, et al., 2021). As the BC Early Learning Framework (ELF) (2019) strives to include more Indigenous philosophies, educators must attempt to find a way to respectfully adapt their practice. If we do not do this difficult work, we risk continuing to perpetuate the “dominance of western knowledge systems and erasure of Indigenous ones” (Lees, et al., p. 281, 2021). I include myself in this as a Métis educator, as I was trained in a colonial institution and have therefore worked using primarily western/colonial methods for the bulk of my career as an ECE.

The ELF (2019) discusses building “connection and reconnection to land, culture, community, and place” (p. 21). When it mentions children developing a sense of place, they are referring to an emotional (and sometimes spiritual) bond to a place (Raffan, 1993). James Raffan wrote that in his conversations with Indigenous people he realized that this sense of place is something “that touches the heart more than the mind” (p. 44). This is something that I believe we all hope the children in our care will carry with them when they remember their time at UVic Child Care Services.

The First Peoples Principles of Learning, as outlined in the ELF, discusses children developing a sense of place as part of their holistic learning. It explains that holistic learning in this context is very relational, focusing on connectedness, reciprocity, and sense of place. Fikile Nxumalo (2020) writes about disrupting colonial human-centred ways of relating to the more-than-human world and the need to move towards “pedagogies that foreground radical relationality and reciprocity with the more-than-human beings, including water, animals, plants, and land” (p. 39). Common worlding is a very good place to start, especially for settlers, as it recognizes the interdependent relationship we have with more-than-human beings (Cullen, et al., 2021), and shares many values with Indigenous ways of knowing. Helping children recognize this interdependence is very important as we live through these times of human-caused environmental crises, as they will soon be the ones working towards affecting change.

Over the last few months (or perhaps years?) I have asked myself how we (Indigenous, Inuit, and Métis peoples) can communicate effectively to settlers the connection we have with the land. How can we teach this to those that do not share the same spiritual beliefs? I feel (along with many others) that if settlers had a better understanding of the interconnectedness of the land, humans, and more-than-humans living here, we would have more people calling for changes in how capitalist entities are permitted to work. In a recent conversation with one of my nêhiyawak cousins, I told her about the connection I have always felt with the land, and the relational values I have held, even before I knew I was Métis (that’s a whole other story). She told me that it’s innate (M. McDermott, personal communication, March 7, 2023). It’s a connection that we just have in us, which is likely why I struggle to verbalize it.

As my practicum comes to a close, I am very grateful to have spent time learning with and from all the staff and children at the centres here. I have learned a lot about how the ELF can be put into practice, and really examined my own professional practices. Thank you all for having me, and I look forward to working with you again.

 

 

References

 

British Columbia Ministry of Education, Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Ministry of Health. (2019). British Columbia Early Learning Framework. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/early-learning/teach/earlylearning/early_learning_framework.pdf

 

Calderon, D., Lees, A., Swan Waite, R., & Wilson, C. (2021). ‘Crossing the bridge’: Land education teacher professional development. Professional Development in Education, 47(2–3), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2021.1891957

 

Lees, A., Tropp Laman, T. & Calderon, D. (2021). “Why didn’t I know this?”: Land education as an antidote to settler colonialism in early childhood teacher education. Theory Into Practice, 60(3), 279–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2021.1911482

 

Nxumalo, F. (2020). Place-based disruptions of humanism, coloniality and anti-blackness in early childhood education. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 8(SI). https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v8iSI.269

 

Raffan, J. (1993). The Experience of Place: Exploring Land as Teacher. Journal of Experiential Education, 16(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/105382599301600109

 

Taylor, A., Zakharova, T., & Cullen, M. (2021). Common worlding pedagogies: Opening up to learning with worlds. Journal of Childhood Studies, 46(4), 74-88. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs464202120425

 

Interview with George

As some of you know I live in Lam Circle and George the Peacock is often seen near the playground in front of my house. One night after the neighbourhood children had all gone in for the evening, I saw him outside, so I decided to pop out and say hi. I was quite surprised when he said hi back, so I decided to ask him if we could sit down for an interview sometime. He thought that would be lovely. I recorded it to share with you all.

Hannah:  Hi George, I’m so glad we got this chance to talk!

George:  I am too! There have been a lot of odd things written about me lately. Someone dropped a newspaper with a picture of me on the cover. I read it, and I feel it didn’t really represent me properly.

H:  Yes, I saw that. What would you like to tell people?

G:  Well first of all, I want to make sure that everyone knows about my amazing feathers. I do like to show them off, because they’re beautiful, but lately I have often been showing them to indicate that I’m feeling threatened (Beauty of Birds, 2022).

H:  That’s good to know. I’ve seen you around Lam Circle a fair bit, and I often see you fanning your feathers. Are you okay?

G:  Some of those children are not very kind to me. One of them was even trying to touch my feathers! I did not like that at all. I didn’t attack him, but I seriously considered it. I am very uncomfortable with people touching me. Especially the beautiful feathers on my train. However, the thing that makes me most uncomfortable is when there are other peacocks in my space. I have my territory and that’s where I like to be. I don’t like it when other peacocks are in my territory (Knox, 2021).

H:  Oh really? Have you had any issues with that on campus?

G:  Well. One time I was near a building on campus and I saw a peacock inside! I immediately fanned my feathers and went over to investigate because people never let me go inside. Why should I be treated differently than this other peacock? As I got closer, I could see that he was approaching me as well. Suddenly the wall moved and he was gone! I went in to follow him, but I didn’t see him anywhere. There was a sound behind me so I spun around and there he was! Outside! How did he get past me? I went closer, and again he approached me. The wall moved and he disappeared again! So I went back out in search of him. Again, I heard the same sound behind me, and when I turned he was there! Inside! I attempted to follow him many times, but he kept getting past me! It was very confusing. Eventually I gave up and left (Akyurek, M., personal communication, July 8, 2023).*

H:  So… George… I’ve read that peacocks sometimes mistake their reflections for another peacock (Knox, 2021). Do you think this may be what happened that day?

G:  (After a lengthy pause) No, you’re definitely wrong.

H:  Are you sure?

G:  Yes. I’m very sure.

H:  Okay, well let’s change the topic for a while. You visit the UVic Child Care Services yards sometimes. Why? There are a lot of children there, and they tend to be rather noisy.

G:  I agree, the children are a little loud, but they do tend to be very respectful of my space, and they have a lot of healthy plants and bugs for me to eat in their yards. The other children near the houses try to feed me, but I often feel a little sick after I eat their food.

H:  I’m glad you feel the children at the child care centres are so respectful. Part of our Early Learning Framework (2019) is all about learning to live respectfully with our community, including our more-than-human friends, like you, who share this land with us.

G:  That’s great to hear. Thanks for teaching them to be kind to me. I’m really glad that’s part of your philosophy.

H:  Me too. So George, I’ve heard that the university has considered re-homing you.

G:  Re-homing? What’s that? I have a home!

H:  It’s when people decide to move an animal to a new home or territory. There are many different reasons it might happen.

G:  But why though??!!?!?!? I live here!

H:  I know George, but some people worry that the children could get hurt. Or that you could get hurt by a child.

G:  I wouldn’t hurt a child! Not on purpose! Sometimes they scare me, so I follow my instincts and try to intimidate them by fanning my feathers, and sometimes making sounds so they know I don’t like it when they’re close to me. They need to notice what I’m doing and step back!

H:  I know, and animal control agrees that you shouldn’t have to move away if you aren’t posing a threat to anyone (Link, 2023). I think it’s more the humans that are posing a threat to you, than you posing a threat to us.

G:  IT’S TRUE!!!!!! DON’T MAKE ME LEAVE! I LIVE HERE!!! (Loud squawking ensues)

H: And some people worry that you could accidentally attract a cougar to the campus (Link, 2023).

G:  A COUGAR????? WHERE???!?!?!? (He fans his feathers, starts turning around in circles, and continues squawking)

H:  George, calm down. (Squawking continues) GEORGE!!!! GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF! THERE IS NO COUGAR!!!

G:  What??? Are you sure???

H:  Yes, I’m sure.

G:  Oh… Okay… (stops and folds his feathers down) You scared me! I really don’t like cougars!

H:  Sorry about that. I should have phrased that differently.

G:  That’s for sure! I think I need to rest now. That got really intense for me just now.

H:  I’m sorry George. I’ve upset you. I hope you can get some sleep tonight.

G:  If I have nightmares about cougars, I’ll be standing outside your bedroom window to yell at you about it.

H:  That is totally fair. Goodnight George.

G:  You better hope it’s good.

And with that he turned and walked off into the night. I hope I didn’t upset him too much. He already has enough to be upset about with the neighbourhood kids following him around all the time. Hopefully he will continue to be a respected member of our community. Everyone loves him and it would be a shame if he had to leave.

*The story George related about the other peacock has been verified by a friend of mine. One day he got very confused by some automatic sliding glass doors on campus. He went in and out for quite some time as my friend watched from her office window.

Rererences

British Columbia Ministry of Education, Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Ministry of Health. (2019). British Columbia Early Learning Framework. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/early-learning/teach/earlylearning/early_learning_framework.pdf

Beauty of Birds. (2022, September 18). Why do peacocks spread their feathers (or train)? Beauty of birds. https://beautyofbirds.com/why-do-peacocks-spread-their-feathers/

Knox, J. (2021, July 18). Jack Knox: Polarizing Beacon Hill Park peacocks proliferate, puzzle. Times colonist. https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/jack-knox-polarizing-beacon-hill-park-peacocks-proliferate-puzzle-4690758

Link, H. (2023, January 26). Students flock to Instagram to follow the beloved UVic peacock. Martlet. https://martlet.ca/uvic-students-flock-to-instagram-to-follow-beloved-peacock/

What’s “good” got to do with it?

Every so often a quote from Fred Rogers comes up in my Facebook newsfeed. In a 1981 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood (PBS, n.d.), Rogers is colouring and says to the audience, “I’m not very good at it, but it doesn’t matter, it’s just the fun of doing it that’s important” (InstantTrain, 2021, 0:26). This quote resonated with me because I really enjoy doing a lot of things that I’m not necessarily very “good” at.

We tend to have this idea in western culture that we’re only good at something if we can commodify it, or do it at a professional level. I’m a decent musician. Not good enough to make a living at it, but I still find musical things to do because I enjoy it. Could I be a professional painter? Probably not, but I still enjoy creating art.

I think this narrow definition of what it means to be good at an activity is something that we, as ECEs, are perfectly situated to change for future generations. I have worked with children over the years who have decided that they don’t like doing something because they don’t think they’re good enough at it. One of the principles in BC’s Early Learning Framework (ELF) says that children are strong and capable, so part of our job as educators is to facilitate learning that instills in the child a sense of self-confidence (ELF, 2019). Encouraging children to do things just for the enjoyment of doing it teaches them that they don’t have to be good at everything. You can still have a lot of fun doing something that you’re average at. I know I do.

The ELF also reminds us to be aware of what our images of children and childhood are (2019). We all have different experiences which shape how we work with children. We should also keep in mind that different cultures prioritize different things at different ages, and we must account for that in our interactions with children (James, 1998). Children will have varying levels of ability based on cultural differences and what skills/activities families incorporate into daily routines.

In the childcare setting, I must disagree with Rogers when he says “I’m not very good at it” while working with children. Many of the things we do with children, like art, are so subjective that it’s impossible to evaluate whether it’s good or not. Who decided what “good” is?

If we are creating art with a child and we tell them “I’m not very good at it,” I feel it could undermine their self-confidence a little. Due to our fine motor development, we are likely to be more able to draw a horse that looks like a horse than a young child will be. If I say that I’m not good at drawing a horse, but my horse looks more realistic than the child’s, they may feel bad about their skill level.

I believe that while working with children we could say something more along the lines of “I’m not sure how to do it, but I enjoy trying to figure it out,” or “mine isn’t the same as my friend’s, but I’m still having fun making it.” If a child says “Hannah, your horse doesn’t look like a horse,” I would blow it off and just say, “Oh well. I’m having fun making it,” because Rogers was right when he said, “it’s the fun of doing that’s important.”

 

 

References

British Columbia Ministry of Education, Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Ministry of Health. (2019). British Columbia Early Learning Framework. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/early-learning/teach/earlylearning/early_learning_framework.pdf

InstantTrain. (2021, March 24). Drawing (subtitled) – Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zJVZsXW3M

James, A. (1998). From the child’s point of view: Issues in the social construction of childhood. In Panter-Brick (Ed.), Biosocial perspectives on children (pp. 45-65). Cambridge University Press.

PBS. (n.d.). How people make crayons. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. https://ww.pbs.org/video/mister-rogers-neighborhood-competition-how-people-make-crayons/