The BC Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) looks forward to new possibilities for early childhood education with the recent announcement from BC Government Throne Speech that early childhood education will be moving to the Ministry of Education in April. 

On October 27, 2021, two new pieces of early learning and child care legislation were enshrined in British Columbia law. Putting political intention into formal legislation is an important step in holding government and policy makers accountable for promises made. But, how we enact the new legislation will determine the strength or weakness of the system we continue building together with early childhood education educators throughout the province. What else might this legislation generate for the field of early childhood education in BC?

Indigenous peoples were, and continue to be, criminalised and targeted for removal from the land and their communities, but we are all inheritors of a national educational system founded on genocidal practices and participants in resisting and/or perpetuating ongoing process of colonial indoctrination and violence.

We, the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN), bear witness to the injustices of systemic racism in education – and in the specific educational contexts in which we work and live.