Issue #6 of the Here & Now, ECPN’s newsletter engages with Reimagining the role of ‘educating early childhood educators’ in BC. Last month’s edition of the Here & Now highlighted issues raised by ECEBC’s call to radically reimagine The Role of the Early Childhood Educator (ECE) in British Columbia. This month’s issue extends this important conversation by asking: what kind of education might need to be in place to realize this new vision?

In working with educators and student educators, authors ECPN Co-Directors Veronica Pacini-Ketchebaw and Kathleen Kummen often hear about struggles with language. Concepts such as pedagogy, colonialism, neoliberalism, and common worlds are terms used in the BC Early Childhood Pedagogy Network (ECPN) that are often met with hesitation. They are words that do not feel “natural” to many educators, yet we see them as vital to the project of early education. In this article, we want to open a conversation by arguing that reading difficult texts is worth the struggle.

The fifth issue of Here and Now engages with critical questions that consider a new vision of the role of the educator in connection with the role of the pedagogist, as a professional figure who walks with educators and young children along the path of reconsidering what it means to live well together within the here and now of a rapidly changing world.

This fourth issue from the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network responds to the BC Government’s commitment to invest $125,000 to expand the Just Be Four (Just B4) early childhood education program. The Just B4 programs are licensed BC half-day early years programs for children entering kindergarten the following year. With the introduction of this initiative, there is an opportunity to ask critical questions regarding the values that shape early childhood education policy.

This third issue from the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network responds to Canada's transition towards a universal child care system. The Network notes that a just transition requires clarity on how moving to a publicly funded national public system will be capable of honouring the needs and realities of local communities. Specific to BC, the Network suggests this means supporting early childhood educators who have high levels of education and ongoing professional development to promote understandings of the important role they play in upholding the vision and commitments to young children and their families as highlighted in the BC Early Learning Framework.