Learning “In Relations:” Engaging with Decolonization in Early Learning and Child Care

• Author / Creator

  Freeborn, Chelsea E.

• Quality early learning and child care can support children in both short and long-term developmental and educational outcomes. In many ways, notions of quality and related educator dispositions in early learning and child care for Indigenous children and families mirror any program. Yet for many Indigenous families with young children in Canada, daily lived experiences continue to be impacted by colonialism, and it remains unclear how urban early learning and child care programs can be most responsive to families’ priorities and strengths. It is thus imperative for decision makers to understand how decolonial relational-based early learning and child care contexts attract, engage, and support Indigenous children and families.
  The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the limited understanding of potential indicators of quality in early learning and child care and educator dispositions of those working with Indigenous children and families in an urban setting. Weaving together three studies, this multi-paper dissertation identifies current literature regarding indicators of quality in early learning and child care and determines how quality for Indigenous children and families might be shaped by child care contexts, including educator dispositions, pre-service learning environments, and engagement in decolonization work.
  The first paper shares the results of a scoping review exploring existing literature in the areas of quality and educator dispositions in relation to Indigenous families' experiences with early learning and child care in an urban Canadian context. The second paper, a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a case study, considers Bourdieu’s theoretical apparatus of social reproduction to emphasize the role that socially constructed barriers may cause for the persistence of systemic inequalities, and how educators’ dispositions and centre programming can act as potential challenges to such inequalities. The third paper, an autoethnography, navigates reflexive work that explores how post-secondary instructors engage in meaningful decolonization and Indigenization of early learning and child care preservice education.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Decolonization
  • child care
  • Indigenous families
  • educator dispositions
  • quality

• Graduation date

  Fall 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-jtjc-g625

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.