British Columbia Early Learning Framework

This revised Early Learning Framework is the culmination of a collaborative process that included early childhood educators, primary teachers, academics, Indigenous organizations, Elders, government, and other professionals. The first Early Learning Framework published in 2008 changed the landscape of early years practice in British Columbia. It presented an image of the child as capable and full of potential, and introduced pedagogical narration as a process for reflecting on the knowledge and understandings of childhood. Since 2008, there have been significant developments in the social, political, economic, and cultural context of B.C. that have created new realities for children, families, and communities. This revised Early Learning Framework acknowledges these new realities and the changing perspectives and relations they bring. The revised Early Learning Framework: (1) Expands the focus on children from birth to five years in the original framework to children birth to eight years; (2) Connects with B.C.'s New Curriculum and Core Competencies (B.C. Ministry of Education, 2018b); (3) Resists language, concepts, and pedagogies that perpetuate legacies of colonization and marginalization of Indigenous people; (4) Strives to contribute to lasting reconciliation with Indigenous people, which is anchored by the province's cross-government commitment to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); (5) Strengthens the vision of inclusive spaces and practices for all children, including children with diverse abilities and needs; (6) Envisions learning and being as a holistic process that happens as children and adults come together in relationship with each other, ideas, materials, places, and histories; (7) Introduces language that may be new to some educators; and (8) Uses the term "living inquiries" (known as "areas of learning" in the 2008 Early Learning Framework) and "pathways" (known as "learning goals" in the 2008 Early Learning Framework) that will help to describe the thinking, doing, and learning that happens as children, educators, materials, and ideas interconnect. [For the 2008 report, see ED605513.]