Bordering Points and Practices in Toronto’s Licensed Childcare Sector: Investigating Access for Families with Precarious Legal Status (updated version)

Abstract:

For families with precarious legal status, navigating their local childcare system poses unique challenges. This study investigates access to licensed childcare services for legally precarious families in Toronto, Canada, through a mapping of the sector to identify what the authors term bordering points – junctures within the system where access can be refused or facilitated. We review a number of empirical studies of these bordering and gatekeeping practices. The mapping that ensued was limited to an examination of publicly available texts and documents about different aspects of the sector. We did not carry out interviews or engage in participant observation for this project, but both could be important approaches for future research. The work sheds light on where access regulations are enforced, the role of frontline workers as gatekeepers of access, and important areas for future research and intervention. The authors propose that a formal entity addressing immigration status issues could improve support for families with precarious legal status and improve sector inclusivity.

Keywords:

bordering, childcare access, precarious legal status, mapping, Toronto, Canada

Editorial Note:

This is an updated version that replaces the article that was printed in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue. Any
references to the work should use this updated version; the previous version has been withdrawn.

Special Issue: Disability Justice in ECE

Disability Justice in ECE—Foregrounding Counterstorytelling Practices

Guest Editor: Maria Karmiris

Including the Voices of Children with ADHD: An Invitation to Disrupt Normalcy

Abstract: This paper shares knowledge of ADHD gathered from children’s experiences and uses it to inform others. To do the supporting study, I leaned on the New Sociology of Childhood and on Critical Disability Studies and used a qualitative approach with an ethnographic lens. The findings show: (a) the knowledge children have of ADHD is connected to how it manifests in their lives; (b) lack of understanding from others may impact children with ADHD’s self-concept; (c) making friends is difficult for children with ADHD; and (d) children with ADHD can offer valuable information on how others can understand them better.

Keywords: children with ADHD, children describing ADHD, Critical Disability Studies, Disability Justice, the New Sociology of Childhood, research with children

Mad Autobiographical Stories, Poetry, and Resistances within Post-Secondary Early Childhood Education and Care

Abstract:

This article engages readers with a Mad autobiographical poetry and storytelling approach by drawing from principles of disability justice and Mad Studies to share personal and autobiographical stories and poetry regarding teaching and learning within post-secondary early childhood education and elementary education. The author engages in autobiographical writing regarding their lived experiences within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) while critiquing the privileging of sanism within ECEC through developmentalist theories. Through the use of Mad autobiographical poetry, the author seeks to advance Mad narratives and stories in ECEC.

Keywords:

Mad Studies, early childhood education, madness, mad poetics, poetry

Centring Relational Knowledge in Early Learning and Childcare: Implications for Pedagogy and Pedagogical Leadership

Abstract:

This article describes tensions between scientific and relational knowledges that have followed the author throughout her journey to become an early childhood educator and pedagogical leader. The author thinks with reconceptualist theories to explore these tensions and then offers relational understandings of pedagogy and pedagogical leadership. In an examination of How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years for references of educator–educator relationships, it is clear that such relationships are not prioritized within the Ontario Ministry of Education’s view of educators. This article aims to provoke thought around centring educator relationships within Early Learning and Childcare by considering relational knowledges and pursuing parallel practices alongside children.

Keywords:

early childhood educators, early years pedagogy, parallel practice, pedagogical leadership, relational knowledge, relationships

Exploring Histories of ECEC to Reconceptualize “Normalcy” through Mad Studies: A Critical Proposition for Early Childhood Education and Care Post-Secondary Programs

Abstract:

This article engages with the dominance of developmentalism within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)—including its ongoing emphasis in post-secondary ECEC programs—in Ontario and Canada. We describe the potentials and possibilities for new directions for post-secondary ECEC curricula through Mad Studies investigations and inquiries. By describing Mad Studies, Fricker’s (2007) theorization of epistemic injustice, and the relevance of encouraging post-secondary ECEC students to engage with intellectual questioning and curiosity, we – the authors – argue that post-secondary ECEC students’ relationships with knowledge can provide new opportunities to disrupt developmentalism, normalcy, and encourage critical inquiry.

Keywords:

mad studies; post-secondary education; pre-service ECEC; developmentalism; madness

Sanism in Early Childhood Education and Care: Cultivating Space for Madness and Mad Educators in ECEC

Abstract: 

This article engages with critical questions regarding the exclusion and stigmatization of Early Childhood Educators who experience madness and the presence/absence of madness in early learning settings. Through a Mad Studies analysis, we argue for more critical conversations challenging the pathologization of madness and educators who openly live with mental illness or identify as Mad. Drawing from Langford’s (2006, 2007, 2008) work on the “good” ECE, we argue that the Mad ECE is a way of re-imagining ECE identity and the professionalized ideals that regulate ECEs’ professional practices and self-presentation at work.

Keywords:

early childhood education; identity; mad studies; mental illness; professionalism

Reimagining Communities of Practice: Using Marginalized Feminist Knowledge to Create Spaces of Resistance

Abstract:

This reflexive paper explores the process of engaging Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) within communities of practice (CoPs). The author contemplates the use of feminist theories such as Black feminist thought to complexify the discourse on the professionalism of ECEs. This paper addresses possibilities of using Black feminist thought to amplify voices and lived experiences of marginalized women while underscoring their uniquely relevant perspective, capacity, and right to contribute to a CoP. The author advocates re-envisioning CoPs as spaces of resistance where marginalized voices are heard and embodied, lived experiences are valued, and possibilities emerge to resist and interrupt the oppression faced by all ECEs within a professionalism discourse.

Keywords:

activism, Black feminist thought, Early Childhood Educators, professionalism

Give Race Its Place: An Anti-racism Knowledge-sharing Initiative for Early Childhood Educators in Ontario

Abstract:

In the fall of 2020, a group of researchers, along with the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) and the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE), came together to discuss the necessity of providing anti-racism training, with a specific focus on addressing anti-Black racism, to the early childhood sector in Ontario. In the summer of 2021, this group offered four no-cost, two-hour online sessions in antiracism praxis. This project was funded by a SSHRC Connections Grant in partnership with the AECEO and the College of ECE. In this paper the authors discuss the contextual factors that led to this crucial knowledge sharing initiative, provide an overview of the sessions, some participant input and feedback, and conclude with lessons learned and a call to action for moving forward.

Keywords:

anti-racism; anti-racism praxis; children, early childhood education; knowledge sharing