Professional Pay and Decent Work Campaign Support Pledge

Please join our campaign by Pledging Your Support Online Now!

Introducing Our New and Improved eceLINK!

The AECEO Board, Editorial Committee and staff are very excited to present the first issue of a revamped and improved eceLINK. This issue offers the debut of the Peer Reviewed Collection, on the topic of Collaborative Practice and Pedagogies. Along with the exciting debut of the Peer Reviewed Collection is a fresh new design that brings the look of the magazine right up to date. A selection of interesting articles on a variety of topics in early childhood will keep you reading every page!

Making space for the peer reviewed articles means some adjustment to our regular content.  You will find the new member list and donor thanks, as well as the full list of AECEO Certified members, in the Winter 2017-2018 issue. We hope to publish the Peer Reviewed Collection in every other issue and the new members and donor thanks will now also be published in every other issue. The Editorial Committee plans to continue developing new, regular eceLINK features that will add interest and value to the publication for AECEO members.

Much appreciation and thanks go to the eceLINK editorial committee for their hard work and expertise:

Rachel Langford, Ph.D. Editor of the Peer Reviewed Collection
Brooke Richardson, Ph.D. Publication Co-Chair
Laura Coulman RECE, Ph.D Candidate, Publication Co-Chair
Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw, Ph.D.
Goranka Vukelich RECE, Ph.D.
Shani Halfon RECE, MA ECS

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did putting it together.

AECEO Provincial Board of Directors

In This Issue:

• Creating Inclusive Early Learning Environments for LGBTQ2+ Families (Featured article available to the public)
• Bringing Nature to Niagara’s Youngest Children: Early Childhood Community Development Centre’s Naturalized Playgrounds Project
• Professional Pay and Decent Work Project Update: Mobilizing community voices for professional pay and decent work in the early childhood sector

Peer Reviewed Collection

• (Re)Imagining and (Re)Engaging in Relational Encounters: Communities of Practice for (Re)Vitalizing Pedagogies
• “Good-bye Mr. Raccoon, we’ll miss you!” Supporting children’s explorations of life and death in a forest

    (member access)

Not a member? Membership supports a strong, united voice for ECEs in our province.  
Join today and get instant access to our eceLINK publications, online professional learning and so much more!

We would like to thank the following advertisers for helping to support this issue of the eceLINK

School Specialty

CALL FOR ARTICLES

Issue: Spring/Summer 2018

Special issue: Indigenous Practices and Knowledge in Early Childhood Education

Submission deadline: January 4, 2018

Find out more here

Introducing Our New and Improved eceLINK!

The AECEO Board, Editorial Committee and staff are very excited to present the first issue of a revamped and improved eceLINK. This issue offers the debut of the Peer Reviewed Collection, on the topic of Collaborative Practice and Pedagogies. Along with the exciting debut of the Peer Reviewed Collection is a fresh new design that brings the look of the magazine right up to date. A selection of interesting articles on a variety of topics in early childhood will keep you reading every page!

Making space for the peer reviewed articles means some adjustment to our regular content.  You will find the new member list and donor thanks, as well as the full list of AECEO Certified members, in the Winter 2017-2018 issue. We hope to publish the Peer Reviewed Collection in every other issue and the new members and donor thanks will now also be published in every other issue. The Editorial Committee plans to continue developing new, regular eceLINK features that will add interest and value to the publication for AECEO members.

In This Issue:

• Creating Inclusive Early Learning Environments for LGBTQ2+ Families (featured article available to the public) 
  
• Bringing Nature to Niagara’s Youngest Children: Early Childhood Community Development Centre’s Naturalized Playgrounds Project
• Professional Pay and Decent Work Project Update: Mobilizing community voices for professional pay and decent work in the early childhood sector

Peer Reviewed Collection

• (Re)Imagining and (Re)Engaging in Relational Encounters: Communities of Practice for (Re)Vitalizing Pedagogies
• “Good-bye Mr. Raccoon, we’ll miss you!” Supporting children’s explorations of life and death in a forest

Professional Pay and Decent Work Action page!

The AECEO and our Task Force present the Ontario Early Childhood Sector Decent Work Charter.

The AECEO's Professional Pay & Decent Work Campaign has been successfully engaging and organizing hundreds of RECEs, early years staff, parents and community members across Ontario to advocate for quality affordable early years and child care programs where RECEs and staff are well supported with professional pay and decent work. 

Early childhood educators, staff, parents, children and community members can work together to shape the future of Ontario’s early years and child care system. Below are some ways you can participate in the Week of Action!! We will keep you posted as week of action events develop across the province! 

The Ontario Early Childhood Sector Decent Work Charter has been developed by the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) Decent Work Taskforce as one of the components to mobilizing a collective effort to achieve greater recognition and improved compensation and working conditions for those employed in the sector.

Ontario Early Childhood Sector Decent Work Charter

We've created a Campaign Tool Kit to support local communities and their members as they engage in campaign actions.

Finding a Home in the World: Migration, Indigeneity, and Citizenship

Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada • October 24 –27, 2017
Preconference workshops and preschool visits • October 23-24

The theme of this year's conference is Finding a Home in the World: Migration, Indigeneity, and Citizenship. Recent events shine new light on a familiar theme – the wrenching displacement of large populations because of war, violence, religious persecution, poverty, environmental disasters, and human-made climate change.

More information

Make Bill 148 meaningful in second reading

An open letter to Premier Wynne, Minister Naidoo-Harris, and Minister Flynn

Ontario Pay Coalition 

As Bill 148 goes into its second reading, the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition calls on Madame Premier, and Ministers Flynn and Naidoo-Harris to close the loopholes in Bill 148 during second reading to ensure that the equal pay provisions deliver meaningful protection for workers. 

This video features prominent leaders from community organizations that are advocating for equal pay and decent work for all early childhood educators and worker's in Ontario, including the AECEO, Equal Pay Coalition, the Atkinson Centre, and the Workers Action Centre.

This video answers the questions: What is decent work? How does decent work impact early childhood educator practice? What are the elements of decent work? How can early childhood educators join the movement for decent work in Ontario?

Video by Subeda Sheekhnur, ECE Student, George Brown College Early Childhood Leadership Degree Program

The Ontario College of Teachers has developed the following new teacher education resources designed to support inquiry into the Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession and the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession:

• Strengthening a Vision: A Critical Discourse on the Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession
• Exploring the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession through Anishinaabe Art
  • Standards of Practice - Anishnaabe Art Posters.

AECEO Launches Professional Pay & Decent Work Campaign Tool Kit

The AECEO's Professional Pay & Decent Work Campaign has been successfully engaging and organizing hundreds of RECEs, early years staff, parents and community members in Ontario. This Campaign Tool Kit will support local Professional Pay Communities of Practice, early years and child care programs, individual RECEs/staff/parents and ECE students as they engage in campaign actions. As the campaign continues to grow we will add more tool kit items to support actions and engagement across the province. 

Early childhood educators, staff, parents, children and community members can work together to shape the future of Ontario’s early years and child care system.

TOOL KIT ITEMS:

Key Campaign Messages

Take the online Pledge

The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) is the professional association for early childhood educators (ECEs) in Ontario. We support ECEs in their professional practice and advocate for the recognition and appropriate compensation that early childhood professionals need so that they can provide high quality programs for children and families. Well educated, well paid and competent early childhood educators are fundamental to high quality early years and child care programs that support children and families across the province. Our members work throughout Ontario in programs for young children and their families, including licensed centre based and home based child care, full-day kindergarten, family resource programs, Ontario Early Years Child and Family Centres and as Resource Consultants who provide services and support for children and families with disabilities.

ECEs and early years staff have joined working people across Ontario to make it loud and clear that too many of us are working for low wages in part-time, temporary or contract jobs without employment benefits, workplace protection or the right to form, and keep, a union. For too many Ontario workers, full time work does not guarantee a life above the poverty line. Income and job insecurity keep us from making ends meet. Even with the professionalization of ECEs and the mounting evidence pointing to the immense importance of their work, ECEs have seen a very slow and limited increase in professional recognition through improved compensation and benefits. Low ECE salaries, inconsistent working conditions, and precarious work schedules have resulted in poor morale, job dissatisfaction and high staff turnover. Particularly in licensed child care programs, ECEs are transitioning over to full-day kindergarten, or worse, are leaving the sector altogether despite being passionate about their work. It is the experience of many early years and child care programs across Ontario that qualified ECEs cannot be recruited to work in these under-resourced early childhood environments that serve our youngest children. This is having a significant impact on child care staff consistency, program quality, and sector stability that promises to endure for years if it is not addressed now. 

Read full submission here

Province Appoints Expert Reviewer to Conduct Affordability Study

Beginning September 1, 2017, members of the College are required to start the CPL Portfolio Cycle (2017 edition) after their renewal date and complete it over a period of two years 

The CPL Portfolio Cycle is a two-year professional learning process that members will repeat throughout their careers.

Presentations from the 14th Annual Summer Institute on Early Childhood Development  - Addressing Inequity in Canada through Early Childhood Education held this past June in Toronto are now available online.

Presentations include:

Keynote speaker Dr. Kang Lee - Racial biases in early childhood and how to combat them

Challenging the Dialogue in Professional Training

Supporting transitions for children with additional support needs

and more.....

Click here to access presentations online

Indira Naidoo-Harris, Ontario’s minister responsible for early learning and child care, says the province’s recent Changing Workplaces Review, which recommends an increase to the minimum wage, 10 paid sick days and a three-week paid vacation, is “good for child care workers, good for children and good for families.”

About one-quarter of registered early childhood educators in the province earn less than $15 an hour, notes Lyndsay Macdonald of the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario, which supported the recent Fight for $15 campaign to boost the minimum wage.

“The province definitely has to step up and define for municipalities how this should be addressed,” she said.

Read more at TheStar.com

As announced in the Summer 2016 issue of the eceLINK (pg.4), an editorial committee has been established to develop eceLINK into a professional, peer-reviewed journal for Ontario’s early years and child care community.

The new eceLINK Peer Reviewed Collection will be featured in both Spring and Fall issues. If you are interested in participating on the editorial committee or have any questions about the submission process, please contact the provincial office. As always, we want to hear from you!

Call for articles
Issue: Spring/Summer 2018
Special issue*: Indigenous Practices and Knowledge in Early Childhood Education
Submission deadline: January 4, 2018

Please email manuscript submission to [email protected]

On Wednesday, June 21, 2017, more than 150 teachers, education workers, parents, and other concerned community members rallied on the steps of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) office to call on Board officials and Trustees to address the growing concern of inequitable Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK) class sizes.

Read more from Elementary Teachers of Toronto

https://www.ett.ca/educators-and-parents-rally-in-support-of-equitable-full-day-kindergarten-class-sizes/

Olivia Chow will be in North Bay running a training on recruiting members to your cause and planning a strategy on June 23 and 24, the Friday evening, and whole day Saturday. 6-9pm Friday, 10am-4pm Saturday.

Since retiring from politics, Olivia Chow has been working as a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University to give people the skills they need to make the change they want.

This training will focus on skills, not theory. As a student, you will leave with tangible tools you can begin applying right away to the causes you are working on. 

Better yet, this workshop will be highly engaging. It will combine brief lectures with hands-on practice in small groups. This means you will leave the training with written recruitment techniques that are relevant to the causes you care about, and with a strategic action plan for how to move your cause forward.

To attend: RSVP to [email protected] Fee is $20. Includes food during training.

The new Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice has just been released by the College of Early Childhood Educators and is effective July 1st, 2017.

The Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice sets out the professional knowledge, skills, values and expectations applicable to all RECEs regardless of role and the setting in which they may practise. 

Click here to access at College-ece.ca

The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) is pleased to see the Government of Canada taking initiative on early learning and child care after a decade of inaction. Unfortunately, today’s announcement outlining their long-awaited early learning and child care framework does not go far enough to address the severe lack of affordable, accessible, high quality child care for Canadian families across the country. Equally important from the AECEO’s perspective, the framework does not mention, let alone set out clear goals or a plan, advancing the profession of early childhood educators who are the key to quality in early learning and child care programs.

“Ontario just released an ambitious plan to deliver universal child care for all children and families who need it and the Government of Canada has come to the table with a framework agreement that could be much stronger and the investment much more substantial” said Lyndsay Macdonald, Provincial Coordinator of the AECEO.

“The OECD benchmark on public spending for early childhood education and care is at least 1% of the GDP but the Government of Canada’s $7.5 billion investment over 11 years is around 0.02% of Canada’s GDP. For such a rich country, surely we can do better.” Furthermore, the bulk of this funding does not begin to flow until after the next federal election.

While the multilateral framework sets out the first step, the child care crisis across Canada remains at a tipping point. Without stable publically funded early learning and child care, with professionally paid early childhood educators, we cannot ensure that children get the best possible start in life. The AECEO will continue to work collaboratively with our members and sector partners to call for improvements to the framework. 

Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework

Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework - Government of Canada news release

Other Responses

Canadian Child Care Federation

Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

Summer eceLINK

As discussed in the Summer 2016 and Spring 2017 issues of the eceLINK, the AECEO has begun a process of redeveloping and improving the magazine into a professional journal that will include peer-reviewed content. The first issue of the revamped eceLINK will be launched this fall, including peer-reviewed articles as well as other content and design refreshments. In order to allow the staff and the editorial committee the time needed to focus on and complete the revamp and redesign process for the fall, the AECEO will not be publishing a Summer issue of the eceLINK. We are looking forward to providing an improved publication for our members this fall! 

Members can access archived issues of the eceLINK on our website here.*  

*If you have not set up your account on the website and need help doing so please email [email protected]