Early childhood education and care for Aboriginal children in Canada

Summary:

This policy brief is drawn from the article "Aboriginal early childhood education in Canada: Issues of Context" (Preston, Cottrell, Pelletier, Pearce, 2012). The brief explicates contextual factors that are important to quality Aboriginal early childhood education: priveleging Aboriginal pedagogy; promoting Indeigenous languages and culturel; adequate staffing by qualified Aboriginal educators; empowerment of Aboriginal parents and communities; and in the case of kindergarten services, a full-day timetable. The author argues that strong collaborative efforts are needed by multi-level leaders to ensure that quality Aboriginal early childhood education is actualized throughout Canada.