Teacher Education in “Place-based” Curriculum

Abstract

This paper briefly presents students’ investigations from one of the first-year curriculum courses in the School of Education and Childhood Studies at Capilano University in North Vancouver. The course is part of the early childhood degree program. In this class, students investigate early childhood curriculum within the context of capitalism and colonialism. A particular focus is given to our relationship with materials, and to the knowledges and practices involved in working with materials. This paper does not attempt to give a linear account of what happened in the class, nor what the students really learned. Instead, it seeks to pull out two main threads (i.e., materials and cracks) from the students’ visual journals and to weave these threads together. Images and text become entwined, working together and strengthening one another. This weaving is intended as a bag to hold our challenges, questions, and hopes for us in our early childhood practice.