Supporting Indigenous Children's Development

The book's heart is the stories, told in multiple voices, of seven university-tribal partnerships. It illustrates a mutually respectful community development process drawing on the richness of cultural knowledge rather than simply imposing a university model. A timely contribution to strategies for action worldwide and to educational theory applicable in cross-cultural settings. -- Elizabeth Jones, Faculty of Human Development, Pacific Oaks College, California Supporting Indigenous Children's Development describes a unique approach to curriculum ... that creates community-based, face-to-face learning to meet the needs and interests of the community while advancing post-secondary education credentials. -- Judith L. Evans, UNICEF Consultant on Early Childhood Care and Development This book is important as all nations work towards the professionalization of early childhood education, and will be particularly relevant to peoples of the Pacific and Australasia. -- Elizabeth Pakai, Head of School Social Science and Education Te Kura Matauranga Tu Tangata, Waiariki Institute of Technology, New Zealand

The authors show how an innovative program – an unexpected partnership between an Aboriginal tribal council and the University of Victoria’s School of Child and Youth Care – has strengthened community capacity to design and deliver culturally appropriate programs to support young children’s development.Supporting Indigenous Children’s Development challenges and offers an alternative to the imposition of best practices on communities by outside specialists. It tells the story of an unexpected partnership initiated by an Aboriginal tribal council with the University of Victoria’s School of Child and Youth Care. The partnership has produced a new approach to professional education, in which community leaders are co-constructors of the curriculum and implementation proceeded only if both parties are present and engaged. Word of this “generative curriculum” has spread to numerous Aboriginal communities and now over sixty communities have participated in the First Nations Partnerships Program. Jessica Ball and Alan Pence show how this innovative program has strengthened community capacity to design, deliver, and evaluate culturally appropriate programs to support young children’s development.