By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Connecting to early childhood educators is at the core of my practice. Making connections is central to my being an early childhood educator. Pre-COVID, I would be making time to visit child care programs to learn from those who are working directly with children. I really miss being where the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. When I first started work on my doctorate, about twenty years ago, I was determined to remain true to my early childhood education roots and to focus my research on issues that connected to my context of early learning. I wanted my research to reach early childhood educators to build … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Stories spiral in and out of my mind when I visit the pond near my house. These stories are woven together by threads of relationships. There are stories within stories that relate to my professional and personal growth in my final season. The pond is the backdrop to a documented … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Laura Salau, RECE. To early childhood educators around the world, but especially to those in our province, Ontario, Canada, this blog post is designed to support your continuous professional learning. It is the fourth post in a series focused on the pedagogical approaches from How Does Learning Happen? (2014). These approaches … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE This is the third blog written during self-isolation imposed by the spread of COVID-19, intended to support early childhood educators committed to continuous professional learning. It is the second in a series focused on the pedagogical approaches from Ontario’s pedagogy for the early years: How Does Learning Happen? (2014). The … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. The end of the year is a time to think back and reflect. Rather than considering just 2018 I decided to go way back to a time when I discovered emergent curriculum. It was twenty years ago that my quest for an alternative to themes lead to the discovery of a … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. As I child I remember playing with my mother’s button collection, dipping my hand in, smooshing them about, dumping them on the floor of my bedroom and then playing for hours. Sometimes, I counted them, or sorted them, but I also remember creating elaborate stories with the buttons representing different … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. There are many perspectives on philosophies and theories and how they should guide early learning practice. Program models and approaches have been been influenced by historical, contemporary, and postmodern views of children, families, and learning. The many program models and approaches in practice in the early learning world are complex in … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I spent a number of my formative years as an early childhood educator working in a community based child care program. I worked collaboratively with the other teachers and the administration team. We had a culture of mutual respect and I felt valued as a member of the community. However, … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I have written before about coming to terms to terms and I find myself still grappling with all the buzzwords popping up in my news feeds on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. As another semester approaches and once again I find myself supporting early childhood education degree students in their field practicum I am … Continue reading
Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research 