Opening University Doors: Co-Constructing Early Childhood Learning Communities
Designing a degree is exciting and challenging. Sara Ahmed describes many challenges we experienced when she writes “open[ing] universities up, to dismantle existing structures, [to] build alternative futures” (2021, p. xi) is a complex process. In May 2020, we opened the University of New Brunswick doors, welcoming our first cohort of early childhood educators (ECEs) to the Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education online asynchronous degree for ECEs accredited with an ECE Diploma. https://www.unb.ca/fredericton/education/undergrad/early.html
This asynchronous degree was designed to serve ECEs who cannot or do not want to participate in face-to-face teaching (Holmberg, 2003). The online space creates emerging learning communities as each learner’s voice is heard or read, amplifying diverse perspectives and experiences (Gunawardena, 2013). Rather than seeking single answers, these online communities focused on considering multiple perspectives, investigating problems, negotiating meaning, and socially constructing knowledge across generations of ECEs. Completion of the degree awards a New Brunswick Teacher’s Certificate IV opening career pathways, and graduates support children and families in childcare, public school systems, as directors, coordinators, or community college instructors.
As a social justice action in the way Ahmed (2021) puts forth, this degree opens a pathway for ECEs to enter the ‘university house’, fulfilling the dream of an education degree. Courses are grounded in the belief that early education is a space of social justice and transformation, disrupting the hegemony of developmentalism, racism, classism, ableism, and sexism. It is thrilling to share that this year, 342 ECEs applied from across Canada for 120 seats. In September 2025, 208 ECEs will be enrolled in this program. As of October 2025, 187 ECEs will have graduated from UNB with a B.Ed. in ECE.
Question
There is a pressing need to think deeply about pay equity and the provision of educational opportunities across inequitable worlds (Butler, 2022) to support children, families, and ECEs. How might pay equity through ‘the university house’ be achieved for ECEs across Canada?
By: Kim Stewart and Sherry Rose
References
Ahmed, S. (2021). COMPLAINT! Duke University Press.
Butler, J. (2022). What world is this? A pandemic phenomenology. Columbia University Press.
Gunawardena, C., Layne, L., Carabajal, K., Frechette, C., Lindemann, K. & Jennings, B. (2006). New model, New strategies: Instructional design for building online wisdom communities. Distance Education. 27(2), 217–32.
Holmberg. B. (2003). A theory of distance education based on empathy. In M. G. Moore & W. G. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education (pp. 79-86). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Further Reading
Anderson, L., Sing, M., & Haber, R. (2020). Next step: A competitive, publicly funded provincial wage grid is the solution to BC’s ECE shortage. Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC and Early Childhood Educators of BC.
https://childcarecanada.org/documents/research-policy-practice/20/06/next-step-competitive-publicly-funded-provincial-wage-grid
Moss, P. (2013). The relationship between early childhood and compulsory education. In Peter Moss (Ed.), Early childhood and compulsory education: Reconceptualising the relationship (pp.1-49). Routledge.
Veletsianos, G. (June 20, 2020). The 7 elements of a good online course. The Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/the-7-elements-of-a-good-online-course-139736
Author Bios
Dr. Kim Stewart and Dr. Sherry Rose are Assistant Professors at the UNB. They are founding and continuing members of the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) committee who developed and orchestrated the birth of the online, asynchronous Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education.
Photo Credit: Albertina Alves de Franca.