Indigenous Approaches to Early Childhood Care and Education: Introduction

Abstract

This special issue represents a unique contribution to the field of early childhood care and development and to Aboriginal education: The experi­ences of Indigenous communities from around the world that are working to address the development needs and potentials of their young children. The voices heard are those from Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hawaii, and the mainland United States. Although the University of Victoria's School of Child and Youth Care has a history of partnerships with Aboriginal communities that goes back to 1989 (Pence, Kuehne, Greenwood, & Opekokew, 1993; Pence & McCallum, 1994), the more recent impetus for this volume was the school's hosting of an International Perspectives on Indigenous Quality Early Childhood Care and Develop­ment Forum in February 2006. Most of the authors who have contributed to this volume participated in that forum (see Contributors to this Issue at the end of this edition for a list of forum participants) and agreed that the sharing spirit of the symposium should be reflected in a special issue of an Aboriginal journal.