Supporting Indigenous Children s Development: Community-University Partnerships

This book challenges and offers an alternative to the imposition of best practices on communities by outside specialists. It tells of an unexpected partnership initiated by an Aboriginal tribal council with the University of Victoria’s School of Child and Youth Care. The partnership produced a new approach to professional education, in which community leaders are co-constructors of the curriculum. Word of this “generative curriculum” has spread and now over sixty communities have participated in the First Nations Partnerships Program. The authors show how this innovative program has strengthened community capacity to design, deliver, and evaluate culturally appropriate programs to support young children’s development.

Jessica Ball and Alan Pence are professors in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria.