Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 3:27PM May 17th Minutes
Our first meeting of the summer semester welcomed Antje, a new member. We discussed our plans for the club throughout the summer. We came up with a number of questions that could provoke our thinking and be posted on the blog:
What do we want to do with this club? –articles? –people? –an idea?
What would you like the ECCE club to be?
How has your last year of education changed your practice/ how you see the world?
How do you incorporate what you're learning into your practice when there is a difference of philosophy?
These questions helped inspire conversation about the benefits and challenges of practicum- where there is an opportunity for more freedom in many ways- as we are expected to try new things and integrate new theories- and less freedom, when we come up against a difference of philosophy or a division of position between the student and the educator.
This discussion helped us to recognize a desire for our club to find ways to take on an advocacy role in the ECCE community. We discussed how, as students in the new degree program, we have the opportunity to bring a different voice to the field of ECCE. We can bring discussion about thoughtful, academic practice to the ECCE field and begin to trouble the barriers that divide the ECCE students from the practicing ECCE's. We can help bridge the knowledge and practice that is being introduced in the new ECCE degree and trouble the divisions of theory and practice, academic institutions and the working field. We hope to bring more of our discussions about an advocacy to role to the meeting with the North Shore branch of ECEBC in the near future.
We also passed a vote to elect Lucy Angus, club liaison as current president of the club. There was further discussion about other positions within the club, but we have decided to hold off on electing other executive club members until the fall when everyone will have a better idea of what they can commit to with their course and workloads determined. We also hope to gain new members in September who may have more time to commit to specific positions in the club.
June 29th, 2010 Minutes
On Tuesday June 29th, I met with members of the North Shore branch of ECEBC. The meeting contained discussion about ways our clubs can support one another and have an ongoing partnership. We discussed the club’s interest in hosting speakers and in taking an advocacy role. The North Shore branch is looking for a student representative to join their branch as a member at large or some other position they could put their name forward for. It is also possible that a different member of our club could attend each of the 4 meetings held by the ECEBC branch and we could share the responsibilities of the student rep with all group members. The annual general meeting for the North Shore branch will be held in august and it is hoped that the student representative could attend this. In light of the new ECCE degree program, this partnership would allow for more communication between the work being done with the degree and members of the wider ECCE community. It is also an opportunity for networking for the club and particularly for the student representative. If our club was to have a student representative in the North Shore ECEBC – the North Shore branch of ECEBC could support us to invite speakers by allowing us to choose or have a big voice in the selection of a speaker that they could host (they would charge an entrance fee to redeem costs).
The North Shore ECEBC holds four meetings each year- 2 of these include workshops and give hours.
Here is the information from the minutes of the meeting that ECEBC provided.
“At this time, we would like to invite the ECCE student club to consider having a rep on the ECEBC North Shore branch board. The last student representative to sit on the ECEBC North Shore board was in 1996. The board at that time felt that it was important that there be representation from future educators. Since that time, it has been difficult to recruit students as there were no supports in place to provide those opportunities. Ever since we were informed about the creation of the Student club, we felt that this was the right time to approach and propose again the creation of a position for a student rep.
I would like to invite discussion now and be open for ideas on how the North Shore branch might support the ECCE club. I would like to collect Email communication contact information if you widh to be informed of upcoming branch meetings and workshops, ECEBC provincial office communication, and updates on any community tables/committees that a North Shore ECEBC rep is sitting on.
Current tables/ committees- Capilano University Advisory Committee, North Shore Community Resources board, North Shore Early Childhood Conference Committee.
The branch has funds to pay for speakers. Students could have the role of organizing speakers, venue. Our only requirement is that we charge workshop fees to break even in order to pay for the speaker and refreshments. We are thinking of holding meetings at other centres and students may consider that a form of networking and meeting with potential employers/mentors.”
Ana Vojnovic is the acting chair of the North Shore branch and a branch chair will be selected at the AGM.
Please let me know if you are interested in being the student representative for the North Shore branch of ECEBC or if you are interested in attending one of the branches meetings this coming year.
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July 20th minutes- Art Gallery Visit
The July 20th meeting location and time was changed so that the club could go on a field trip that we hope will inspire our conversations throughout the fall semester. We met at 6:00 at the Vancouver Art Gallery with 3 established members and 4 visiting, potential new members. The gallery charges admission by donation on Tuesday nights and we were able to tour a number of new and visiting exhibits.
We originally decided to take this field trip to the gallery to view the modernist exhibit on tour from the Musée D'Orsay in Paris. This exhibit focused on the changing depiction of women in art. Women were no longer simply portrayed in serious portraits- they were painted at cafés, out on the town, and smiling in portraits. At the gallery we talked a little about how this concept reflected the ways the EDUC degree is troubling the role of the teacher. We are questioning the idea of the teacher as expert, the idea of the teacher as provider of materials and the idea of the teacher as facilitator. This was reflected in these modernist portraits of women that allowed the personality of the artist and the subject (the woman) to be more visible. These paintings appeared to be a visible co-construction between the artist and the subject (like the teacher and the child), and also the viewer (myself and other club members)- with whom we can perhaps draw parallels to the observer or the researcher in our classrooms. It is interesting to draw parallels between the experience of observing, interpreting and 'getting to know' the subject in a painting and the experience of observing, 'getting to know' and interpreting a relationship with a child in the classroom. How often do we let visuals speak for themselves without waiting to hear another voice? How often do we seek to 'get to know the child' without respecting the otherness of the child and ourselves?
The exhibit included brief historical and philosophical explanations. It also displayed a series of quotes by many of the artists featured in the exhibit. I copied down a quote by Tamar Garb near the end of the exhibit that I thought tied into concepts we have talked about in class and in other conversations such as 'the power of the gaze', aesthetics, 'what is art' and the asymmetrical relationship between teacher and child:
"What is the relationship between power and the act of looking or being looked at? Who has the right to look and how is looking legitimated and culturally coded? And crucially for us, how does… the act of looking at art…relate to the conditions of looking in life for men and women?"
The exhibit 'Rise and Fall' by Fiona Tan inspired conversation about Cristina's class and her work with memory and history. This exhibit showed how memory and history are told- and exist- through the lens of the present. We watched a video of an old woman and a young woman in parallel as they completed the same tasks. This appeared to be a visualization of the co-existence of present and past. These videos were accompanied by different water scenes and the movements of waves and tides helped me to think about time in relation to the rhythms of our classroom- as well as the rhythms of life; the young and the old.
One of the exhibits was an amalgamation of a variety of artists and mediums taken from the Vancouver Art Gallery's collection. Within this exhibit there was a series of photographs of rough city landscapes taken by artist/photographer Larry Towell. The quote that accompanied these pieces reminded me of the conversations we've had through Andy Goldsworthy's work and discussions about the influence of North Vancouver's natural setting on our practice:
"If there's one theme that connects all my work, I think it's that of land-lessness; how land makes people into who they are and what happens to them when they lose it and thus their identity."
The exhibit, 'Conversations with Carr' inspired thoughts about what an artistic response or conversation can be. Three different artists found three very different ways to respond to one artists' work. Some of the responses in this "complicated conversation" reflected the style of the artist while others- like Douglas Coupland's- spoke to the concept used in the creation of the work (Pinar, lecture, April 2010). Hopefully our visit to the gallery will inspire equally diverse responses and conversations.
We hope to continue our discussions from the art gallery at meetings in the fall and on our blog- http://www.csu.bc.ca/ecce-blog/
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