Chorney Rubin - curriculum frameworks

You know, I think – a framework is just as the word describes it. You know, it – it is the structure that allows educators to build on what’s best for children in terms of their learning and development. It assumes a value and a view of children that is – believes that children are curious and are ready to learn. It’s a – a framework is grounded in research and evidence-based practices. It builds on a body of knowledge. And it sets guideposts and roadmaps for pedagogical practice about how children learn and what the role of the educator is in setting up the conditions for optimal learning and development. It recognizes that interactions and relationships probably trump most everything. It is built on a foundation of understanding the nature of reciprocity of partnerships with families and other educators. 

It sets the stage for a belief in the pedagogical approach of play. It allows room for a curriculum model that’s evidence based and tested. It promotes the value of the early childhood educator and other practitioners in the role they play. It allows for and recognizes that role is steeped in reflective practice, and the need for continuous improvement in terms of pedagogical learning and development in this notion of a learning community.   

So, it really does establish, just as it says, a framework that then frees educators to be their most creative and thinking about planning for – intentional planning for learning and development that is – that supports children’s learning naturally, and thinks deeply about the relationships between educators, parents, community and children and how they learn with and through one another.   

A framework is helpful in that it provides a guide, you know. A guide that moves us all in a direction that supports children’s learning. Right? It allows for accountability, it allows for reflective practice, it allows for measurement in terms of looking at goals and for children and practitioners and assessing how those – how we’re moving the markers along with children’s learning.  

It creates an environment where the expectation is that parents have the right to know and understand about their children’s development and that they have a lot to offer, and that they’re seen as partners in that. And that every child has the right to have their learning thought about and their development thought about in a way that’s meaningful and particular to individual children and to groups of children.  

And it really has educators reflect on the daily drip of their practice. So, this is a good idea. Okay, let’s talk about that. Why is it a good idea? You know, how – how is our work together informed by our framework and by our research? So that it isn’t an interesting thing that children love to do, which often happens, and one hopes happens, but we would expect professional practitioners to be able to think more deeply about that and make connections about learning, about development, about relationships, about families, about community. Right? A framework provides that for educators and all stakeholders to use as a guide, as a resource and as a tool.  

And a framework’s different than a prescribed curriculum. You know, framework provides the overall architecture of moving forward, but allows for creativity, it allows for practitioners to base what they’re doing on observations of children’s learning and development and marry that to their interests and the interests of other children. It allows for blocks of time to be spread out so that inquiry can take place. It allows educators to follow the child’s lead, in a way in which they bring their own thinking and their own understanding to the practice.