Master of Education (MEd) – On campus
I have moved to Vancouver for 10 years now. I was originally from Shanghai, China. I had my BA in Psychology from SFU and my ECCE Diploma from CapU. I have worked as an early childhood educator and infant/toddler educator for almost 6 years. I really enjoy my life in the Greater Vancouver Area and my career in the ECE field. I love my experience so far at UBC: I engage in a lot of meaningful class discussions, participate in many inspiring workshops, learn a lot from my colleagues and their precious experiences, and rethink and challenge myself in my pedagogical practices and educational philosophies.
During my work as an early childhood educator, I realized that the ECE community needs more recognition and support. As one of the most important parts of children’s first 5 years of life, early childhood education and early childhood educators’ values need to be recognized and acknowledged. Therefore, I started to have this goal of supporting the ECE community and future early childhood educators who are new to or experienced in this field. Pursuing further education in ECE will help me to advocate for including voices from our ECE community.
I am also interested in researching the importance and implementation of indigenous land-based education and place-based pedagogy. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the childcare settings that I worked in became outdoor programs. From this experience, I began to see the powerful influence of the land and nature on children’s learning and development. They need to not only learn about but also learn with and from the land they live on. As educators, we need to listen to the stories of the land together with our children. That is also another reason for me to pursue further education in ECE so that I will learn more about indigenous land-based education and implement it together with the children in my care.