The Circularity of Ecological Curriculum Design

The Circularity of Ecological Curriculum Design:

Exploring children’s learning through encounters with materials.

On this day of encounter and exploration, Debi Keyte-Hartland will explore the Circularity of Ecological Curriculum Design to illuminate children’s learning through a re-imagined encounter with material. Using the metaphor of Reggio Emilia’s Hundred Languages Debi will support early childhood educators to curate and evaluate learning contexts and environments in relationship to materials, modalities, children and their ideas and place. 

By examining and making visible ecological curriculum design approaches Debi will examine how children think with materials, and how agency is co-located both in the child acting on the materials and in the materials, acting on the child. 

When early childhood educators recognise these complex intra-actions at play, it can hold new possibilities to amplify and generate thinking, understanding and communication within the circulatory of conversation, interaction, design and evaluation of a relational and ecological curriculum.

Debi’s facilitation will include ‘thinking spaces’, practical engagement with materials, and theoretical discussion.  It will be lively and closely interwoven with reflection on your practice and pedagogy.

Circularity Consulting will link the content of the sessions to the expectations of the National Quality Standard, the Early Years Learning Framework and the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework.

Understanding goals:

• Define and explore ecological curriculum design
• The role of materiality in the learning process of young children
• How educators can amplify, generate and curate learning in relationship to materials, each other and place
• The role of educators in exploring children’s learning with materials
• An opportunity for theoretical discussion and space and time for educators to use and explore materials in order to understand how to present them to children
• Connection to the principle of the Hundred Languages from Reggio Emilia

Suitable for: Lead Educators, Educational Leaders, and Trainers and Assessors.

Date and time:
Saturday 21 June 2025 9.00am – 4.00pm

Cost:
$525 (including GST) - includes lunch and morning tea.

Parking:
Parking is available on site. Detailed information to follow.

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A little about Debi...

Debi, a passionate advocate for the arts in early childhood education, sheds light on the potential when we value children’s creativity, thinking and ideas. As an independent pedagogical consultant and artist-educator, she collaborates across the UK and internationally, exploring creative and reflective approaches that foster a nurturing environment for young children’s curiosity, inquiry, and expression.

Debi holds the position of Associate Consultant with Early Education in the UK and teaches MA students at the Centre of Research in Early Childhood in Birmingham. She is also part of an ESRC-funded research team exploring participatory pedagogies for young children in schools in Wales, collaborating with four universities. Additionally, she serves as a pedagogical coach-mentor on Early Education’s SPACE to Flourish project, which aims to support pedagogy in art and creativity in early years (SPACE) and is supported by the Mercers’ Company as trustee of the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington.

Debi has been influenced by the thinking of Loris Malaguzzi and the pre-schools and infant toddler centres of Reggio Emilia since her first visit nearly 25 years ago and through her continued work with schools and organisations interested in the approach has enabled her to work with Reggio Children as a recognised teacher-educator of the Reggio Emilia Approach.

https://debikeytehartland.com/