Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre

Inspiring & Promoting Excellence in Child Care & Early Learning

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2026 Conference for Childhoods & Pedagogies - Vendors & Community Partners (4805 - 8100)

In-Person Saturday, April 11, 2026, from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

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*This will be an in-person event at Capilano University’s North Vancouver Campus at 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, B.C., V7J 3H5.

Early school experiences can function as sites of humanist training, severing connections to Land and language and training up the child in a hidden curriculum of whiteness. Normalizing standards of measurement, from developmental scales to intelligence ranking, are wielded as technologies of power (Petitfils, 2015) to reproduce a culture of isolation and sameness (yet conditions of inequity). In neoliberal terms, the young child, as the human, is viewed as a separate and distinct entity that stands safely outside the world, thinking, playing, and creating alone. He is measured, governed, and regulated as a singular being. In this way, schooling is framed as a training period in which the child inches closer to becoming the “ideal,” lone, human.

Suitable for ECE students, adult instructors/administrators, intermediate and experienced early care and learning professionals working with children of any age. 

Conference Schedule 
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM      Registration and arrival
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM      Opening Blessing and Welcome Remarks
9:00 AM– 10:00 AM      Keynote Address
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM      Coffee Chat and Networking
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM      Concurrent Morning Workshops (six locations)
12:30 AM – 1:30 PM      Lunch Break and Dance - Birch Cafeteria
1:30 PM – 3:30 PM      Concurrent Afternoon Workshops (six locations)
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM      Closing Panel, Door Prizes, and Q&A
 

Remarks for Vendors and Community Partners -

  • Conference check-in begins at 7:45 am.
  • Please arrive no earlier than 7:10 am for set-up.
  • Lunch break: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm. Lunch for two staff members is included. If you are bringing additional staff, please sign them up using the public registration link.
  • Set-up is in the Birch Building, main entrance of Capilano University (see attached location map).
  • You may unload in the roundabout before parking your vehicle.
  • Parking is not included in your registration. Please check signage for restrictions and rates.

CapU Main Campus Site Map.pdf

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For Your Reference, the conference includes two professional development sessions: 

Morning Session: 6 workshop options, choose one only (Max 25 each)

  1. WM1 Building Community for Critical Conversations in TRC & EDI
  2. WM2 Unruly Storymaking as a Material Practice of Advocacy and Resistance
  3. WM3 Walking with the Land Through a Métis Lens
  4. WM4 Waterways: Unsettling Colonial Logics of Land Relations
  5. WM5 Curriculum Making WITH Children: Inventing, Creating, Improvising, Documenting 
  6. WM6 Holding Intensity: Crying, Ethics, and Collective Life in Infant–Toddler Spaces

Afternoon Session: 6 workshop options, choose one only (Max 25 each)

  1. WA1 Embracing Tensions
  2. WA2 Challenging Norms and Embracing Differences—What Does It Mean to Live Together in an Early Childhood Classroom?
  3. WA3 Cultivating Respect and Appreciation for the Power and Beauty of Indigenous Story(books) in Early Childhood Curriculum
  4. WA4 From Doing Story-time to Living Story-event in a Toddler Classroom
  5. WA5 Charcoal Collaboratories: Creative Ecologies and Reciprocal Attunements
  6. WA6 The Jellyfish, The Kitchen Floor & the Intangibilities of a Team

Participants will select one workshop for the morning session and one for the afternoon session, for a total of two workshops.

Please click the link below to see the full list of workshops.

2026 CAPU Conference Booklet.pdf

 
 

Facilitator(s): Capilano University

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Angela Molloy Murphy

Dr. Angela Molloy Murphy has been an arts-based Early Childhood Educator, a Materials Specialist at a university ReMida program, an Early Childhood Lecturer, and a Scholar-in-Residence with Melbourne’s SWISP lab, (Speculative Wanderings with Space and Place). Angela is currently an Honorary Fellow at The University of Melbourne and Early Childhood Faculty at Capilano University. Her 2020 thesis, Animal Magic, Secret Spells, and Green Power: More-Than-Human Assemblages of Children's Storytelling worked to disrupt reductive conceptualizations of children and childhoods by exploring their multiple and irreducible connections to place and the more-than-human world. Her upcoming project on the unceded territories of the səlilwətaɬ, shíshálh, Skwxwú7mesh, and xʷməθkʷəỷəm Nations takes up these threads through speculative storying with children, place, and waste as resistance and care in a time of environmental collapse. Angela brings 25 years of experience in artful experimentation and co-inquiry with children and a research focus on children’s multimatter/multispecies relations into her theorization of unruly stories as a speculative force for planetary care.

 

  1. Requests for cancellations must be received at least 3 business days prior to the workshop/course date to get a refund, minus any Administration Fees.
  2. All refunds are subject to a $10 Administration Fee, except for workshops/courses that are $100 or more, which have a $25 Administration Fee.
  3. No monies will be refunded or credits offered once the workshop/course starts, or if it’s missed.
  4. Westcoast may cancel a workshop/course at any time. Registrants will be notified and receive a full refund.
  5. If a class is missed, registrants forfeit their fee and there will be no refund or credit.

By registering for a workshop / course participants declare they have read, understood and agree with these policies.

  1. It is the participants’ responsibility to read the workshop/course description and objectives and make sure the training selected is suitable for their learning needs.
  2. Camera's must be on during the workshop to receive a certificate.
  3. Only Vancouver CCRR Registered LNRs or Vancouver Licensed Family Child Care Providers qualify to pay the FCC Fee and will need to state this when they create their account on our website and be approved for this access. When you are an approved CCRR Registered LNR or Vancouver Licensed Family Child Care Provider, these reduced fees will automatically be applied to your registration for all applicable workshops.
  4. Participants must be 19 years of age to work with children.
  5. Minimum Grade 8 high-school English understanding, written and oral skills or equivalent are necessary to actively participate in class.
  6. Participants must stay for the full workshop/course to receive a certificate.
  7. Doors close 15 minutes after start time in respect to the presenter and participants.
  8. We are unable to accommodate children during workshop/course time. Please make childcare arrangements.
  9. Payment must be made at the time of registration to confirm a seat.
  10. Receipts are available on your account at wccrc.ca/login
  11. Handouts (if any) are sent by email.
  12. Certificates can be reprinted or downloaded from your account at any time after you complete the full workshop or course.
  13. Everyone in the class must abide by the Classroom Code of Conduct.
  14. These are non-credit workshops/courses, meaning they cannot be applied towards the completion of a university or college certificate, diploma or degree.
  15. If you have questions about a certificate being accepted by the ECE Registry, please contact them at 1-888-338-6622 or look on their website here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/early-learning/teach/training-and-professional-development/become-an-early-childhood-educator/renew-maintain-ece-certification

By registering for a workshop / course participants declare they have read, understood and agree with these policies.

We are all guests in the training room. In an effort to maintain a safe and welcoming environment, we ask that we follow these guidelines:

  1. Respect people’s choices, experiences and feelings.
  2. One person speaks at a time.
  3. Participate actively by including your voice and make space for other voices to be heard.
  4. Respect confidentiality, what is said in the group, stays in the group. Speak in private with the instructor if necessary.
  5. Assume the best intent. This is a space to learn and sometimes that means making mistakes.
  6. Take care of yourself, whatever that may look like.
  7. Mute your microphone to reduce background noise and unmute it for group discussions, to comment or ask questions.

By registering for a workshop / course participants declare they have read, understood and agree with these policies.

By registering for a workshop/course participants declare they have read, understood and agree with all policies.

In keeping with our eco-conscious goal of reducing paper use, handouts, resources and certificates will be sent by email. In this way, participants will have a resource that can be saved and viewed across various devices, shared and printed anytime.

We may take some photographs (including a Zoom group picture) during workshops/courses with the purpose of promoting our training. By registering you consent to allow us or others attending to take your photograph. If it’s okay with the facilitator, you may photograph materials, slides, books, etc., but not film the workshop.

Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) require a minimum of 40 hours of professional development to renew a certificate to practice. Select topics you would like to expand on or that you’re passionate about.

Registered Family Child Care Providers (RLNR) are required to complete at least 4 hours of professional development before their annual renewal date.

Questions?

Visit our Workshops Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

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Contact Info

Professional Development Team
Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre
pro-d@westcoastfamily.org
604-709-5661 EXT 1221

Capilano University’s North Vancouver Campus

2055 Purcell Way
North Vancouver, British Columbia V7J 3H5