Crab Babies and Other Encounters: Rediscovering the pedagogy of presence, of timelessness, of creating space worthwhile within the Early Childhood Classroom.

Main Article Content

Julia Black

Abstract

Through stories situated in place, this paper is a revealing account of my journey as an early childhood educator that continues to be an unraveling of sorts, a disentangling from the dominant discourses that have shaped pedagogical practice.  In accepting Sameshima’s (2008) invitation to transform and develop an “embodied aesthetic wholeness” (p.30), rich and complex layers are illuminated, blindspots disrupted and possibilities emerge, in relation to place, and practice.  Layers within my own pedagogical practice dynamically moving between the tension of what I know, or had known and what I continue to attempt to un-know in order to create room for discovery.  Throughout this never-ending story, I draw upon the work of Jardine, Foucault, and Pelo for points of inspiration and reflection.

Article Details

How to Cite
Black, J. (2017). Crab Babies and Other Encounters: Rediscovering the pedagogy of presence, of timelessness, of creating space worthwhile within the Early Childhood Classroom. Journal of Childhoods and Pedagogies, 1(2). Retrieved from https://journals.sfu.ca/jcp/index.php/jcp/article/view/15
Section
Articles
Author Biography

Julia Black, Capilano University

Working in both the non-profit and private sector of early childhood since 1994, Julia has developed early childhood programs and facilities for children 3 months to school age within the Sea to Sky Corridor in BC.  Julia is a Field Consultant for the High Scope Educational Research Foundation and works with HighScope Canada to provide mentoring and teacher training in all areas of the HighScope Educational Approach.  Julia also coordinates a Children First and Success by 6 community mobilization project in the Sea to Sky corridor and is a faculty member in the Early Childhood Care and Education Department at Capilano University.

References

Ball, S. J. (2013). Foucault, Power, and Education. New York, NY: Routlege.

Cannella, G. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice and revolution. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Davies, B. (2014). Listening to Children: Being and Becoming. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jardine, D.W., Clifford, P. Friesen, S. (2008). Back to the Basics of Teaching and Learning: Thinking the World Together. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jardine, D. W. (2012). Pedagogy left in Peace: Cultivating free Spaces in Teaching and Learning. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Kahn, R. (2010). Critical Pedagogy, Ecoliteracy, and Planetary Crisis: An Ecopedagogy Movement. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

MacNaughton, G. (2005). Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Pelo, A. (2013). The Goodness of Rain: Developing an Ecological Identity in Young Children. Redmond, WA: Exchange Press, Inc.

Pratt, S. S. (2008). Complex constructivism: Rethinking the power dynamics of “understanding.” Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 6(1), p. 113-132.

Sameshima, P. (2007) Seeing shadows in new light: A Procatalepsis on narrative inquiry as professional development. New Horizons in Education, (55)3, p. 10-21.

Sameshima, P. (2008, Spring). Letters to a new Teacher: A curriculum of emobodied aesthetic awareness. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29-44.

Seteon, E.T. (1940). Woodland Tales. Sante Fe, NM: Seton Village Press.

Van Manen, M. (2002). The Tone of Teaching. London, ONT: The Althouse Press.