Sense, Paradox, and Nonsense in Relationships Within Assemblages of Early Childhood Teaching

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Feminist Teaching: Interrupting Gendered Binaries in the Early Childhood Workforce

Abstract

Early childhood professionalism is a multifaceted concept where multiple discourses are entangled and where maternalism continues to shape teaching subjectivities. This paper engages with Deleuzian concepts of sense, nonsense, and paradox to explore complexities of subjectivities of an early childhood teacher in Aotearoa New Zealand. Analysis of data highlights a recurring problem of emotional connections among teachers and children. Concepts of sense, nonsense, and paradox can jolt researchers from a common-sense tendency to describe denotations, manifestations, and significations. Intensities and significance of sense point to other ways of understanding processes of becoming professional early childhood teachers in localised situations.

Author

• Alison Margaret Warren, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand