Act With Me, Don't Talk for Me: Discourses of Activism and Advocacy

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Conversations in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Practices of activism can lead to transforming current conditions that are seen as less equitable and socially just for all individuals and groups. Using individual interviews, this small-scale project inquired into how 15 early childhood educators made meaning of advocacy and activism in their daily practices. It showed that educators found difficulty in differentiating between advocacy and activism, and suggested that in advocating for children, institutions and educators can become the voice for children and their causes (altruistic advocacy). The paper makes a case for what is good and just by shifting the status quo from altruistic advocacy to activism at both individual and institutional levels through acting with children rather than advocating for them.

Authors

• Susan J. Grieshaber, La Trobe University

• Prasanna Srinivasan, Monash University