Persistent (Re)Memberings, Anticipated Forgettings: Inquiry, Transformation, and Community in Early Childhood

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: Transformative Early Childhood Education and Intergenerational Engagements (Table 16)

Abstract

This paper analyzes papelitos guardados and the process of (re)membering (Dillard, 2012) school during the COVID-19 pandemic in a PreK classroom. Employing (re)membering as theoretical framework, it identifies papelitos guardados (Latina Feminist Group, 2001) shaping children’s learning and life and documents (re)membering processes. Employing critical narrative analysis, this participatory research study examines papelitos guardados collected amidst COVID-19 pandemic, problematizing the memories young children--and their teachers--are taught, compelled, and expected to forget. Examining layered student and teacher (re)memberings, it attends to the entanglements of everyday narratives and institutional discourses delineating acceptability and desirability in early education. It offers insights into what can and must be learned from young children’s and teachers’ papelitos guardados--as well as why.

Authors

• Mariana Souto-Manning, Erikson Institute
  Presenting Author

• Dana Frantz Bentley, Lesley University
  Presenting Author