Pedagogies of Interbeing: Challenging Binaries in Early Childhood Education

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

Abstract

This research asks what ‘truths’ are normalized in curriculum and pedagogical practices for young children (ages five to eight) and what are the ethical implications? I analyze two common pedagogical encounters, or learning moments presented in a binary frame-- a living/non-living state standard and an opinion paper written about killing or not killing an ant. Feminist and new materialist theory demonstrate that these practices reify colonial, hegemonic Cartesian logic (‘truth’) for our youngest humans. Decolonial and abolitionist education, asks of teachers and teacher educators to critically analyze what ‘truths’ are assumed within pedagogical and curricular practices. Then, to work to dismantle hegemonic pedagogy by centering complex and ethical relationality, or interbeing (Nhất Hạnh, 2009).

Author

• Shara Cherniak, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
  Presenting Author