Dialogue 3: Intergenerational Interdependence

• In Event: Reimagining Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Early Childhood

Abstract

In most of our daily lives and spaces, the roles of adults and children are demarcated and distinct. This dialogue explores the possibilities inherent in blurring these boundaries in ways that are reciprocal and mutually generative. While research describes how children contribute to their households and communities (Author, 2016), this dialogue destabilizes pre-existing roles and shifts the focus to intergenerational relationships and crossings at school, in play, and within larger communities. The contributions address three interrelated strands of inquiry. One strand is the role of memory and childhood experiences that shape how we view children in the present. As adults, our past experiences and how we process them distills a lens by which we filter children’s experiences. We see convergences and divergences; our memories both narrow and expand what we can observe and interpret. Through work with children as teachers, researchers, and community members, we are forced to confront our own stories of resistance and reproduction in childhood. That is, by looking back and interrogating our own presumptions/assumptions, we have a better sense of children, their childhoods, and the set of circumstances that shape their experiences.

Secondly, the dialogue explores more deeply the immigrant and transnational experience. Centered around spaces where adults and children live alongside each other (e.g. church, grocery store), the contributors describe the confluence of language, culture, and global citizenship that occur at these sites of interaction. Drawing from an ethos of interdependence, the conversation disrupts the image of authoritative adult and helpless child. Instead, what if we move beyond these binaries to that of intergenerational, reciprocal learning?

Third, we apply these ideas to community and school spaces where adults are charged with hierarchical roles. While these hierarchies are unavoidable, teachers of Color continue to struggle with their identities and positionality in pre/in service spaces. In other words, reaching a certain age does not make one’s identity making finished or clear. Therefore, in the process of cultivating culturally sustaining pedagogies and practice, we examine how children and teachers do this work together.

Authors

• Ranita Cheruvu, University of North Texas

• Haeny S. Yoon, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Muyanwi Lum, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Maria Paula Ghiso, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Cece Fleury-Feldberg, Graduate Center - CUNY