Troubling the Hegemony of Developmentalism: Re-Centering Refusals as Epistemic Justice in Early Childhood Education Programs

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Working Toward Remedy and Repair in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation and Professional Development (Table 8)

Abstract

Higher education Early Childhood Education (ECE) pre-service programs are largely based on developmentalist approaches to thinking about children, childhoods and educators. While institutions have professed their commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion; much of these discourses are performative as epistemic divergences from developmentalism as status quo are often silenced. This paper frames the dichotomies between Eurocentric developmentalism as the hegemonic norm and alternate ways of knowing through Fricker's concept of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007).

Authors

• Zuhra Abawi, Niagara University - Ontario

• Adam W.J. Davies, University of Guelph

• Brooke Richardson, Mount Saint Vincent University