“I’m callin’ a meeting!”: Routines of Empowerment in Early Childhood Communities

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Children’s Perspectives

Abstract

What are the critical spaces in early childhood classrooms? In a time of political upheaval, fear, and unrest, how might educators create routines that empower and hold space for critical conversations with young children? How might the early childhood meeting be frame as a space of voice and empowerment? Through narrative inquiry, this study explores the work of one PreKindergarten classroom in framing the morning meeting setting as a space for child voice, advocacy, and critical community. Through classroom narratives, this study examines routines of empowerment that meet the developmental needs of young children while inviting them to question, to advocate, and to resist official constructs of power.

Author

• Dana Frantz Bentley, Buckingham Browne and Nichols School