Beyond Bugle Calls for Shifting Bodies: Reconceptualizing and Reimagining Transitions in Early Childhood Classrooms

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Approaches to Learning

Abstract

This paper examines transitions experienced by a child identified with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in early childhood classrooms. Drawing on Pacini-Ketchabaw’s (2012, 2013) notions of “clocking practices” and “transitory spaces,” we attempt to reconceptualize transitions while exploring practices answerable to young children’s diversabilities. Based on a microanalysis of video-recorded observation data generated in the focal child’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, we present how certain ways of announcing and operating transitions contribute to producing and making visible the child behaviors considered symptomatic of ADHD while other moments provide him with much-needed time and space for taking a breath and reorienting himself. We argue for revisiting transitions practiced as teacher-centric classroom management and often used for disciplining children’s bodies.

Authors

• Kyung Hwa Lee, University of Georgia

• Jooeun Oh, Incheon National University

• Jaehee Kwon, SUNY at Fredonia