The Rigors of Listening: A Pedagogical Practice of Justice in Early Childhood

• In Event: 61.064 - Seeking Social Justice in Early Childhood: Portraits of Children as Active Agents

Abstract

What does it mean to be “just” in the early childhood classroom? How does a practice of “justice” emerge in the lives of children? Young children are frequently disenfranchised in the development of “justice,” information being bestowed upon them, rather than emerging out of their critical thinking (Souto-Manning, 2010). This paper examines the rigorous practice of pedagogical listening (Rinaldi, 2001) as a vehicle for justice in early childhood. As teachers engage in these demanding practices of listening and shaping practice around the voices of students, new constructs of justice are enabled in classroom environments. Young children, so often silenced, are framed as leaders, empowered with an acknowledgment of their ability to think critically and productively about justice.

Authors

• Dana Frantz Bentley, Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols School

• Heather J. Pinedo-Burns, Teachers College, Columbia University