Update (Narda, May 1, 2020)

Hello and Happy May Day everyone!!

I hope you are doing well in the lead up to the weekend and want to say thanks for all of the continued, creative engagement with each other and online resources.  I’ve enjoyed reading your posts, connecting via email and Bluejeans and look forward to more meetings and reflections next week.

After 6 (ish) weeks of working ‘together apart’, I just want to put out a little reminder to make connections in your posts with our online resources.  To be clear: I am not asking for a densely-written, academic piece.  I am asking you to connect your writing with something you’ve read, heard, or watched from our resource list, Licensing Guidelines and/or the BC ELF.  This can be as simple as questioning a quote from a reading or perhaps being inspired by something particular Kimmerer says in a podcast.  Many of you have already done this and there have been so many interesting connections between personal feelings and experiences, reflections on pedagogy, materials, and practice, and resources come to light through the blog.  This is a gentle reminder to continue and/or start making those connections in your shared posts.

Context and Intention

If we think about writing as something done with intention, we can see it as shaped by a particular context and shared (or sometimes hidden) for particular reasons (diary entries, song writing, op-eds, peer review journals come to mind).  The CCS blog is our intentional space for engagement, where ‘we’ are the conduit through which ideas and questions might become impactful via the act of sharing and reflection.  As part of the public BC early childhood education system we come to this space with the added responsibility of sharing our thoughts and reflections in a way that makes our pedagogical intentions and choices visible:

Pedagogical narration is the process of noticing and collecting moments from daily practice and sharing these with colleagues, children, and families to make children's learning processes and inquiries as well as educators' pedagogical choices visible and open to interpretation and reflection.(BC ELF, 2019, p. 51)

Fascinating points and provocative questions have emerged in the posts! Doing this work together in absence of being at work with children, has taken many twists and turns and I’m impressed with the deep level of engagement I’ve heard in our meetings as well as your written reflections.  As discussed previously, putting these thoughts to work with others ideas allows us to take experience and opinion beyond ‘the personal’ so we can keep “learning alive” and challenge ourselves “to let go of predetermined outcomes and remain curious, open, inventive, and respectful of children’s thinking” (BC ELF, 2019, p. 51).  This is not the same as being told to leave something behind that feels important.  It is an invitation to make your thoughts/reflections/questions visible, in whatever way works for you, to open up space to engage multiple ways of knowing while reconsidering what might be behind the pedagogical choices you make in practice with children, families and colleagues.  In this time and place, in alignment with your team’s ethos/manifesto statement within the broader context of CCS’s ethical commitments.

As many of you have already shown, this can be by reflecting on the challenges of working through isolation, being inspired by the reach of a special tree to think differently about your place in the world or the way certain beings tend to get excluded from our concept of ‘community’, or perhaps by reflecting on an experience/memory (near or far back in time) that continues to influence the approach you take in practice.  This back and forth engagement is in line with what the ELF describes as a “living” expansion of an idea (ELF, 2019, p. 5):

The term "living" suggests that these processes are ongoing and always evolving. "Inquiry" means to pay attention in multiple ways: to study, explore, and ask questions. The term "pathways" evokes a sense of movement that is not linear. These new terms are an intentional shift 
away from terms that suggest predictable outcomes, and they reflect the First Peoples Principles of Learning (see p. 14).

As difficult as these past few weeks of isolation have been, I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk with you all and share insights in a way that we have not always had the time to do together. Thank you for time and effort in putting  passionate thoughts, feelings, and reflections down for others to engage with!  It matters and will continue to do so when we come back together.

I continue to try striking a balance between not overwhelming you with new resources while providing an array to choose from, for making connections with various inquiry questions.  I’ve fwded some readings directly to teams that relate to particular inquiry questions, as well.  Not all my offerings will be ‘winners’, but I hope you are finding something in the mix to continue connecting with and reflect on in a way that feels meaningful.  Let me know if there is something in particular you are looking for outside of the materials I’ve shared and I’ll see what I can do.

Lastly…a quick reminder that there is no expectation to ‘consume everything‘, but rather whatever you do delve into, please put the effort and time necessary to engage deeply with it, keep notes, jot questions, and write a blog post to share what comes up for you.

Okay.  It’s Friday!! Have a wonderful weekend!!!

Giving Diana the last word (thx for sharing): ‘The Great Realisation‘

Best, Narda

p.s. Including a few images from walking encounters on campus this week:)