Author: Narda Nelson

Hello everyone,

Posting with a heavy heart after the murder of George Floyd and so many horrible images coming out of the States these past days.  I felt overwhelmed on Friday and still feel outraged, sad and uncertain about what’s happening and what’s to be done (beyond posting on social media). But I want to take this moment to turn our attention to the importance of never forgetting that racism and racial injustice continue to live in Canada and early childhood along with the rest of the world, and our role in  perpetuating and/or challenging the conditions that allow for these injustices to continue.

We’ve focused a lot on climate change, collectivity and the question of how to promote the creation of more livable (live-able) worlds with children and families, but this feels like an important time to slow down and ask ourselves “livable for whom?”  The point has been raised before but I don’t think it can be stated clearly enough that climate injustice is deeply entwined with environmental racism which puts certain communities/bodies on the front lines of dangerous pollutants, toxins and lack of clean water among other violations.  This includes violent removal/attempts to extinguish title/kinship ties to land, as seen in past Wet’suwet’en land defender struggles in this province.  And what about the everyday dynamics we engage in?  What does anti-racist pedagogy look and feel like in an early learning classroom?  I’ll post a couple of articles/documentary trailer for your consideration on the Resources page that highlight connections to our work and ethical obligations, including the Early Childhood Education Assembly Call to Action Countering Anti-Blackness in Society & Schools, which has some excellent resources.

Another resource to watch for is a chapter by Fikile Nxumalo (2016) called Touching Place in Childhood Studies: Situated Encounters with a Community Garden that offers a way to reconsider what it means to touch and be touched, as part of a commitment to understand ourselves and living and working within particular historical processes that all too often attempt to erase certain bodies and their connections to the land.  While always relevant, I thought it might be timely to think with this piece now, because of Nxumalo’s explicit commitment to making racial politics more visible in early childhood and the fact that we are living in a pandemic that requires us to rethink the ways we touch with children and families (or not), going forward.  What does it mean to be touched by history as part of an intentional future-making process? What new understandings and connections might that promote/make space for?

I engage touch through art images of gardens, historical imageries of gardening, and specific sociomaterialities of everyday child-educator garden encounters. I engage touch with images not to represent place but rather to enact a politicized (re)storying of place within a settler colonial context - a noninnocent, entangled, and implicated worlding. Bellacasa (2009) refers to this as "touching vision" where "refusing the distinction between vision and touch troubles the ground of objectivity" (p. 308). What might these practices of refiguring presences do? What interruptions might be created to practice-as-usual? What connections might emerge and enact disruptions to visions of already demarcated, categorized, "settled" and defined colonial place?

Thanks and I wish you all a good week ahead. No simple solutions to the strife being laid bare before us, but I’m hoping for a more just and safe week for those risking their lives to stand up and demand justice. Black Lives Matter. Indigenous Live Matter. Racialized Lives Matter. Everywhere, including early childhood.

In solidarity and respect,

Narda

 

Hello everyone!

Quick reminder to regularly check our Pedagogical Explorations Events page for upcoming events.  There is a conversation this Thursday with UVic Chancellor Shelagh Rogers and Carey Newman that sounds interesting!

For those who missed Denise, Kathleen (Kummen) and Veronica (Pacini-Ketchabaw)’s talk over the weekend, I’ll post a link as soon as they’ve had time to review the recording and release segments for sharing, along with the Donna Haraway & Latour talk once the link is shared.

I’m in deep denial that June is around the corner. Feels like a good time for a musical interlude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eguD5AljSCI

Hope you’re all doing okay as we continue to move through the pandemic.

Missing everyone, Narda

p.s. Been seeing this one and other owls regularly on walks around UVic. Curious what has been happening in our absence in Haro Woods!

Good morning everyone!

Check out the Events page for 2 events happening today that might be of interest:

• webinar with the Royal BC Museum & Nancy Turner today at 2-2:30pm
• ECEBC Online Prof. Development opportunity this evening: Denise, Kathleen Kummen and myself will discuss the role of the pedagogist in BC, and what it means to work pedagogically together during COVID-19 times

Please note, I will not be available to respond to emails or review posts until tomorrow.

Hope you’re all having a good week so far!

Narda

Hi everyone!

Quick note to draw your attention to a webinar, coordinated by Drs. Jean-Paul Restoule and Angela Nardozi : What does Decolonization and Indigenization look like in the classroom? 

See Events page on this website for more info & links. I regularly post events to that page so remember to check it along with the Resources page for updates:)

Thx Sherri-Lynn for reminder of and info on this event & Amber for the link to the recordered webinar!

Narda

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:)