Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child: Time for Slow Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education (Contesting Early Childhood)

Product Information

opportunities for children to revisit the same environment and to develop a connection and sense of belonging Concept of ‘wisdom’ is important and would repay more attention. What is it and how can it be nurtured? Transforming Early childhood education edited by Claire Cameron and Peter Moss. UCL Press. Reasons to be slow? In New Zealand, there are several examples of educators and parents who have adopted an unhurried approach to teaching and parenting. For example, the Nature Kindergarten program in Wellington allows children to explore and play in a natural outdoor environment for extended periods of time. This approach not only fosters a love of nature and environmental awareness, but also encourages children to develop important social-emotional skills such as collaboration and communication.

agential, so putting to work Lenz Taguchi’s (2010) thinking. So my enquiries focus on what documentation does, rather than what documentation means in the place and space of a school. The research focuses on key interviews with early childhood and primary researchers, practitioners and advisors across 11 countries: England, Scotland, Wales, Norway, Japan, Denmark, Portugal, Israel, USA, Canada and Australia. If you are interested in joining in these reflections and experiment with a virtual academic book group: Thank you Alison for inviting me in this virtual reading group. This is a first time I am writing in a blog , so please forgive me for being a little bit nervous.

Join our email club...

A lot here of interest to thinking about the meaning and practice of assessment and evaluation, e.g. only what can be measured is true knowledge; ignoring context; detachment from wisdom; evaluation understood as fast process….I am put in mind of Malaguzzi on ‘Anglo-Saxon testology’, that it is ‘nothing but a ridiculous simplification of knowledge, and a robbing of meaning from individual histories’. This suggests that we need to develop a concept of slow evaluation. Each individual is unique, [and] has the power to express himself in his distinctive way… Each person, each child has a particular gift which will become visible if circumstances are right and freedom for expression is given." The Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) hosts a weekly seminar series, where invited speakers present work of relevance to the research interests of the unit. Links Another example is the Reggio Emilia approach, which originated in Italy but has gained popularity in New Zealand and around the world. This approach emphasizes child-led learning, where educators act as facilitators rather than instructors. Children are encouraged to explore topics that interest them, and learning is seen as a collaborative and reflective process. The Negatives of a Fast-Paced, Progress-Focussed Learning Environment Fast knowledge is linked to the growth of what has been called ‘datafication’ and ‘dataveillance’, which are becoming a means of increasingly intense and powerful governing and control through the collection and use of large-scale data (cf. ‘The Datafication of Primary and Early Years Education’ by Bradbury and Roberts-Holmes). This is apparent in early childhood through the development of extensive systems of centralised data collection and analysis (e.g. EYFSP, proposed Reception Baseline Assessment); also in international large-scale assessments such as PISA, and its spin-off, the International Early Learning Study.

Reading List Bruce, T., McNair, L. and Whinnett, J. (eds.) (2020) Putting Storytelling at the Heart of Early Childhood Practice: A Reflective Guide for Early Years Practitioners. Abingdon: Routledge. Clark, A. (2023) Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child: time for slow pedagogies in early childhood education. Abingdon: Routledge. Play is an active process without an end product. When the play fades, so does its tangibility. It can never again be replayed in exactly the same way. It is of the moment and vanishes when the play episode ends. This aids flexibility of thought and the adaptability central to the intellectual life of the child. Week beginning 27th April 2020 I plan to post a summary of the discussion so far followed by an introduction to the third article.I am really interested in the ideas of place and specific community knowledge in Orr’s conceptualisation. I am excited by that and know that in ECEC literature that this is a important for us as a group of scholars. My own field of interest is the documentation practices of ECEC and in particular seeing the potential of new materialist frames. I see documentation as intra-active and The relationship with time is part of everyday life in early childhood practice but is seldom made explicit. My ‘Slow knowledge and the unhurried child’ research study, funded by the Froebel Trust, seeks to explore what a slow pedagogy might look like where there is room to consider the time, pace and rhythm of early childhood practice (see Clark, 2020).

Horsley, K. (2020) Slowing Down: Documentary Photography in Early Childhood, International Journal of Early Years Education, 29(4), pp. 438-454. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2020.1850430. American Academy of Pediatrics. (2018). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. I am appreciative of this opportunity to think together, and am also a neophyte in the sphere of blogging.

BOOK SERIES

Chair: Emeritus Professor Peter Moss, Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, London. While many educators and parents may feel pressure to push children to learn at a faster pace, research shows that this approach can be detrimental to children’s overall well-being. For example, a study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology found that children who experienced more pressure to achieve academically were more likely to experience anxiety and depression (3). Similarly, a report by the American Psychological Association found that children who experience high levels of stress and pressure are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as substance abuse (4). Like Jo, I read this very much with current events in mind including recent UK news stories about the rapid design and manufacture of new breathing equipment arising from a collaboration between researchers, doctors and Formula 1, and the new ‘Nightingale Hospital’ set up in just a matter of weeks. This seems to suggest that typically slow processes (research, consultation, testing etc.) have been necessarily sped up to respond to the urgency of the situation. At the moment this ‘fast knowledge’ feels welcome, but in light of Orr’s comments I found myself how ‘fast knowledge’ might have been part of a root problem in the first place, and what consequences there might be longer-term. Alison Clark is Professor of Early Childhood Education at University of South-Eastern Norway and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, London.

Orr speaks to academics in particular, and there is much here that is applicable to my work in the discipline of higher education, and universities as knowledge institutions in teaching, research and community engagement. Orr refers to universities as generators of ‘fast knowledge’. Certainly the way in which the focus is increasingly on quantifiable research outputs and impact and assesable learning outcomes supports this view. And yet, that there is so much resistance to this way of being (and the books I mentioned are good examples) gives me hope. Students will be encouraged to keep a 'slow journal'. 2,000-word patchwork text (4 x 500) will be assessed throughout the semester. Find out more about Alison Clark's research ' Slow knowledge and the unhurried child' in our Froebel Trust online research library. You can also find out more about the Froebel Trust funded Falkirk project, led by Donna Green - supporting practitioners implementing slow pedagogy in their settings. Slow practices, of which play is central, run counter to this impatience and value the present moment as well as young children’s relationships with the past and future.

26 Series Titles

I am interested in carving out more time to imagine other ways of being in early childhood education. I have begun to explore this further, alongside colleagues in a chapter in an open access edited book to be published in August. A patchwork assignment can provide a useful friendly way into academic writing (Winter, 2003). The Slow Pedagogy students will submit three pieces of work of 500 words (patches), which will then be stitched together with a final reflective synopsis of learning of 500 words to make in total a 2,000-word assignment. This will constitute 50% of the course final mark. The study, funded by the Froebel Trust, explores the contemporary context of early childhood education and alternative approaches to the discourse of measurement. It also explores where ‘slow practices’ are happening now and in the past. Alison's research links to a Froebelian approach to early education - the value of childhood in its own right and the importance of childhood experiences. This module should appeal to a diverse range of students (including international students) with an interest in exploring alternative narratives in education and in ECEC in particular. A wide range of themes about slow practices will be covered across the age range of early childhood. Each session can be linked to an online resource bank of related journal articles that can be updated as new relevant research is published.