A Call for Onto-Epistemological Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care: Centering Global South Conceptualizations of Childhood/s

Abstract

In this chapter, we call for onto-epistemological diversity in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Specifically, we discuss the need to center the brilliance of children and communities of color, which we argue, can be facilitated by foregrounding global south perspectives, such as Black and Chicana feminisms. Mainstream perspectives in ECEC, however, have been dominantly constructed from global north perspectives, producing a normalized White, male, middle-class, heterosexual version of childhood, where minoritized children are viewed as deficit. Although there have been important challenges to the discourse of a normalized, deficit child, we argue much of this work has remained grounded in global north positionings, which separate theory from the lived realities of children of color. As such, we introduce Black and Chicana feminisms as global south visions to transform approaches to research and pedagogy in ECEC and, in turn, disrupt inequities.

Animal Magic, Secret Spells, and Green Power: More-Than-Human Assemblages of Children's Storytelling

“…Children's storytelling holds rich potential to illuminate what matters to children, what they value and think about, and how this mattering is produced. My intention for this research is to make space for ideas, and consequently children, who might otherwise be pushed into the margins of daily classroom life (Pérez & Saavedra, 2017;Schlossberg, 1989 A note about terminology: There is great disparity in how the concepts of story and narrative are employed in research. Some researchers use the terms interchangeably, while others view narration as a broader concept, such as a tendency marking the trajectory of a person's life or the conditions under which storytelling occur.…”

“…Pierre, 2011. Thinking with theory is premised on ethico-onto-epistemology (Barad, 2007;Lenz Taguchi, 2010a;Pérez, & Saavedra, 2017), or the understanding that learning is relational and practices of knowing and being cannot be separated, but rather "are mutually implicated" (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012, p. 116). From this ethico-ontoepistemological stance, it follows that theory and practice are inexorably entangled, and that research and analysis is itself an entangled process, comprised of meaning-making and production simultaneously (Davies, 2014a).…”

Anti‐racism in U.S. early childhood education: Foundational principles

“…As the literature suggests, many early childhood scholars, but racialized scholars in particular, have combined passionate activism with socially‐just scholarship by bringing awareness to the salience and relevance of incorporating experientially‐derived theories from marginalized groups into how early childhood education is envisioned and practiced. One of the benefits of including global south onto‐epistemologies in early childhood education is that such perspectives affirm children's lived experiences (Pérez & Saavedra, ). The absence of situated embodied knowledge, while developmental psychology remains the chief cornerstone of early childhood education, however, remains a pressing concern.…”

“…How have dominant models of parental involvement ignored the cultural strengths and parental practices of Black families? This foundational premise of challenging the knowledge base of early childhood education is not an isolated, independent scholarly endeavor, but rather, accords with the work of other racialized scholar-activists, who have and continued to call for the inclusion of marginalized epistemologies in early childhood education (e.g., Pérez & Saavedra, 2017).…”

“…One of the benefits of including global south onto-epistemologies in early childhood education is that such perspectives affirm children's lived experiences (Pérez & Saavedra, 2017). The absence of situated embodied knowledge, while developmental psychology remains the chief cornerstone of early childhood education, however, remains a pressing concern.…”