Crossing Borders and Borderlands: Childhood’s Secret Undergrounds

Abstract

This chapter examines childhood undergrounds as subversive spaces that respond to children's borderlands and border crossings. Centred on a tale of two childhoods, it analyses children's secret coping practices within very different socio-political contexts and realities. One story is of a boy growing up in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, and his relationship to the borderlands between his country and Austria. The other is about a girl born into a German community in Australia, and her linguistic and cultural border crossings. The impact of their borders and border crossing strategies are theorised in relation to children's ideological settings and forming subjectivities, to offer fresh understandings of childhood border experiences. Childhood border zonesChildhoods are curious and inaccessible to adults. This chapter problematises children's relationships with borders by exploring childhood undergrounds as subversive spaces that respond to borderlands and border crossings in children's lives. It is centred on a tale of two childhoods, through which we examine the significance of children's private border crossing practices embedded within the social and political contexts of their everyday realities. These childhoods are different from each other, however they connect through the children's experiences of the anxieties and excitements evoked in response to the

Serving families who face economic and related adversities: the ‘5 As’ of effective ECEC service delivery

“…There are examples of effective practice from practitioners and teachers who are trained in theories of cultural capital, Critical Race Theory, culturally relevant pedagogies, anti-deficit theory and strategies for critical reflection. Although much of this research is focussed on school aged children (Lampert and Burnett, 2016) there are some good ECEC examples (see Hedges et al, 2011;Arndt and Tesar, 2014). One of the most valuable contributions of the funds of knowledge approach is that it challenges the idea that poor families have less knowledge, poorer organisational skills and less capacity to learn than other people.…”

Early childhood assessment in Aotearoa New Zealand: Critical perspectives and fresh openings

“…The provocations offered through child self assessments transgress simple teaching moments, creating powerful openings for children's voices and stories as crucial contributions to connect everyday realities, meanings and histories to the curriculum. Reciprocity is enacted through the very suggestion that teachers learn from children, not through simple one-off situations, but by elevating the invisible, child foreignness and children's underground cultures and meanings (Arndt & Tesar, 2014;Tesar & Koro-Ljungberg, 2015). Learning stories create spaces for the unseen, unknown and unknowable.…”