Journal of Childhoods and Pedagogies

Ecologies of Making

Leoma (Thy) Vo — 2026-03-11

This is a co-composed inquiry with the children and educators of Morningside, a centre within SFU Childcare Society located at the top of Burnaby Mountain. Together, we explore the complex intersectionalities of human and more-than-human relations as construction occurs throughout the campus and forest as a result of the children's concern for the lives within the forest. Using pedagogical documentation and narrations as a research method and working with a critical place-based lens, we began exploring these intersections as children encounter construction, the forest, and the lives of others within these spaces. With the practice of slowing down to build our relationship to place, and constantly re-working our theories through discussions and drawing with the children, we begin to see place as more than just a fixed location for human use, but as a place in constant transformation with and for the life of others.

'Still, No One Was Naked'

Catherine-Laura Dunnington — 2026-03-11

Daily and nationally children enter classrooms clothed. Foregrounding the taken-for-granted nature of clothing as a classroom material, this project was a layered invitation to these preschoolers to think-with the textiles in their classroom. Textiles, for us, were those that the children wore, carried, played with, sat upon, and were offered for consideration. Rooted in sociomaterial understandings of agency and entanglement, we wondered alongside our textiles for several months, giving particular attention to how children’s stories and expressions about their textiles underscores relationality between textile/child(ren). Beginning with the t-shirts that children wore daily we sought to decouple our textiles from mundanity — to remove our blinders – by giving these same textiles deep pedagogical attention alongside the children.

Narratives of Eagles Transcending European Ideology

Jessica Petersen — 2026-03-11

Adopting a common world framework, the inquiry integrates the posthumanism, re-conceptualist, and anti-colonialist perspectives. The significance of biodiversity is portrayed in this project as the natural assemblages—ecological, cultural, political, and historical—as a means of cultivating deep interpersonal connections with the more-than-human fauna that inhabit these areas. The authors take up a practice of meandering (Banacka & Berger, 2019) to examine the ethic of place and how the ethos of humanity profoundly impacted the ecological ‘anthropogenic’ consequences on these beaches. The Strait of Georgia, which is situated on the unceded ancestral and customary lands of the Coast Salish peoples, flows between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland and served as the backdrop for this living inquiry, which took place on both sides of the waterway. Guided by Mark Rifkin's (2017) notion of time, which pertains to coexistence with the abundance of temporalities while appreciating the ontological uniqueness that emerges through this living inquiry, serves as the basis for this project. The participants are connected in an intricate web of relationships and interdependencies that transcend borders, ecological cultures, and European ideologies. This journey considers the ethical elements of coexisting with the complexity, particularities, unpredictability, and unlimited possibilities of nature and more-than-human entities, while exploring and critically reflecting on the often overlooked, taken-for-granted, and unnoticed.

What does it mean to think with and correspond with place?

How might alternative ways of thinking with all agentic force with(in) places be implemented?

Key Words: living curriculum, interconnectedness, reconceptualizing normality, common world, posthumanism theory, Anthropogenic methodology, arboreal temporalities

Becoming Conscious of One's Own Limits Within Nature to Live Sustainably

Catherine Samson — 2026-03-11

Emergence with Rocks

Francine Donati — 2026-03-11

This living inquiry explores and documents the material-relational possibilities with natural rocks on a specific beach as a proactive participant in our encounter. I consider and take seriously the multimodal possibilities of the natural assemblages—ecological, cultural, political, and historical—as a means of cultivating a deep reciprocal relationship between myself and rock material. This inquiry is inspired by Stephanie Bunn (2011), Tim Ingold (2013), and Christopher Schulte (2018), as a way of critically engaging with multimodal ways of thinking with natural material and acknowledging beach rocks as a collaborative participant. Implementing a posthumanist framework, I begin to reconceptualize the normality of being with, engaging with, emerging with, and co-existing with natural material. Guided by Tim Ingold’s (2013) concept of attention as a way of actively listening and being consciously aware during the present moment with materials, I embrace the intricate web of reciprocal relationships in the bioregion. This journey considers the ethical elements of coexisting with the complexity, particularities, unpredictability, and unlimited possibilities of natural elements and more-than-human materials that reside in this area, while exploring, learning, opening myself up to the gradual rhythms and intrigues that are often overlooked, taken-for-granted, and unnoticed.

Slowing Down in Neoliberal Times: Engaging in Deep Pedagogical Listening as Resistance

Shawna M. Carroll — 2026-03-11

You are invited to engage in this special issue, which shares five pedagogical narrations across a wide range of topics; each includes “an ethical and creative event composed of ongoing communication and processes of re-living and re-enacting experiences” (Kim, 2023, p. 4). These pedagogical narrations ask us to consider how we can allow ourselves to slow down and engage in deep listening, which is the foundation for any reciprocal relationship, human and more-than-human, and an “active verb that involves interpretation” (Rinaldi, 2001, p. 80). I invite the reader to think about how this slowing down and attuning to our context can be a process of resistance against the “neoliberal regimes” that are evermore present in our work in education (Davies, 2005).