Propositions toward educating pedagogists: Decentering the child

Abstract

The authors propose decentering the child as a critical motion in the education of pedagogists who work to refuse developmental pedagogies in early childhood education. Tracing how child-centered developmental practices are obstacles for deeper ethical and intellectual work and reiterate anthropocentric relationalities, they offer two propositions toward decentering the child that they emphasize in pedagogists’ learning: refusing legitimation through mastery and abandoning narratives of linearity. The authors advance these propositions within an intention to reinvent the relational commons that anchor pedagogists’ learning and practice while responding to the complexities of early childhood education in Canada.