Carrying our Roots/llevar a nuestras raíces

Abstract

This qualitative study presents examples of information about and analysis of stories of children and the early childhood teacher education students working with them. The data from the stories problematize the neocolonial roots of our conceptions of children and families, particularly institutional systems, pedagogies, assessments, and daily life realities. This current study considers evolving theoretical stances to early childhood work with children and families based upon a third space that combines aspects of the Global South and the Global North. Participants are student teachers in an early childhood teacher education program and the children they work with in Southern California. Many are bi-national and their histories and current lived experiences are reflective in many ways of communities around the world where intergenerational participants of two or more cultures and language groups with different economic and political histories find themselves learning together. Many participants, both children and adult student teachers, are living and studying in the Global North and yet, they bring with them generations of family history, knowledge, linguistic perspectives, and lived experiences from the Global South. Findings suggest that through stories there is ongoing problematizing of the neocolonial roots of our conceptions of children and families and the resulting learning experiences accessible to them. The work led us to matters of concern, Latour who urges “an understanding of common worlds as worlds in the process of ‘progressive composition’.” In other words, this research illustrates a focus on relations as generative encounters with others and shared events that have mutually transformative effects.