Taking Children's Questions Seriously: The Need for Creative Thought

Abstract

This article recounts and further explores some experimental scientific and didactic work trying to make use of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in early childhood didactics at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. Within the setting of problem- and practice-based cooperation, researchers and teachers have in different projects explored some of the concepts offered by Deleuze and Guattari and that seem capable of aligning themselves with young children's strategies for learning as well as offering new and vital scientific and didactic tools. A thread through the article is the importance of and conditions needed for being able to really listen to children and take their questions seriously. The article begins with an argumentation on the need here for ‘creative thought’ and a short description of how current attempts to tame learning block this thought and neglect children's questions. Thereafter the article builds on examples of scientific and didactic work at the University of Stockholm where three concepts are explored: ‘assemblages of desire’ – as a way of accessing children's collective drive for learning; ‘event’ – as a way of accessing children's production of knowledge; and ‘affect’ – as a way of valuing learning and knowledge in a way that differs from how it is being done within the formalised school system. The article is concluded with a discussion on children's affinity with a creative thought and how this can be used to enrich the formalised school system.