‘When the whole sky falls down’: Minor gestures towards play out of place/time in toddler groups

Abstract

This article takes a discrepancy between experienced pedagogical and childish life orientations as a point of entry and speculates about loosening play from its organised position as form and instead looking at play as processes. Accordingly, the speculative focus of the article is on how different orientations might come into existence within an ordinary activity in a toddler group. To manage the discussion, the article puts fragments from Whitehead’s philosophy of process and Manning’s focus on the minor gesture to work within the actual event. Without claiming to propose fixed answers or solutions, the author discusses manoeuvres within the im/possible at the end of the article.