Liselott Mariett Olsson

Discplacing identity – placing aesthetics : early childhood literacy in a globalized world

ABSTRACT ‘How to give brain and body to the multiple pack that we already are or are becoming: how, in other words, are we to make sensible (auditory, visually and affectively) the time before “I think” and “We think” that we cannot plan, control or know, but simply experiment with, which is the “time of the city” and nothing else?’ (Rajchman, 2010, p. 39) These powerful words constitute the starting point for this article that argues that, within the context of early childhood literacy in a globalized and ‘multicultural’ world, we need to experiment with new ways of understanding identity and language through amalgamating early childhood pedagogy and didactics with aesthetics. Such an endeavour needs to take place beyond ‘the indignity of speaking for the other’ (Deleuze, 2004, p. 208) and beyond the constructed categories that have been attributed to children in the name of one or another minority group. Through vivid examples and theoretical movements taking place within the research project ‘The Magic of Language’ we propose to shift focus – from the identifying and categorizing of individuals, as well as from the epistemological violence performed in the name of recognition and linguistic representation – to aesthetic experimentation and to the place of experiments. A ‘time of the city’ is also a ‘time of the place’ and in this article we are arguing for the importance of aesthetic experimenting with that place.

Constructions of neuroscience in early childhood education

This book explores and critiques topical debates in educational sciences, philosophy, social work and cognitive neuroscience. It examines constructions of children, parents and the welfare state in ...

‘Throwntogetherness’: a travelling conversation on the politics of childhood, education and what a teacher does

Doreen Massey (2005) describes as “throwntogetherness” the moment where the fluid trajectories of individuals in movement come together. It describes a form of coalescence of people and things in a particular place for a particular moment, which passes and is never repeated. It is happenstance, unpredictable and, on occasion, magical. This paper was written in a process of “throwntogetherness” for three academics a Swedish pedagogue from France, a Scottish geographer from California, and an Argentinian philosopher from Brazil – over two and a half weeks in Brazil. It is not a simple coincidence that this encounter took place in Brazil, nor can it be considered as taking place in a nation; perhaps it may best be considered in this instance as encounters through the topos of cities – Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Sao Carlos, and Sao Paulo in chronological order – between which these foreigners travelled through a couple of weeks in August 2015. All three authors live de-territorialized lives and here at this particular place – the generous lands of Brazil – they enjoyed the encouraging energy of thinking together at the interfaces, connections and overlappings between the politics of childhood, education, space, time, and what a teacher does. The crucible of the encounter – a chora if you will – was the 4th International Conference of Early Childhood Education, where each was invited as a keynote speaker on the topic of theoretical and methodological post-structuralism. The throwntogetherness also encompassed a unique, intensive and affirming space provided by hosts Professors Ligia Aquino, Gabriela Guarnieri de Campos Tebet, Anete Abramowicz, and Leticia Nascimento in their untiring promotion and nurturing of this encounter, and their willingness to share theirs and their wonderful students’ continuous work with questions of childhood, education and revolution. To them, is extended gratitude and friendship; they too were part of the throwntogetherness and are part of this text. This written dialogue started just after the authors’ first meeting in Rio de Janeiro and continued mostly daily till Liselott and Stuart returned to France and California respectively. In a sense it was a way to continue togetherness in chronos. In aion, the authors still experience “throwntogetherness”, listening to each other, smiling in synchrony and enjoying the privileged event of a joyful thinking, i.e. of