Re-imagining the Froebelian influence on early childhood education as a dynamic and ever-changing web of encounter
Article
Sakr, M. and Kaur, V. 2024. Re-imagining the Froebelian influence on early childhood education as a dynamic and ever-changing web of encounter. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. 32 (4), pp. 923-940. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2355092
Type | Article |
---|---|
Title | Re-imagining the Froebelian influence on early childhood education as a dynamic and ever-changing web of encounter |
Authors | Sakr, M. and Kaur, V. |
Abstract | Friedrich Froebel is often positioned in contemporary landscapes of early childhood education as a ‘pioneer’, strongly associated with an emphasis on self-directed activity and learning through nature. While Froebel’s philosophy has clearly had an impact on how we think about young children today, in this article we argue that we need to re-imagine what counts as Froebel’s influence so that it goes well beyond the sayings and doings of one individual. In line with this special issue, we seek to bewilder the concept of the pioneer (Snaza, 2013) by instead re-imagining Froebel’s influence as a dynamic and ever-changing web of encounter. In conceptualising this web of encounter, we think with Barad’s (2007) ‘entangled genealogies’ and introduce into working with these genealogies, the historical methods of prosopography and material histories of the book. Using digitised extracts from late 19th century texts by or about Froebel as a starting point, we attempt to present small parts of a web of encounter drawing in complex national, cultural, economic and material contexts, along with the contributions of multiple individuals, many of whom have been forgotten or side-lined. We argue that exploring and documenting Froebel’s influence in this way can support critical and lively reflection on the past, present and future of early childhood education. |
Keywords | Froebel; web of encounter; entangled genealogies; prosopography; material histories |
Sustainable Development Goals | 4 Quality education |
Middlesex University Theme | Creativity, Culture & Enterprise |
Research Group | Centre for Education Research and Scholarship (CERS) |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
Journal | Pedagogy, Culture and Society |
ISSN | 1468-1366 |
Electronic | 1747-5104 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 16 May 2024 |
07 Aug 2024 | |
Publication process dates | |
Submitted | 10 Apr 2024 |
Accepted | 17 Apr 2024 |
Deposited | 13 May 2024 |
Output status | Published |
Publisher's version | License File Access Level Open |
Copyright Statement | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2355092 |
Web of Science identifier | WOS:001224699500001 |
https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/13958v
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Publisher's version
Re-imagining the Froebelian influence on early childhood education.pdf | ||
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | ||
File access level: Open |
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