Making sense of critical and creative thinking within an early childhood studies seminar – a phenomenological contribution to intercultural pedagogy

The ultimate aim of this Doctoral programme is to enhance undergraduate experience, development, and achievement on a BA Early Childhood Studies (ECS) course, for which the researcher serves as the course leader. The findings may also prove to be useful for designers and tutors on similar courses. The study employs a phenomenological analysis to investigate the sense-making and meaning-making processes of Early Childhood Studies undergraduates in a typical seminar class, exploring the contextualisation of critical and creative thinking, as well as the cultural aspects of being a learner. A proposed conceptual framework for sense-making and meaning-making may be conducive to providing more holistic, culturally relevant seminar pedagogies, leading to greater student engagement and cultural awareness. These are necessary for students’ personal and professional development, ultimately contributing to a narrative of decolonisation and sustainability.

In contrast to a predominantly empirically researched, skill-based view of critical and creative thinking, this research takes an interpretivist, phenomenological approach to studying the sense-making of Early Childhood undergraduate students during a seminar class. The methods adopted include class observations of fifteen students working in small groups, and post-seminar video-stimulated interviews with six of the students. This is followed by a focus group of seven students to capture elements of their sense and meaning-making within their ‘lived experience’ of the seminar class. The findings identified that students are involved in ongoing sense-making during their seminar. Students are provoked by the resources provided by their tutor to participate in embodied sense-making. They participate in complex social ‘weaving’ to create a basis for their sense-making. This weaving involves: humour, controlled attention and validation, strained camaraderie between peers, and tacit negotiation of agency with the tutor (employing effort, engagement, and focus). Higher-order critical and creative thinking is rarely evidenced in the seminar, but a form of ‘creative sense-making’ arises from playful uncertainty. A form of ‘critical sense-making’ is seen to result in response to questions, as well as from tutor requests for feedback, which induce tension. If a tutor can recognise the characteristics of critical and creative sense-making within a seminar class, it could provide a starting point for scaffolding higher-order critical and creative thinking alongside intercultural dialogues. An intercultural, pedagogical framework is proposed, complementary to a sense-meaning and meaning-making perspective, which could encourage a more open dialogue for making meaningful links between cultural identity, critical and creative thinking.