“Discourse of meaning making does not require or seek consensus and unanimity, for it is the graveyard of universal consensus that responsibility and freedom and the individual exhale their last sigh.”
(Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 1999, p. 107)
I am curious.
Dahlberg, Moss & Pence suggest that we cannot reclaim quality to include diversity, subjectivity, agency, and complexity. They suggest instead to move toward the “discourse of meaning making” (p. 106). This discourse sits within “the ethics of an encounter, foregrounding the importance of making meaning in dialogue with others” (p.106). Consensus might be reached, but is not necessary. I believe the quote above illustrates that beautifully and even warns us about the dangers of consensus! The discourse of quality pushes for consensus through normalization, quantification, and standardization. In the name of quality then we give up agency, subjectivity, and freedom. The 'discourse of meaning making' opens spaces for many interpretations moving away from either/or to both/and. You can either be good or bad. Or you can be both AND all the other things in between.
The authors Dahlberg, Moss and Pence describe essential conditions for meaning making in the Early Childhood classroom (p. 108).
- Stepping back to look at the questions that matter to us in this world. For instance: What matters in education? I envision here a community of inquiry where we continuously look at our values and beliefs.
- Critical thinking. My Philosophy teacher, Susan Gardner, would support this. She used to say that all students should take a critical thinking course. Her book is entitled Thinking your way to Freedom. I believe this goes hand in hand with the discourse of meaning making, because we are in fact an agent of our freedom.
- “Pedagogical Documentation” in collaboration with others to make visible/public what is happening in your centre.
- “The importance of encounters and dialogue” with others. I am reminded of Levinas' encounter with the other.
- “The participation of facilitators” to help make judgements. Facilitators don’t provide an answer. A course I took recently entitled “The Role of the Pedagogista”, provides a clear image of the role of facilitators. The facilitator/ pedagogista disrupts and questions our practices and assumptions, but does not give an answer.
I recently read Madeleine Grumet’s essay Retrospective: Autobiography and the analysis of educational experience. She writes about her personal history with journaling and combines autobiography and its theory. She uses autobiography to move away from “anonymous and quantitative studies of education”(p. 324) to bring back “the complexity, specificity, rhythm and logic of the biographical voice to studies in education” (p.324) thus valuing the individual’s lived experiences. There is a connection between autobiography and the ‘discourse of meaning making’. Both require us to think and reflect. Both value the individual’s lived experiences. And both evolve around the complexity in life that cannot be quantified.
I’ve just come across this webpage:
Early childhood education and care: Private Commodity or Public Good
This is a project of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU). Here you’ll find many resources on this public policy issue. Many of them relate to the quality issue.
References
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (1999). Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care: Postmodern Perspectives. London & New York: Falmer Press.
Gardner, S. T. (2009). Thinking your way to freedom: A guide to owning your own practical reasoning. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Grumet, Madeleine R. (1990). Retrospective: Autobiography and the analysis of educational experience. Cambridge Journal of Education 20(3), 321-326.
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ReplyDeleteI would like to look more in depth to “pedagogical documentation” and why it is one of the important conditions for meaning making in the early childhood classroom. Dahlberg and Moss (2005) emphasizes “if the preschool can be the site or locus for minor and democratic politics, then pedagogical documentation is a process for practicing these politics, including the many groups, interests and perspectives involved with preschools. But this is possible only when the process of documentation is understood and undertaken as an exercise in critical thinking and agonistic pluralism, where conflict and dissensus, passion and alterity are not only tolerated but welcomed. Pedagogical documentation makes learning visible: but it goes beyond this and by doing so enters the political sphere, making what is visible subject to interpretation, critique and argumentation. By taking this vital second step, by becoming minor politics, pedagogical documentation can enable dominant discourses to be challenged rather than reinforced, normative frameworks to be transgressed rather than more tightly drawn, governmentality to be undermined rather than applied” (p.156). They also add, “pedagogical documentation is understood as a tool for evaluation as meaning making. And by making pedagogical work visible and subject to interpretation and argumentation within a community of participants, pedagogical documentation provides one means for making judgements of values - so different to the normalizing judgements associated with evaluation as quality” (p.158).
ReplyDeleteAs I reflect on this quote, I thought of our Social Justice And Ethics In ECCE course. I have always thought of classroom (degree program) I am in is different from the classroom (early childhood) filled with children. I thought of education classroom as part of institution where learning takes place and early childhood classroom as a place to implement, unfold and present what I have learned in school. However, through the process of creating blog posts(as pedagogical documentation) that contains multiple voices has become an opportunity to re-think what it means to be with others and make our learning visible to the community. This classroom has become an ethical space rather than an institution for me because there is struggle, challenge, conversation, dissensus, emancipation and that they are visible. This experience encourages me to believe that early childhood classroom can be an ethical space if we welcome multiple voices for new possibilities.
Reference
Dahlberg, G., & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education. New York: RoutledgeFalmer