In this chapter, we explore the potential to render a cultural-historical wholeness approach to education ecologically more sustainable by drawing on feminist-posthumanist theorizing on caring for more than human worlds. In light of the numerous ecosystemic crises we face today, we advocate for a reconsideration of culture-nature relationships in educational and developmental psychology, as well as in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The aim is to foster both more ecologically and socially sustainable practices in ECEC by moving beyond human exceptionalist approaches to nature in education. By situating our discussion in the cultural-historical wholeness approach to education, we seek to better understand and promote children’s wellbeing and development in ECEC. We provide a diffractive reading of this approach, drawing on key conceptual insights from Haraway, Puig de la Bellacasa, Tronto and Bennett. These perspectives help us with more comprehensively describing and learning from two examples of ECEC practices that enabled caring explorations of diverse more than human relationships among educators and children. We advocate for a collaborative, co-sensitizing, and in that sense more sustainable research methodology—one that allows for the caring enactment and documentation of meaningful experiences in ECEC.

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Developing Sustainable Caring Explorations of More Than Human Matters in ECEC

  • Niklas A. Chimirri,
  • Gloria Quinones,
  • Ditte Winther-Lindqvist

摘要

In this chapter, we explore the potential to render a cultural-historical wholeness approach to education ecologically more sustainable by drawing on feminist-posthumanist theorizing on caring for more than human worlds. In light of the numerous ecosystemic crises we face today, we advocate for a reconsideration of culture-nature relationships in educational and developmental psychology, as well as in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The aim is to foster both more ecologically and socially sustainable practices in ECEC by moving beyond human exceptionalist approaches to nature in education. By situating our discussion in the cultural-historical wholeness approach to education, we seek to better understand and promote children’s wellbeing and development in ECEC. We provide a diffractive reading of this approach, drawing on key conceptual insights from Haraway, Puig de la Bellacasa, Tronto and Bennett. These perspectives help us with more comprehensively describing and learning from two examples of ECEC practices that enabled caring explorations of diverse more than human relationships among educators and children. We advocate for a collaborative, co-sensitizing, and in that sense more sustainable research methodology—one that allows for the caring enactment and documentation of meaningful experiences in ECEC.