Thesis Format
Alternative Format
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Education
Supervisor
Pacini-Ketchabaw, Veronica
Abstract
Creative Common worlding with research-creation in early childhood education engages with provocations that disrupt dominant understandings of children and their relations with more-than-human and human others. Reconceptualizing alternatives through art, this dissertation contemplates the potent possibilities beyond human stewardship, underscores the influence of an uncommoning lens, and emphasizes the difficulties with humancentric notions of research. If, by disrupting how we understand ourselves and our role in place, we modify our actions and change our habits, then perhaps we can live differently and contribute differently to the planet. Through a common worlds framework together with research-creation, this dissertation considers climate education alternatives that emphasize the arts and combine academic research practices with creative and innovative experimentation in early childhood education.
The dissertation is divided into six distinct, but related, chapters. The second chapter focuses on the collaboration of pumpkin, weather, and children to build layered relations with the complexities of place. The third chapter focuses on walking and sketching as methods for forging relations with place, beyond written and spoken language. The experimentation with generating place relations continues with chapter four, an uncommon field guide originating with educators’ and children’s relations with a common world. The guide is an inclusive example of children thinking with, not learning about, a place. As a premise, the uncommon field guide considers the possibilities of guides, created with children, that focus on the realities of shared place, beyond positivist scientism habits that separate humans from nature.
The fifth chapter is the catalogue from the solo art exhibition Inklings: Becoming with a Palette of Place, a creative experimentation in building place relations through local, foraged materials for ink. This exhibition and catalogue engage in the creation of a palette of place and speculative inhabitants coalescing with the intimacy of colour, imagination, and alchemy.
The final chapter attends to how collaborative common worlding research in early childhood education together with art can inform and contribute to alternative approaches with a precarious planet.
Summary for Lay Audience
Creative Common worlding with research-creation in early childhood education engages with provocations that disrupt dominant understandings of children and their relations with more-than-human and human others. Reconceptualizing alternatives through art, this thesis contemplates the potent possibilities beyond human stewardship, underscores the influence of an uncommoning lens, and emphasizes the difficulties with humancentric notions of research. If, by disrupting how we understand ourselves and our role in place, we modify our actions and change our habits, then perhaps we can live differently and contribute differently to the planet. Through a common worlds framework, where humans are understood as part of nature, together with research-creation, this dissertation considers climate education alternatives that emphasize the arts and combine academic research practices with creative and innovative experimentation in early childhood education.
The thesis is divided into six distinct, but related, chapters. The first chapter reviews the research project. The second chapter focuses on the collaboration of pumpkin, weather, and children to build layered relations with the complexities of place. The third chapter focuses on walking and sketching as methods for forging relations with place, beyond written and spoken language. The experimentation with generating place relations continues with chapter four, an uncommon field guide originating with educators’ and children’s relations with a common world. The guide is an inclusive example of children thinking with, not learning about, a place. As a premise, the uncommon field guide considers the possibilities of guides, created with children, that focus on the realities of shared place, beyond positivist scientism habits that separate humans from nature.
The fifth chapter is the catalogue from the solo art exhibition Inklings: Becoming with a Palette of Place, a creative experimentation in building place relations through local, foraged materials for ink. This exhibition and catalogue engage in the creation of a palette of place and speculative inhabitants coalescing with the intimacy of colour, imagination, and alchemy.
The final chapter attends to how collaborative common worlding research in early childhood education together with art can inform and contribute to alternative approaches with a precarious planet.
Recommended Citation
Hennessy, Sarah M., "Creative Common Worlding with Research Creation in Early Childhood Education" (2022). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 8931.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/8931
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