The matter of the stick: Storying/(re)storying children's literacies in the forest
In the context of forest school pedagogy, post humanism and the common worlds framework suggest that children’s learning is about, through and with the elements of the forest
One of the major ideas discussed in this theoretical paper is that “matter matters to children” and to the learning process. The stick is used as an example of how matter can be conceived of as a powerful agent in children’s play and learning. The stick in the scenarios shared by the researchers acts as an agent eliciting actions, sounds, movement and relations. Sticks and children acting together create text for children’s play scenarios and stories. Thus, children’s intra-actions with sticks and other elements of the natural world become literacy practices.
The researchers (authors of this paper) accompanied eight preschool children and two teachers into the woods twice each week from September to June. They used a mosaic approach to document their experiences and insights: data collection methods included the use of photos, videos, researcher notes, surveys, educator journals and conversational interviews. The children, using a GoPro camera and iPads, participated in documenting their experiences. The children also played in role in determining what the researchers could or could not document.
Using a post-humanist lens, the children’s encounters with sticks in the forest become entangled with the children’s bodies, relations, identities and discourses. The stick becomes an agentic force acting relationally with children’s play and stories, making it difficult, at times, “to discern where the stick begins and the child ends.” Post-humanist theorizing, as used in this paper, reflects a philosophical understanding that extends subjectivities beyond the human species. This understanding is embedded in “common worlds” thinking which suggests that humans, materials, places and non-human species share indivisible worlds. This way of thinking opens up new possibilities for literacy teaching and learning.
From a humanist perspective, humans are the sole producers of knowledge. The common worlds framework, in contrast, values the coexistence and involvement of each agent. In the context of forest school pedagogy, post humanism and the common worlds framework suggests that children’s learning is about, through and with the elements of the forest.
Citation
Harwood, D., Collier, D.R., (2017). The matter of the stick: Storying/(re)storying children's literacies in the forest. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(3),
