Autobiography as resistance to learnification in early childhood teacher education. Issue 4 (7th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stearns, Clio; Guadalupe, Aisha
• Is Part Of: Curriculum inquiry. Volume 50:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 352
• Page End: 371
• Publication Date: 2020-08-07
• Subjects: Early childhood -- curriculum studies -- teacher knowledge -- student and teacher experiences -- psychoanalysis; Education -- Curricula -- Periodicals; 375.0005
• DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2020.1840910
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0362-6784

Abstract

Abstract: This article works with autobiographical methodologies such as those proposed and propagated by Madeleine Grumet and William Pinar (1975, 2004 ) to examine and critique the role that an emphasis on learning plays in early childhood teacher education. The authors are an instructor and a student in a course called Foundations in Early Childhood Education. They draw on their life experiences prior to, during, and after the course as data that help them understand how moving away from what Biesta (2017 ) has problematized as the "learnification" of education might be aided by a return to and ongoing work on autobiography. The authors describe how themes specifically related to loss can be highlighted in a way that enriches personal educational experience and also enhances the psychodynamic and moral capacity of the teacher education trajectory.