#6 Nearing An Endpoint Of Not Knowing

As I think about nearing the “endpoint” of this blog for the purpose of our assignment, I see that my learning about specific issues of ethics (such as poverty and its effects) in early childhood education is really just beginning. I am grateful that I will still have opportunities to continue learning through my experiences with others; for each time I think with someone I am left with another new thought. Perhaps a quote that best summarizes what I have learned is this from Sharon Todd: “It is only when we learn from the stories that Others have to tell that we can respond with humility and assume responsibility.” (Todd, 2001). It was not my intention to focus so much on othering in my inquiry; however a realization that my thinking about the Other needed to change occurred as my learning progressed. I discovered that I needed a deeper understanding of how I am implicated in my responsibility to and for others needed before moving on to concepts specific to poverty and the possibility of bringing about change. While not the tidiest of patterns, my new understanding (and thus my blog) took shape in what Deleuze and Guattari call the “rhizome of thought” (Dahlberg and Moss, 2005). The metaphor of the rhizome having no hierarchy of roots, trunk and branches, but rather a tangle of interconnected thoughts resulting from the provocation of an experience. Again explained by Deleuze and Guattari: “Thought then is a matter of experimentation and problematization – lines of flight, an exploration of becoming, being shaken up as we encounter something that which does not fit with our habitual ways of seeing and understanding.” (Dahlberg and Moss, 2005) Understanding my need to change how I view my role in ECE to that of participant, not as leader, and considereing new cooperative relationships has been an awakening. Through understanding this need for personal change and living the process of adjusted thinking I see myself questioning and evaluating my experiences and interactions in regard to ethical responsibility. The many years I spent maintaining the practice of what I knew and was ‘good at’ in childcare needed time for disruption. I began to consider how I could be more ethical in my practice through listening. By reflecting on some of the more difficult decisions I have made in my role as and ECE I now see how I could have approached situations more proactively. I feel one way to help families is to question how centre policies could be more flexible to allow for the changing needs of families and their work conditions. I also wonder if creating more “Hub model” centre relationships could help support parents in their need for more time with their family. These are two concepts that I would like to continue to consider. While I will continue to advocate for family and childcare needs to government, I think the place where meaningful change will occur is in my face-to-face relationships of caring. By concentrating my efforts on supporting children and their families within my daily practice I can continue to take small steps to improve their lives.

Dahlberg, G. and Moss, P. Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education, 2005; New York: RoutledgeFalmer
Todd, Sharon, “On Not Knowing the Other, or Learning from Levinas”, Philosophy of Education; 2001, York University

Blog #5 Ethics, Education and Poverty as Influenced by Emmanuel Levinas

After reading Antje’s comments about the teacher’s role in causing further violence toward the Other , I went in search of the article she quoted written by Sharon Todd: “On Not Knowing the Other, or Learning from Levinas” (2001). I felt reading and resonding to this article was important to my knowledge and understanding of ethical action relevant to poverty in childcare. A theme that keeps repeating itself in my learning is Levinas’s view of the responsibility of the educator: ‘the educational ethic of knowing’. (2001; p.67) Todd continues: “teaching often falls into a form of rhetoric, an influential device for getting students to learn about how people came to be designated as Other and what needs to be done in order to change this”. (2001, p. 68). This to me means that by the very nature of teaching children what we know about world poverty we are furthering the violence done to the Other. Herein lays my struggle: how do we educate our next generation of adults to do better at caring for the world than we have done in the past? Perhaps schools should use technology to connect classrooms with the citizens in villages around the world to learn firsthand from the people who live there. Through discussion and readings, I am moving away from needing to know the other and moving towards the “openness to something new, something totally other beyond the self”; which Levinas refers to as “the approach to knowledge with an ethical relation to the difference”. (2001, p.68) This openness is what is replacing my old need to hold knowledge about groups of people before I feel comfortable interacting with them, particularly families I am mandated to work with based on programs I present attached to government funding. Through thinking about the interconnectedness between ethics and education, I see the cracks in what I held as true: the belief that I must arm myself with knowledge before entering an uncertain relationship. I now recognize that I must reconsider the information I have taken for granted as knowledge about the other and set it aside to renew my practice based on a quality relationship accepting and defining difference. Todd leaves me with unanswered questions: What makes ethics possible in education? What makes education itself a condition of ethical practice? If I continue to work in children’s support programs, I must leave room to listen to those children and their families who participate without prejudging or bias (as Levinas would say educational ethics) I will encourage all children to develop relationships with each other that are non-threatening. If responsibility is inescapable because of the ‘impossibility of indifference to the other’ then my interactions with others profoundly matter to my understanding of ethics.” (2001, p. 70-72)
I end with a quote from Carla Rinaldi about Reggio Emilia centres:
“The teacher is not removed from her role as an adult, but instead revises it in an attempt to become co-creator, rather than merely a transmitter of knowledge and culture. As teachers we have to carry out this role with the full awareness of our vulnerability, and this means accepting doubts and mistakes as well as providing for surprise and creation…Listening means being open to others and what they have to say, listening to the hundred (and more) languages have to say…Listening legitimizes the other person, because communication is one of the fundamental means of giving form to thought. The communicative act that takes place through listening produces meanings and reciprocal modifications that enrich all the participants in the exchange. Listening legitimizes the other person, because communication is one of the fundamental means of giving form to thought. The reciprocal communicative system enriches all participants.” (2005, p.97)
This thought takes me to a new place in my role as an educator; without the knowledge that I held previously, I feel somewhat empty as I wait for authentic understanding to trickle in. I am realizing that having the patience to listen and reflect is going to be vital if I am to succeed in this new way of approaching teaching and learning. What affect will this new way relating have on my feelings about my previous years of teaching practice?

Resources:
Dahlberg, G. and Moss, P. Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education, 2005; New York: RoutledgeFalmer
Todd, Sharon, “On Not Knowing the Other, or Learning from Levinas”, Philosophy of Education; 2001, York University