Whiling Time with ECPN Pedagogists

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Whiling Time with ECPN Pedagogists 

Dear Tri-Cities, New Westminster, & Burnaby Educators,

We are thrilled to launch a regular newsletter contribution that offers a glimpse of the ongoing pedagogical work we are doing with educators and early childhood centres in the community. We are grateful to be hosted by the YMCA Child Care Resource and Referral.  In this first issue, Natsuko Motegi’s work with the educators is featured.

"What is it that makes classroom experiences worthwhile?...What makes some experiences worthy of rest and repose, worthy of returning, worthy of tarrying and remembering, of taking time, of whiling away our lives in their presence?” (Jardine, 2008, p.1) "Whiling" invites us to be at the moment, makes fragments into the whole, and helps us remember and return to the things that matter to us.  We would like to invite you to linger with some of the work we are engaged in with educators.

 

“What is Collaboration”
Thinking Together with Paint

The group of educators were invited to think together about what it meant to collaborate in their practice.  In the process of inquiry, they explored the questions by painting together on the canvas.  The canvas each painted was  passed on to another educator, and they repeated the process twice as they engaged in thinking:

• What will we notice if we work together on the canvas ?​
• How is collaboration a challenge?​
• What is beauty of collaboration?​
• What value would we discover in collaboration?

The educators had various feelings and thoughts in the process.
 



Uncertainty/ discomfort
“What would the others think if they see my painting?”
“Would they wreck my painting?”



Respect/ kindness
“I will leave some space for others to paint.”
“I will work with the image in front of me rather than doing my own thing beside or over it.”

Trust
“No matter what I paint, others can make it better.”
“I can trust my colleagues.”

Excitement/ playfulness/ experimentation
“What would they like to add on my painting?”
“How can I add my ideas onto this painting?”

As they encountered the painting done by two other people previously, the educators paid close attention to how they would respond in collaboration.  

"Improvisational actors approach each idea offered as an invitation they must accept.  Their rule of thumb is to respond to each invitation with "yes, and …"


The educators were asked to think, “What is your ‘improvisational response’ to the painting, to the collaboration?  What if we bring the ‘yes, and…’ mind-set to the collaboration?  Do we also need the ‘yes, but…’ mind-set as well?  While you ‘trust the colleagues,’ do you also trust yourself?”


"If you are doing only ‘Yes, and...,’ you are not trusting yourself." 
"When we engage ourselves with ‘Yes, but...,’ it really pushes ourselves to do something new."
“Collaboration asks us to take a risk.”

The process of thinking together with paint brought the educators the shared awareness that collaboration takes courage and they each holds an obligation in the community.

Special thanks to the educators at Deer Lake Preschool for the permission to share these images and thoughts.

 
Learn more about the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network and the role of a pedagogist by visiting https://www.ecpn.ca/about/pedagogists-role