Issue: Fall/Winter 2022
Special Issue Call:
As the apex of the pandemic subsides, we find ourselves emerging in a context of heightened uncertainty and messiness. Global economic and political violence provide the backdrop for all of us to establish a new reality. Having been largely ignored during the pandemic, early childhood educators, children and families are emerging from the haze. In Canada, there is some hope as agreements with all provinces and territories have been signed in relation to a first-ever national childcare program. As we look to find our footing and step forward into what is next, we wish to take a moment honour, reflect and center the relationships that we understand to be foundational to our existence in the human and more-than-human worlds. In this issue we hope to provoke research, dialogue and thinking about how our relationships have been interrupted, adapted and persevered despite the many practical barriers to typical ways of doing relationships over the past two years. We are also interested in if this matters as we move toward meaningful advocacy and pedagogical work. We wonder:
- How do we think differently about the value of relationships between children, families and educators and the more-than-human world in ECE programs right now - when the world is as it is, facing white supremacy, armed conflict, climate devastation, and the consequences of a massive viral outbreak? (not only relationships between educator and children/families, but also between educators and between children/families and all of these groups and the natural environment)
- Has how we do relationships changed? How?
- Are relationships centered (or not) in formal policy documents/announcements by provinces/territories and the federal government? What might be the implications of this?
- How might young children understand themselves in relation to others after two years of pandemic induced isolation? (for many children, they are emerging into the social world beyond the family for the first time). What does this mean for educators, themselves looking to find solid footing in a hostile, unpredictable world?
Submission deadline: August 15, 2022