This project aims to explore time as a pedagogical and ethical resource for children, educators and learning communities.
Being Us is a new project that builds on Alison's Clark's work on ‘Slow knowledge and the unhurried child’, which was funded with a Froebel Trust Open Call Research Grant (2019). The original slow pedagogy study attracted widespread interest in the UK and internationally and the book based on the project was awarded Professional Book of the Year in 2023 in the Nursery World Awards.
Being Us will go further, exploring what ‘slow’ makes possible - for young children including those with additional needs, for those who work with young children, and for the learning communities of which they are part.
With a focus on time as a pedagogical and ethical resource, Being Us is closely aligned with Froebelian principles and in particular with Froebel’s emphasis on opportunities for young children to ‘unfold’. A patient pedagogy that supports ‘unfolding’ is in contrast to the image of a ‘hurried child’ who is constantly pressured to move on to the next stage.
Froebelian principles will be a navigational tool for the study and brought into dialogue with other theoretical and pedagogical perspectives that make explicit the temporal dimensions to learning and living together in early childhood education and care.
Three early learning and childcare centres in Scotland will be joined by a setting in Iceland and one in England. Together, they will form a new learning community to explore slow pedagogy questions, such as:
- How do opportunities for ‘stretched time’ through play support young children as autonomous learners, including children with additional needs?
- In what ways can exploring time as a pedagogical and ethical resource deepen educators’ professional identity as knowledgeable and nurturing educators?
- How can ‘taking the longer view’ strengthen the identity of a learning community?
Being Us will conclude in 2027. Check back for updates from the project.
