An Event of Encounter: Pedagogy as Interruption

Presentation by: Haideh Hashemi Nouri

Session: Session A |Time: 9:30AM –9:50AM | Location: Room 208

Within early childhood spaces, any ordinary moment may be interrupted by an encounter and every encounter holds the possibility of an extraordinary event. Children are naturally curious about their surroundings and they interact with others (human and non-human) to make sense of the world and their-being-in-the world. Paying attention to children’s interests and interactions allows the educator to recognize the possibilities through daily lived experiences and open space for children’s agentic forces to appear. The educators have the freedom to heed these moments, children’s desires evident therein, consider the desirability of children’s desires and welcome their becoming of a subject (Biesta, 2017). Reflecting alongside Levinas, Arendt and Gert Biesta’s interpretation of “subject-ness” as the desire to act as a “grown-up”, the presenter will share an anecdote from lived experiences with children (an event of encounter) to invite the participants for reflection and dialogue in relation to the concepts of subjectivity, children’s agentic forces and pedagogy as interruption. The purpose of this presentation is to collectively analyze the pedagogical moments of the event, the child/educator relationship and the possible outcome of the encounter, exploring how pedagogy can arouse a desire of becoming subject and act as “grown-up” in Biesta’s term.
 

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