https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/UBCECE/gateway/plugin/AnnouncementFeedGatewayPlugin/atom Potentia: Activating Change in Early Childhood Education : Announcements 2023-11-30T10:57:25-08:00 Open Journal Systems Activating Change in Early Childhood Education is a student publication emerging from a commitment to contributing to broad pedagogical projects and leadership in early childhood education (ECE). As an editorial collective, we invite students, educators, academics and scholars to engage with us in a shared desire to make alternative narratives in ECE visible through our open-access publication. https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/UBCECE/announcement/view/182291 Call for Papers: Transformation through Participation: Early Childhood Education Students as Change Agents : Call for Papers: Transformation through Participation: Early Childhood Education Students as Change Agents 2023-11-30T10:57:25-08:00 Potentia: Activating Change in Early Childhood Education <p><strong>Call for Papers: Transformation through Participation: </strong><strong>Early Childhood Education </strong><strong>Students</strong><strong> as Change Agents </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>“Academia and activism should co-exist”</em></strong><strong> </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">~ Dr. Cindy Blackstock </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For this first issue of the journal: </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Potentia: Activating Change in Early Childhood Education, </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">we are inspired by Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic/activists who challenge academia to be/come more than a space for knowledge transmission. At a recent public talk, Dr. Cindy Blackstock (2023) Gitxsan First Nation, activist for child welfare, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, contested the passivity of academic knowledge production and called on scholars and academics to partner with community members to act </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">in response</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the knowledge that has been produced for the possibility of co-creating better futures. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The feminist scholar Rosi Braidotti (2017) promotes an approach to knowledge that is simultaneously critical and creative. Braidotti, whose work inspired the title for this journal, argues for a “politically informed reading of the present that aims at exposing power both as entrapment (potestas) and as empowerment (potentia) in the production of knowledge” (p. 84). For Braidotti (2016), transformation lies in the possibility to ‘think against one’s times, in spite of the times and out of concern for one’s times.’ </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a student-led journal, we are interested in creating a platform for vibrant conversation about the role of the university and academia in ‘t</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">hinking against one’s times’ and in </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">response to issues and concerns of our contemporaneity. To this end, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">this journal aims to articulate a broad range of experiences of being a student and engaging with matters of concerns in early childhood education (ECE). </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">We want to break out from conventional academic discourses and practices (potestas) and amplify creative responses and propositions (potentia) that aim at transforming ECE.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For students, publishing can often be seen as an academic practice that seems out of reach, however; we recall Barbara Rogoff’s (1997) contention that learning and becoming occur through participation. Sara Ahmed (2017) posits that we learn about worlds in our efforts to transform them. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013) (</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Potawatomi Nation) </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">writes that “transformation is not accomplished by tentative wading at the edge” (p. 89). Rather, we must engage with the environments we hope to transform, changing and being changed by them in a reciprocal process. Bronwyn Davies (2017) reminds us that t</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">ransformations can be modest and “are usually of a molecular kind…finding the movement possible within them” (p. 69). </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this spirit, we are offering this special issue as a platform for students’ participation in transforming public debates about what early childhood education is and what it might be about. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">We wish to create a space where diverse participants co-respond to knowledge production, problematizing taken-for-granted practices, and reimagine and co-create new ways of thinking, being and doing ECE. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We are seeking contributions from current and recently graduated students who position their academic and professional work as gesturing towards different or alternative possibilities beyond the status quo, in which ECE has become mired. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">We invite students to expose their activism potential through making public their transformative aspirations. We remain curious to learn </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">What might be transformed when ECE students participate in activities such as journal publication?</span></em></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Topics:</span></em></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How has the experience of being an ECE student ignited a desire for change and transformation? </span></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What does it mean to be a student in early childhood education in our current time?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What pedagogical approaches and contexts afford transformative thinking and doing?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What broad political, social and cultural supports are needed for transforming ECE? </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What are ways for students and professionals to engage as activists and leaders? </span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Format of Submissions:</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We invite various styles of writing for this issue, and encourage creative interpretations of the topic. Student papers that have been previously written for course assignments and which meet the submission criteria are welcome. Submissions formats might include:</span></p> <p> </p> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Narrative and other personal essays which articulate an individual’s experiences and perspectives on transformation.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Empirical or conceptual manuscripts of academic research.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Creative work in the form of art and/or poetry.</span></li> </ol> <p> </p> <p><em>Manuscripts Due: </em>April 5, 2024<br /><br /><br /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">References</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ahmed, S. (2017). </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Living a feminist life</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822373377</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Blackstock, C. (Feb 20, 2023). Finding oxygen for the misfit academic: Why academia and activism should co-exist. SSHRC In Conversation With: Public talks with Canada’s leading social sciences and humanities scholars </span><a href="https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/society-societe/icw-ca/index-eng.aspx"><span style="font-weight: 400;">https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/society-societe/icw-ca/index-eng.aspx</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Braidotti, R. (2016). Don’t Agonize; Organize!. </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">E-flux conversations</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Braidotti. R. (2017) Critical Posthuman Knowledges. South Atlantic Quarterly 116 (1): 83–96. </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-3749337"><span style="font-weight: 400;">https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-3749337</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Davies, B. (2017). The entangled enlivening of being: Feminist research strategies in the early years. In K., Smith, Alexander, K., &amp; Campbell, S. (Eds.). </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Feminism (s) in early childhood</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (pp. 65-74). Springer, Singapore. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">doi: </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3057-4_6"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10.1007/978-981-10-3057-4_6</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (First). Milkweed Editions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rogoff, B. (1997). Evaluating development in the process of participation: Theory, methods, and practice building on each other . In E. Amsel, K. A. Renninger, &amp; A. Renninger (Eds.), </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Change and Development</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (1st ed., pp. 1–310). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203774038</span></p> 2023-11-30T10:57:25-08:00