Gathering: an A/R/Tographic practice for teaching in early childhood care and education
Date
2018-01-02
Authors
Clark, Vanessa Sophia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to enact and poetically story the nonlinear emergence of an
a/r/tographic practice called gathering—a situated art practice of storying, doing, and making as
researching and thinking—in multiple contexts, including early childhood teacher education and
imperial and settler colonialism in Canada.
Over two years, I sustained a ritual of gathering where I (re)read texts (e.g., Indigenous
theories, Chicana feminisms, antiracist theories, postcolonial theories, and subaltern theories)
and (re)walked the neighbourhood of my apartment on the stolen territories of the Lkwungen people, who are one of the Coast Salish peoples, on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. While I walked and as I read, I attended to how other artists, animals, and I gathered objects and ideas, the effects of the environment and weather, and the theoretical orientations and contexts of the ideas and objects. The poetic stories in this dissertation entangle bits of the ideas and objects I gathered during my walks and readings.
I also story how my personal artistic process of gathering unfolded into teaching an
inclusive practice course in the Early Childhood Care and Education Department at Capilano
University. I and my class of preservice early childhood educators gathered on and around the
Capilano campus, located on the traditional territories of Coast Salish peoples, including the
Tsleil-Watuth, Skwxwú7mesh, shíshálh, Lil’Wat, and Musqueam Nations.
With this a/r/tographic research, I offer a pedagogical and aesthetic way with which to
attune to the process, conditions, and situations of engaging multiple theories. I inquire into
different ways of relating with and taking responsibility for others and into what kinds of partial,
incomplete, and imperfect regenerations, possibilities, and futures present themselves through
gathering within a context of imperial and settler colonialism in Canada.
Description
Keywords
art-based research, inclusive practice, settler and imperial colonialism, a/r/tography, early childhood care and education