Children and Adults Explore Human Beings’ Place in Nature and Culture: A Swedish Case-Study of Early Childhood Commons for More Equal and Inclusive Education

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter accounts for a Swedish case-study on the potential of educational commons to promote more equal and inclusive education in the early years. Several conditions decisive for this potential to be activated are identified and analysed: (1) the relation between research and practice, (2) the image of the child, (3) the role of teachers, (4) the definition of the educational task, and (5) the educational methods used. These conditions are described further in terms of how they were activated within a Playworld/Interactive performance based a common research question, shared by preschool children and adults, on human beings’ place in nature and culture. The chapter concludes that educational commons may function as a catalyst in promoting more equal and inclusive education if, the image of children and teachers is embedded within a shared, intergenerational search for meaning where both children and teachers are conceived as contributing commoners, education defines its task not only as compensatory but also as complementary and as a place for children’s search for meaning, where imagination, play and the creative co-construction of narratives must be allowed to co-exist with more conventional and “rational” modes of learning and teaching, methods and theoretical tools in educational practice and research carry an aesthetic variety that incorporates both sensous-perceptive experiences and an enhancement of individual and collective memories as well as opportunities for children and adults to formulate and gather around a common object of knowledge and interest.