A Touch of Paint: Transgressing Unspoken Boundaries

Abstract

<p>Contemporary early childhood contexts are rife with unspoken rules, boundaries, and expectations that are understood to be best practice within discourses of quality in early years settings. These habitual practices are not apolitical: They flow from powerful discourses purporting to be scientific and reliable, with systematically defined ways of thinking, seeing, and speaking about children. Drawing on a body/paint/brush/forest encounter, the author looks to disrupt these discourses and transgress unspoken boundaries. By engaging with an ethic of resistance, acknowledging the relationality of early childhood practice and the entanglements of human and nonhuman forces, the author seeks to transgress fixed identities and be open to otherness in an ongoing process of becoming.</p>