Thinking time: Producing time and toddler’s time to think in ECEC

Abstract

Toddlers contribute to early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments in unique ways in contrast to older children and adults. In this article, we explore early childhood teachers’ stories about toddlers, thinking, and time. We follow a moment with a toddler’s story told with his fingers, and discuss it through teachers’ stories. Our focus is on what ideas about toddlers, time, and thinking these stories produce, and how these ideas affect toddler’s possibilities to contribute to daily life in ECEC. We use Barad’s concepts spacetimematter and temporal diffraction; and Haraway’s concept Capitalocene and storying, to explore toddlers thinking and time in ECEC. We argue that the dominant concept of time in the Capitalocene can produce thoughtlessness, connected to children and children’s opportunities to participate. Through a process of “storying,” we hope to generate more and maybe different knowledge about toddlers, thinking, and time.