Re(con)ceiving young children's curricular performativity

Abstract

Working (with) Deleuzo‐Guattarian philosophical imaginaries opens (to) a multiplicity of possibilities for thinking differently about curriculum, young children and how they perform their curricular understandings. In this article I work (as) rhizome, bringing the imaginaries becoming and milieu into an early childhood curriculum conversation towards perturbing conventional, entrenched developmental understandings of young children and their learning. It is within/in multiplicitous processing through becoming‐child(ren) that I re(con)ceive children and their relationships with curriculum as a performativity of the milieu(s) they inhabit, milieus that slide alongside/over/through those of adult worlds of curriculum. With/in milieus that children generate for their learning, the complexity of play(ing) is like clouds sculpting skyscapes as they make visible the always already happenings of their curricular performativity.

Keywords:

• Deleuze
• curriculum
• philosophy
• children

Notes

1. In my thesis, I problematise ‘empowerment’ by putting to work a rhizo understanding of ‘power‐fullness’ (Honan and Sellers 2008). ‘Power‐fullness’ responds to Deleuze's provocation to ask not what power is and where it comes from, but to ask ‘How is it practiced?’ (1988, 71). I thus work with children's expressions and flows of power‐fullness as they show in the data.

2. The following section, rhizomapping, discusses the milieu(s) of these games in more detail. Map 1 pictures the milieu(s) at work.