Mikhail Bakhtin: a two-faced encounter with child becoming(s) through dialogue

ABSTRACT

Mikhail Bakhtin is a latecomer to the field of child development. His contributions emphasize the dialogic nature of language as a lived event of becoming for all and de-thrones any monologic truths that might be told otherwise. Dismantling any master theory that might determine the ways children are known (or know-able), Bakhtin offers a philosophical alternative that invites a series of two-faced representation with the child based on the series of approaches to representation. On one hand, emphasis is placed on the complex language forms that are used to convey meaning in everyday dialogues as a source of strategic insight; while on the other, meanings are granted only in authorship and answerability to those involved. There are serious implications for adults who seek to look both ways through this creative route – not only must they lay bare their own certain truths as part of their representation, but they must simultaneously attempt to exceed these bounds through earnest engagement with the child as a conscious subject. Seen as a personality in their own right, the child is at last granted agency in complex dialogues that have traditionally escaped the adult gaze. Taking this Janus-like approach, Bakhtin heralds a new era for child development which orients towards alterity as much as intersubjectivity – providing a source of creative insight and potential in understanding becoming(s) for all.

KEYWORDS:

• Child
• dialogue
• becoming
• utterance
• philosophy
• Bakhtin

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

E. Jayne White

Professor E. Jayne White brings dialogic philosophy, pedagogies and methodologies together to explore new ways of seeing very young learners. She invokes a series of dialogic provocations and possibilities concerning the work of the plural ‘I’ and ‘eye’ through innovative visual methodologies, pedagogies and broader examination of educational thought. Her scholarship has opened up new pathways for empirical and methodological engagement with young learners through visual practices with video, virtual realities, observation and engagement with alternative perspectives and visual lenses for seeing anew. As Associate Dean of Early Childhood at RMIT University School of Education, President of the Association for Visual Pedagogies, Editor-in-Chief of Brill’s Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy, and Co-Editor of the Springer Series Policy and Pedagogy with under three year-olds, Jayne’s work speaks to child development in new and innovative ways.