The affect(s) of literacy learning in the mud

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on the social ecology of Félix Guattari, to suggest that young children learn in complex social and natural situations, in this case ‘getting muddy’. The notion of social ecology will be revived in this paper, to ensure that the human social world is embedded in and part of the natural world, with all its complexities, relations and repetitions (re: muddiness). Children learn from their mistakes, from social interaction, due to their instincts, and as part of an evolving situation, much of which is beyond their control, e.g. their attraction to mud. This paper will search for these types of learning(s) in the affect that can be discerned from teaching and learning, and specifically related to ‘muddy literacy’. One might call the combined notions that will be put to work in this paper as ‘affective literacy’, it is an affective literacy fully imbricated in muddy nature. To achieve this, the paper will attend to empirical research in the early childhood context in Australia, that has charted how children learn from inquiry based learning outdoors in mud, pictures of Aboriginal children outside (and a hand), and a mud classroom painting.

KEYWORDS:

• Mud
• affect
• affective literacy
• social ecology
• Guattari
• preschool education
• Aboriginal archives

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 All pictures used in this analysis have been taken from online archives, and are used with the permission of their Indigenous owners (APY Stakeholder Group) and the online archive where they are stored. These pictures have cultural significance for the Aboriginal people of Australia, the specific nations where the pictures are taken, the figures that depict, and the Country that they show.

2 ‘Japanese artist Yusuke Asai used 8 different types of local mud, dirt, and dust to cover all the walls and the ceiling of a classroom of a village school in east India. The overwhelming murals with beautifully organic and tribal-like patterns and images were part of the continuing collaboration between the Niranja School in Bahar and the Japanese students that helped found it.' (Demilked, 2014, online).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number P00022625].