Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education: Turning to Hope, Making Santuary.

Authors

  • Janice Kroeger Kent State University
  • Iris Berger University of British Columbia

Abstract

As we try to learn ‘to stay with the trouble of living and dying together on a damaged earth’ (Haraway, 2016), in this volume, with nine newarticles, we acknowledge grief and despondency, while turning to hope as a speculative gesture that things can be otherwise. Authors in this volume responded to questions such as How might we do early childhood education in the messiness (and tragedies) of this moment? and What would acting from where we are be when hope wrestles with despair? Utilizing post-qualitative, new materialist, anti-carceral, womanist, bell hooksian, post-colonial, and the more-than-human, each manuscript highlights movements, doings and undoings, which reconcile in-justices with childhoods.

In addition to the special issue co-edited by Janice Kroeger and Iris Berger, our new section Critical Childhood Policy Issues edited by Beth Blue Swadener includes two shorter articles focusing on the impact of current policies in the USA on academic freedom of speech, teaching and academic life.

 

Author Biographies

Janice Kroeger, Kent State University

Dr. Janice Kroeger is a Professor of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum, at Kent State University, U.S.A. She has been a laboratory school teacher, a researcher, faculty member and advocate for multiply positioned and minoritized children including refugee, African-American, and LGBTQI+ students and their families since the mid-90s. Kroeger positions her research at the cusp of advocacy and social change, noting the ways in which families and children adapt and grow within identities under scrutiny. Her most recent work applies multi-method and arts-based advocacy among LGBTQI+ stakeholders to build solidarity and belonging among those who support, protect, and provide sanctuary to gender-diverse children below the age of 12. Correspondence can be found at jkroege1@kent.edu.

Iris Berger, University of British Columbia

Dr. Iris Berger is an Associate Professor of Teaching, Faculty of Education, at The University of British Columbia, Canada. She has been involved in the field of early childhood education as a teacher, researcher, community organizer, policy consultant, and university instructor since the mid 1990s. Iris is committed to reconceptualizing early childhood education as an ongoing political and pedagogical project that keeps the realm of early education tethered and relevant to worldly matters. Her research interests combine a reimagining of leadership in early childhood education with place based, sustainability focused practices with young children. Correspondence can be found at iris.berger@ubc.ca

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Published

2026-03-22

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2025): Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education: Turning to Hope, Making Sanctuaries, Janice Kroeger and Iris Berger (Eds.)

Section

Special Issue: Reconceptualizing ECE--Turning to Hope, Making Sanctuary

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