An Undoing of Documents and other Texts: Towards a Critical Multiculturalism in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This is an attempt to demonstrate a critical practice of thinking, reading, teaching and observing. As such, it addresses the constitution of ‘the child’ and ‘the student teacher’ in discourses/documents regarding ethnicity. Pedagogical day care as pre-schooling is the target, though this blurs thematically with schooling, family, higher education and other institutions and communities. A critical textual deconstruction is the methodology, as theories of culture and discourse focus on the complexities of ethnicities, languages and gender. These are pointed to rather than systematically analysed for conclusions and strong arguments. Cameos of interactions and samples of text analysis thus mark an essay intended to set in motion waves of change. The aim is to show various texts as sites of institutional and personal support for and against dominant discourses, and the political effects of these.