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Touching Place in Childhood Studies: Situated Encounters with a Community Garden

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Youth Work, Early Education, and Psychology

Part of the book series: Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood ((CCSC))

Abstract

I situate this chapter alongside recent work in early childhood studies that has used more-than-human 1 epistemologies and ontologies to consider nature pedagogies in relation to Indigenous knowledges, human/more-than-human relationalities, natureculture entanglements, and anticolonial possibilities (Duhn, 2012; Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2013; Ritchie, 2012; Somerville, 2006; Taylor, 2013). Inspired by this work, and its commitment to resisting simplistic and romantic couplings of children and nature, I seek to notice the practices; sociomaterialities; and colonial histories 2 and relations that come together to enact the production of a community garden that I visit with children and early childhood educators in the childcare centers where my research 3 is situated. My specific localities in the Greater Vancouver area are unceded Musqueam, Squamish, Stó;:lo, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations territories (Musqueam Band, 2011; Squamish Nation, 2008; Stó;:lo Nation, 2009; Tsleil-Waututh Nation, 2013).

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  1. Fikile Nxumalo
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Social Work and Human Services Department, Kennesaw State University, USA

    Hans Skott-Myhre (associate professor) (associate professor)

  2. School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria, Canada

    Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw (professor) (professor)

  3. College of Social Sciences Psychology department, University of West Georgia, USA

    Kathleen S. G. Skott-Myhre (assistant professor) (assistant professor)

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© 2016 Fikile Nxumalo

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Nxumalo, F. (2016). Touching Place in Childhood Studies: Situated Encounters with a Community Garden. In: Skott-Myhre, H., Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Skott-Myhre, K.S.G. (eds) Youth Work, Early Education, and Psychology. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137480040_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137480040_8

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-58142-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48004-0

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