Reimagining cultures of peace and democratic citizenship through inclusive and socially just pedagogies under difficult circumstances: empirical and methodological insights across early years spaces

This Special Issue has been inspired by OMEP’s timely call for peace in response to the war in Ukraine, shining the light on the importance of sustaining children’s life, well-being and human rights. Children have often been called to respond to ‘difficult circumstances’. We borrow the term from a recent Special Issue of the International Journal of Play on ‘Play: Resilience and Vulnerability in Difficult Circumstances’ (2021); these difficult circumstances are not confined to war only; they may include displacement, forced migration, political conflicts, social justice and human rights issues, and poverty. Language and literacy education has been regarded as a crucial site for sustaining peace and democratic citizenship (Starkey 2002, Oxford et al 2020). The aim of this Special Issue is to examine to what extent and in what ways inclusive and socially just pedagogies can enable cultures of peace and democratic citizenship to flourish under difficult circumstances across a range of early years spaces and contexts. The emphasis of the Special Issue on sustaining cultures of peace and democratic citizenship complements and extends a growing body of research into children’s learning languages, literacies, and other skills alongside mediators of learning, such as peers, teachers, parents, and other caregivers, and how children make sense of world and their place in it in early years settings (Gregory et al 2004; Gelir, 2018). It is rooted in an understanding of children as active meaning makers encouraged by dialogue, critical thinking and creativity and as agents of change and hope (Freire 1972) and an ethical stance of listening to their voices (Pahl & Rowsell 2020).

Building cultures of peace and democratic citizenship across early years spaces directs our attention to the role of language and literacy and the pedagogic potential that comes with valuing and harnessing the multilingual and multimodal repertoires and cultural expressions of children, their peers, teachers, parents, and other caregivers. We take an expansive view of language and literacy that encompasses a wide range of semiotic resources (language being only one mode in which to make meaning) and challenges ordered and fixed categorisations of languages, cultures, and identities (Moore et al 2020, Lytra et al 2022). At the same time, we are attuned to how pedagogic practices are shaped by institutional, socio-economic, and ideological forces. We understand peace and democratic citizenship as enacted through language and literacy education understood as a fundamental human right. We approach peace and democratic citizenship as lived and participatory experience open to change (Peutrell 2019).

In this Special Issue, we seek to bring together state-of-art empirical studies featuring a plurality of theoretical and methodological perspectives that foreground the practices, voices, and biographies of children and their mediators of learning. We are interested in soliciting case studies drawing on a wide range of local contexts and early years spaces, especially from the Global South. To capture these perspectives, we invite contributions adopting but not limited to ethnographic, critical, participatory, action research, arts-based and multisensory research approaches to investigate the following indicative questions:

• how might inclusive and socially just pedagogies under difficult circumstances reshape children’s learning experiences?

• how might children and their mediators of learning reimagine their repertoires, identities, and agencies?

• how might these reimaginings be enabled and/or constrained by institutional and societal ideologies and policies?

• how might these reimaginings prepare children to become agents of peace and hope and active democratic citizens with a desire to forge new ways of knowing and being?

• as researchers working with children, and their mediators of learning how can we ensure we listen to children’s voices and honor their lived experience under difficult circumstances?

Indicative themes:

• language and literacy learning

• multilingualism and multimodality

• inclusive and socially just pedagogies

• children’s repertoires, identities, and agencies

• mediation and mediators of learner

• building cultures of peace and democratic citizenship, resilience, and transformation

• researching with children and their mediators of learning under difficult circumstances

Timeline for the Special Issue (Due December 2023)

13th November 2022: Abstract submission deadline

1st December 2022: Announcement of selected articles

31st March 2023: Paper submission deadline

April-May 2023: Indicative review turnaround

June-August 2023: Publication

The maximum word count for abstracts is 500 words, including references.

Please send your abstract to Iskender Gelir (i.gelir@squ.edu.om) and Vally Lytra (v.lytra@gold.ac.uk)

References

Gelir, I. (2018). An Ethnographic Investigation of Kurdish Preschool Children Learning Turkish Language and Literacy in Turkey. Unpublished thesis. Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

Gregory, E., Long, S. and Volk, D. (2004) Many Pathways to Literacy. Young Children Learning with Siblings, Grandparents, Peers, and Communities. New York and London: Routledge-Falmer.

Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by M. Bergman Ramos. London: Penguin Books.

Lytra, V., Ros I Solé, C., Anderson, J. and Macleroy, V. (eds) (2022) Liberating Language Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Moore, E., Bradley, J. and Simpson, J. (eds) (2020) Translanguaging as Transformation: The Collaborative Construction of New Linguistic Realities. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Oxford, R. L., Olivero, M. M., Harrison, M., & Gregersen, T. (eds.). (2020). Peacebuilding in language education: Innovations in theory and practice. Multilingual Matters.

Pahl, K. and Rowsell, J. (2020) Living Literacies: Literacies for Social Change. London: MIT Press.

Peutrell, R. (2019) Thinking about citizenship and ESOL. In M. Cooke and R. Peutrell (eds) Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens: Exploring ESOL and Citizenship. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Starkey, H. (2002). Democratic citizenship, languages, diversity and human rights: guide for the development of language education policies in Europe from linguistic diversity to plurilingual education. https://rm.coe.int/democratic-citizenship-languages-diversity-and-human-rights/1680887833