Unswaddling Pedagogy: Celebrating Strengths & Differences

In very practical, joyful, playful ways, the workshop will engage with the concepts and practices of swaddling, unswaddling and non-swaddling pedagogies, bringing to the attention of the audience the pivotal role of early education in the designs of life. The presentation will also focus on the “missing beginnings”- the reasons why there is a globally present disconnect between early education and school education. Dr. Annabella Cant will share findings from her research to motivate the audience to think with the concepts and better understand the privilege of working with young children. She will continue the conversation on the introduced concepts and will share two examples of swaddling pedagogies: the “Moulding” one and the “Not-yet” one. Also, she will introduce the theory and practice of Imaginative Education – a pedagogy that she considers close to being unswaddling – together with her contributions to it, contributions that emphasize the period at the beginning of life: 0 to 5. Participants will get a glimpse of children’s genuine capacity for openness and wonder by feeling it themselves. Annabella will remind her participants how to be joyful, playful, and open, and why these states of mind provoke deep and long-lasting learning in children.