Everything is Pedagogy
Welcome to the Everything is Pedagogy podcast: Imprints of Inquiry, Possibilities for Play, the Pursuit of Questions, and Provocations for Living. This podcast, formerly known as Pursuing Questions and The Playful Podcast, is for those cultivating an ethos towards mutual flourishing, healing, learning and living well throughout the human experience. This is a passion project and the views represented here are my own. My name is Kim Barton (she/her), I am a RECE with an MSc, working as a pedagogical leader in Guelph (2 rivers) on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenossaune, and Attawandaran peoples, and the treaty lands of Mississaugas of the Credit. Part of my responsibility as a guest on these lands is to ensure that I visit well, to express gratitude for Indigenous perspectives needed to protect the Lands and Water, learn and unlearn how colonization impacts myself and my work, and share/receive gifts in reciprocity with all my relations.
This work is guided by 4 pedagogical orientations and 4 values:
Imprints of Inquiry: I capture traces of my learning, because I believe they are worthy of being studied, critiqued, and expanded upon. What I say here is a landmark in time; not meant to be a destination. Rather, this knowledge is meant to be interpreted within the context discussed, and to support reflective practice, collaborative inquiry, and educator research.
Possibilities for Play: I aim to cultivate a parallel practice of playfulness by "going public" with experimental ideas to seek feedback, to embrace questioning and being questioned, to practice sharing (knowledge), and to play with new ideas. Much of what I share is in a light-hearted spirit of saying "yes" to what is offered my way, and responding as best I can with a playful intention.
The Pursuit of Questions: I desire to be guided by questions more than answers; by uncertainty more than solutions; by limerence more than destinations; and by the in-between more than the outcome. I am nurturing a process for designing powerful, magical questions to sustain lifelong inquiry.
Provocations for Living: I take up longitudinal inquiries across a wide range of concepts, dispositions, and ideas. What I share is meant to be generative, to activate possibility and life itself by provoking, expanding, and spiralling back to that which is most compelling within a pursuit.
Values:
Curiousity: questions are my compass, over compliance, normalcy, or acceptance.
Time: I do not rush teaching or learning processes, tasks, or people
Creativity: I construct generative offerings of material - new and old.
Reciprocity: I make knowledge accessible in the spirit of mutual flourishing.
You can find out more by checking out my website (https://playfulpedagogies.wordpress.com/) or Instagram (@pursuingquestions) to learn more about the pedagogical companionship and facilitation services that I offer.
Episodes
26 episodes
Pedagogy, Lately...
In Season 4, Episode 2. this episode is called Pedagogy, Lately... and it is a car recording after a conference. I reflect on topics such as how bias shows up in our work, the role of pedagogical documentation, my thoughts on teacher research a...
Welcome to Season 4 - With Another Name Change!
Welcome and/or welcome back! Check out this short episode for an introduction to Season 4 and the thinking behind the name change.Intro/ Outro Music by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/lnplusmusic-47631836/?utm_source=link-attributi...
Flight Log: Turbulence, Tides & Tracing Trajectories
How would you describe pedagogical leadership? What does the daily experience of pedagogical leadership look like and feel like? While our guiding documents and emerging literature attempts to define this role, there is so much value in explori...
What could happen if we understood pedagogy more like ecology?
This episode was recorded on a walk home, where I ponder how we could shift our understanding of pedagogy towards a study of subtle systems and relations? What would that conceptualization invite of us? Join me as I ponder this question in this...
Season 3 - Pursuing Pedagogical Documentation and Reflective Practice Through Podcasting
Why do we document? How do we document? What do we document? When do we document? When does documentation become pedagogical? What activates pedagogical documentation? What about pedagogy inherently documents? What routines and rituals fa...
How Does Curriculum Really Emerge?
I've spiralled my way back to this question with a desire to unpack why I feel some tension around the terminology of "emergent" curriculum. Is curriculum the active agent? Does it reveal itself? If so, what role do educators play in taking up ...
Why and How Do We Celebrate?
In response to questions about celebrating Halloween, I noticed an opportunity to explore why and how we celebrate in early learning communities. From thinking about relationships with families, to upholding integral rituals, to fostering cultu...
Creating Opportunities for Parallel Practices
I'm embedded within the September welcoming routines and rituals, and it's caused me to reflect on building relationships through the lens of parallel practice. As a pedagogical leader and course instructor, I wonder about the experiences ...
Wondering about mentorship within and across the human experience... and beyond
I've been curious about mentorship for several years, and I'm only just starting to connect my histories and futures of mentorship with the role(s) of healing, learning, and living well throughout the human experience. Wonder with me, here...
Where are the foreclosures of research and the openings of pedagogy?
In this episode, I capture an ah-ha moment where I challenge the all-knowing assumptions of research by claiming its limitations, and instead leaning into the potential of pedagogical inquiry. I reflect on the constraints I sense as a researche...
What Does Communal Growth Require?
What does communal growth require? What questions will we pursue together? Why? And what impact do we notice our pursuits have on our community?
What Moves Us?
From literally exploring movement across our program to being moved emotionally, and to reflecting on how movement during the spring of 2023 is very timely, this episode stretches the question "what moves us?" to its edges. The episode captures...
The Essential Shift
Sometimes we are moved into shifts. And that is what happened here. In this bonus episode I discuss how, in the process of refining my values, vision, intentions, and ethos within this space, I was moved to reconsider the name of the t...
The Potential of a Pause
Pauses appear to be the opposite of so many scripts we hold as a collective society. They may counteract efficiency, fail to demonstration meaningful progression towards a goal, are sometimes viewed as stagnation, and often are difficult to rep...
Spiralized Experiences: What can the shape of a spiral offer us within our human experience?
In this mini-episode I capture several thoughts I've had over the past several years that have led me to absolutely revere spirals as metaphors in my personal and professional life. I'd like to give a generous shout-out to the cont...
Seasons of Inquiry
Welcome to my version of "season 2" of this playful podcast. I took a long, playful, pedagogical, and personal pause and now I'm here again to revisit many of the topics discussed in the first 10 episodes. I'm excited to offer these ideas here,...
Authentic Conversations with Colleagues: Thinking about Art, Music, and Dance with Young Children - with Victoria Armstrong
Victoria, owner of Side by Side Consulting Services, is a skilled thinking partner for early childhood educators and brings many rich experiences and wisdom to this 2-part conversation. In this episode, a...
Pondering Pathways - Play! (Part 2)
Welcome back to a playful episode about play! While I intended for this episode to be about play theorists, the benefits of play, and how play and learning are interconnected, I ended up taking a walk and capturing some recent reflections from ...
Wondering About Inclusion From One Family's Perspective, with Special Guest Sandy B.
What happens when a Human Resources manager (mom), a student teacher (middle sibling), and a grad student (eldest sibling) FaceTime for 5 minutes? Well, when it's my family, we start theorizing about inclusion. What started as a spontaneous vid...
"As Music" - Spoken Word Poem/Reflection
This is not so much an episode but 'going public' with this piece is a growing part of my documentation practice. This 'episode' is a spoken word poem that I wrote over a year ago that marks a particular place in a learning journey. I wrote thi...
The Embedded, Embodied and Imbued; a Conversation with Bob Henderson
In this episode, I had the great pleasure of chatting with outdoor education 'guru' Bob Henderson. As an experienced educator, guide and writer, Bob exudes wisdom when discussing of ways being with people outdoors. Through this conversation Bob...
Pondering Pathways - COEO Reflections
In this solo episode I reflect on my experience attending the fall conference held by the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO). I wander through reflections and realizations that I had during the conference and since, covering themes ...
Glorified Babysitting
In this solo episode I reflect on the fight that ECEs are in to professionalize our work and gain respect by leveraging away from being considered as glorified babysitters. I wander through wonderings about different types of care and education...
Play! (pt 1)
In this solo episode, I (finally!) discuss what play is! I challenge my own vision of play, getting along, and sharing. I also highlight other folks' knowledge, such as definitions of play, types of play, schemas of play, and rhetorics of...
Pondering Pathways - Prerequisites to Play
In this solo episode, I introduce a mini-series that I intend to continue called Pondering Pathways, where I take a walk around my neighbourhood while reflecting on what is required to access play. I follow up from my questions about Treaty 3 f...