The article investigates how meaning unfolds in the movements and entanglements of children, of teachers, of researchers, of animals, and of land—emerging in lived relations of meaning and otherness through the concrete whirls, swirls, and spirals of living together. It is grounded in an ethnographic narrative of an occasion when children from a Sámi Early Childhood Centre visited a reindeer gathering place in the mountains. With this narrative the article explores Stanley Cavell’s reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of forms of life as ‘whirls of organism’, alongside anthropologist Tim Ingold’s reference to such whirls. The whirl and the spiral are read as movements of relationality, as emphasized by Indigenous scholars such as Jo-Ann Archibald, Margaret Kovach, Rauna Kuokkanen, Shawn Wilson, and the Sámi poet Inga Ravna Eira. Through this discussion the article extends some of Cavell’s writings about otherness in terms of what relations between we, I, and you can mean when land is regarded as a first form of relation. Thus, the article portrays how Indigenous forms of thinking in practice provide grounds for thinking with Cavell’s whirls in relation to otherness in such a way as to involve relational life with the land.

Kapitlet skildrar ett växande samspel i forskningsprojektet Samiska barn som tankevandrare. Det är en övergripande framställning om projektet där ett gemensamt lärande sker genom vad barn, pedagoger och forskare beskrivit som ett äventyr i mötet mellan det traditionella, det praktiska och det fantasifulla, samt de behov som villkorar den samiska förskolans vardag som en form av levt berättande. Kapitlet ger exempel från ett antal av de aktiviteter som genomförts inom forskningsprojektet – som att hämta skohö på sensommaren, gå på älgjakt under hösten, vara med på sarvslakt, att duddjot eller slöjda med inspiration från mörker­tids­tradi­tioner under vintern, ripsnarning under vårvintern och besök till ett par kallkällor på försommaren. Beskrivningarna av aktiviteterna visar hur samiska pedagoger genom ett medvetet arbete med berättelser skapar rum för samiska traditionella kunskaper i förskolan. Kapitlet visar hur filo­sofisk och pedagogisk reflektionen inte bara skedde i enskilda indi­vi­ders tänkande utan också genom en samklang i mellanrummet mellan barn, pedagoger, forskare, platser, material, berättelser och traditionella samiska kunskaper.

This article discusses the pedagogical role of the imagination and forms of life in Sámi early childhood education. Following Nergård’s development of Wittgenstein’s notion “form of life” as an imaginative, pedagogical, and anthropological concept, the article will explore how Sámi children both use and transform forms of life in Sámi early childhood centers. The article explores scenes from a day spent outdoors with early childhood educators and children. The aim is to show how young Sámi children philosophize and articulate their world, and how listening to the children can be a decolonizing practice that challenges colonial assumptions in pedagogy, philosophy and society. The empirical data was collected through a pilot project and the subsequent project Sámi Children as Thought Herders. The data material contains photos, short films, sound records, and notes collected through ethnographic fieldwork conceived as Critical Utopian Action Research, which takes into account the social learning of all participants, here specifically the children, the educators and the researchers. Thus, these are spaces for a joint critique that resists colonially structured practices. The main findings are that, during outdoor activities, educators and children imaginatively perform, play and encounter outdoor spaces and aspects of Sámi forms of life. This is explored on the basis of scenes where young children imaginatively engaged with the forest environment. The educators’ storytelling and the storytelling tradition continued into the children’s own storytelling. The children created stories about a Stállo who lives in a rusty oil barrel they found in the forest, making traditional stories and forms of life come alive and transforming them. In reflecting upon these scenes, we argue for the pedagogical, performative, and philosophical importance of engaging with the ways that children’s imaginative play interacts with place.

In Sápmi, there are many stories and traditions tied to skábma, or the dark time of midwinter. Skábma is considered a sacred time and space. Some of the stories and traditions, which stem from Sámi Indigenous religion and are related to various invisible beings, are still passed on through oral traditions and storytelling. This article explores what it can mean for children, educators and researchers to creatively engage with lesser-known Indigenous religious traditions, stories told by older generations and current traditions, in ways that give further life to them. The research aim is twofold: the article studies both how co-research within an Indigenous context is conducted, and how educators and children in a Sámi Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centre managed activities and searched for and created new stories based on skábma traditions. The research question is: In what ways can strengthening storytelling in the ECEC setting function as a contribution to Sámi decolonisation processes? The research materials were collected through ethnographic fieldwork. The fieldwork was methodologically framed as critical utopian action research that considers the social learning of the children, educators and researchers that participated in the activities. Accordingly, this article shows how educators and children at an ECEC centre in Sápmi conducted activities to search for and create new skábma stories based on Indigenous traditions. The researchers were invited to learn about stories and traditions in which their attentiveness to the present was connected to valuing the past and taking responsibility for a sustainable future. The latter was achieved via storytelling by the educators, a duodji (Sámi craft) activity and children’s playtime. The article concludes by discussing how the search for and creation of traditions, such as sharing food with ancestors, involve decolonising processes.

Being out on the land, experiencing oneself on the land and engaging with the surroundings, including the land and water, are central parts of Sámi life. In this article, we explore experiences and tell our story from our visits to two cold springs with a group of children and educators from a Sámi early childhood centre. We discuss how educators and children, by engaging with traditional stories and cultural values of gratitude and respect contribute to decolonising pedagogical practices. The explorations and stories in this article are based on our ethnographic fieldwork. To put it more precisely, we present a story following the Indigenous methodologies of storying that account for experiences of the days when we engaged in adventures because of the invitations of the educators who told traditional stories beside the cold springs. The present was entwined with the past and previous generations in their storytelling. Living such an adventure created spaces for shared learning and decolonised pedagogical practices. The values of gratitude, respect, and a sustainable lifestyle were lived through the stories told and what children and educators did while being on the land and fetching water. The central Sámi values include the need to work in harmony with the land and water.

The varied landscape of Sápmi – ranging from forests, coasts, mountains, tundra, and mires – and the livelihoods of those who live there have developed Sámi forms pedagogy, child-rearing, and education. This special issue explores the philosophies of Sámi education. The issue adopts a broad notion of education that involves formal and informal educational settings, kindergartens, schools and universities. Likewise, philosophy is understood widely as involving ethics, ontologies, epistemologies, and existential questions in theoretical investigations. Consequently, the aim is to take back education and philosophy that emerges from local indigenous practices, and various relations to land.

The article delves into how young Sámi children interact with stories and utilize them to interpret their surroundings and ponder existential questions. It begins with a scene from a Sámi early childhood center where children participate in setting snares for willow grouse, an activity deeply rooted in storytelling and cultural knowledge. Amidst this, a child expresses a desire to communicate with the grouse, reflecting the Sámi tradition of listening to birds for warnings and messages. This highlights a distinct form of literacy – comprehending the world through narratives and connections with the land. Referencing anthropologist Tim Ingold, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the Sámi poet Ailo Gaup, the text explores how meaning transcends language, emerging from embodied practices and relationships with the environment. By examining Sámi storytelling traditions, literature, and philosophy, the article underscores the significance of embracing both meaningful and nonsensical elements of life to reflect on what literacy, and the relationship between language and Land, can be, especially in Sámi early childhood education.

The article explores the rich and varied experiences of a collective writing project, unfolding through an anecdote involving Charlie, a young boy who creatively disrupted conventional photography methods. This incident, during an evening promenade by the sea in Ericeira (Portugal), epitomizes the project's embrace of playfulness and exploration of diverse perspectives–materialized through Charlie's playful insistence on experimenting with different angles. The event embodied the group’s approach to writing, leading to a collective inquiry into the interplay of ages, angles, and other themes like waves, threads, shadows, and liminal spaces. The project, driven by the Between Ages Collective, began with informal gatherings in Plymouth, UK, and expanded into a year-long online reading group. Participants, spanning different generations and academic stages, shared various materials, including films, picture books, and scholarly texts, which inspired individual contributions. Influenced by the Collective's collaborative spirit, these contributions explore the concept of 'between ages' – a metaphorical and literal space of transition and fluidity. Contributors were invited to craft pieces that delve into the 'between ages' theme, often exploring serendipitous moments that transform interactions and experiences. The writing tries to capture a sense of openness and curiosity, embracing the uncertainties and ambiguities inherent in the process. The works do not strictly adhere to conventional academic or narrative forms but rather emerge from the collective's shared experiences, including cooking, eating, swimming and walking together. The article suggests that these writings are not meant to be definitive or conclusive but are explorations that invite readers to engage with the mundane and profound textures of everyday life. The stories and themes explored are marked by their diversity in style, rhythm, and imagery, ranging from reflections on the philosophy of shadows to the profound implications of intergenerational and interspecies relationships. The Collective’s work is presented as an ongoing experiment in thinking and writing together, with each piece offering unique insights into the fluid and often blurred boundaries between different states of being. This openness to the in-between spaces brings into question the notion of fixed identities and experiences, inviting a more nuanced understanding of the relational dynamics that shape existence. The article allows the readers to delve into these narratives and engage with the myriad ways they resonate with broader themes of being, storying, and connecting. © 2024 State Univ of Rio de Janeiro - Center of Childhood and Philosophy Studies. All rights reserved.

Artikeln gör en jämförande undersökning av ramvillkoren i finska, norska och svenska nationella läroplaner för barns existentiella och religiösa funderingar i förskolan. De tre länderna hanterar religionens nya roll och relationen mellan kulturell mångfald, kulturarv och värdegrund olika. Den avgörande punkten är i hur hög grad ett sekulärt ideal förskjuter religiösa teman från förskolans pedagogiska verksamhet till en privat sfär och i vilken utsträckning kristendomens tidigare roll att forma medborgare fortfarande anses legitimt, men nu utvidgat till att inkludera också andra religioners identitetsbildning. Värden, principer och idéer i läroplanerna både begränsar och möjliggör barnets rätt till undran över livsfrågor, vilket leder till ett dynamiskt spänningsfält som inkorporeras i sociala institutioner. Detta gäller såväl i en nationell kontext som i pedagogiska situationer på förskolan. Utrymmet för undran över religiösa och existentiella frågor blir dock paradoxalt för både barnet och pedagogen när olika värden och principer motverkar varandra.

The article is a comparative study of curricular conditions in Finland, Norway and Sweden regarding children’s existential and religious questions in early childhood education and care. The three countries diverge in how they deal with the new role of religion and the relation between cultural diversity, cultural heritage and fundamental values. The crucial point is to what degree a secular ideal has moved religious themes from daily activities in ECEC into a private sphere. A central question concerns the legitimacy of the traditional role of Christianity in shaping the identities of citizens, and by extension concerns the legitimacy of identity processes informed by other religions. Values, principles and ideas in curricula both reduce and make possible children’s right to explore existential questions, thereby creating a dynamic field of tensions that is incorporated into social institutions. This is the case both at the national level and in concrete situations within ECEC institutions. However, when values and principles counteract each other, the space for existential and religious wonder becomes paradoxical both for children and staff.