From padhana (पढ़ाना) to play pedagogy: a collaborative autoethnography of an immigrant early childhood educator

Sweta Vijaykumar Patel, Fida Sanjakdar, Megan Adams

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Research exploring the influences of cultural experiences, future imaginations and aspirations on the formation of pedagogy among immigrant Early Childhood (EC) educators remains scarce. This collaborative autoethnography (CAE) is about the first author’s pedagogical journey. Educated and trained in India as an EC educator, the stories shared in this paper offer insights into how the first author navigated and negotiated her understandings of pedagogies from padhana, a more traditional Indian focused pedagogy to ‘Western’ play-based pedagogy. Using photo-elicitation techniques from visual images as data and Appadurai’s theoretical framework on cultural global flows, the changes and continuities of conceptions of pedagogy influenced by cultural experiences, future imaginations and aspirations are explored. The iterative process supported by CAE helped redefine understandings about pedagogies, teacher identity and EC education.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)453-471
Number of pages19
JournalPedagogy, Culture and Society
Volume32
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • aspirations
  • collaborative autoethnography
  • Early Childhood education
  • imaginations
  • Immigrant
  • play-based pedagogy

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