When early childhood and school meet: exploring potential within early childhood-school relationships

Recent policy shifts have re-positioned early childhood within educational processes aimed at fostering coherence for children across the different phrases of education. In turn, this has placed a necessary demand on the early childhood-school relationship, drawing attention to existing tensions within the relationships. This paper explores possibilities for the relationship, drawing on empirical data from a participatory action research project. It does this by bringing to the analysis a Deleuzian theorisation of affect. The aim is to highlight the intensive relational entanglements and their potential for generating new ways of being in relationship. The paper concludes with suggestions for new areas of research into the early childhood-school relationship.