Wasps-Bees-Mushrooms-Children: Reimagining Multispecies Relations in Early Childhood Pedagogies

Abstract

This article considers thinking with a common worlds framework in relation to reimagining our pedagogies to move beyond the nature/culture binary. Drawing on the work of scholars who engage with common worlds ethnographic projects, the author grapples with what it means to shift from humancentric perspectives of teaching children about nature toward attending to the interdependencies, mutual vulnerabilities, and responsibilities between humans and nonhumans. The article describes encounters between children, wasps, bees, and mushrooms as a means of illustrating how we might move toward different ways relating to the nature/culture divide, away from learning about toward thinking with.