Epistemic Justice in Froebelian teaching
Associated Course:
Project summary:
This project explored how Froebelian teaching can take into account principles of epistemic justice.
Introduction
Epistemic justice refers to justice in the ways in which knowledge is understood and communicated (Fricker, 2003). At the heart of this concept is the idea that what counts as knowledge is not neutral, but infused with power dynamics.
Context
This project explored how principles of epistemic justice can be embedded in Froebelian (and other) teaching.
Methodology
The project was based on a literature review.
Froebel’s work is part of a tradition of ‘liberatory education’, which argued that education is a means of achieving freedom from domination of one social group by another. While there are many aspects of Froebel’s philosophy and pedagogy that connect to more recent ways of thinking about social justice in and through early childhood provision, it is important to situate his thinking within its historical context and complement it with current social justice debates.
Findings
There are a number of steps that lecturers can take to embed epistemic justice in their teaching: decolonising curricula, challenge processes of knowledge production and representation, be sensitive to power dynamics in the classroom, and acknowledge the silences and unspoken assumptions in Froebel’s work and complement/juxtapose
them with other voices.
Conclusion
An epistemic justice lens requires teachers and students to engage in critical reflection on whose knowledge counts (in, for and about early childhood), and whose voices have been left out.
Research implications
To be completed
Practitioner enquiry
To be completed
Leadership learning
To be completed
Author and role
To be completed