Shifting Ethnicities: ‘Native Informants’ and other Theories from/for Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This article presents and deconstructs discourses of being 'white', being 'other', being 'foreign' and being 'native', with local examples from early childhood education events, sites and documentations. Working theoretically (after Spivak) and via subjectively told anecdotes and narratives, a postmodern theory of shifting ethnicities emerges. For hybridity and diaspora in early childhoods and later adulthoods, the modernist and colonial notion of singular and even binary ethnicity is unfixed. The work begins from interview data with 'bilingual assistants' in pre-school day care centres in Norway.

Ignorance in a Knowledge Economy

“…Immigrant otherness is mostly not easy, comfortable (Lewin et al, 2011;Silva, 2009), or even clear enough for individuals to deal with, much less to celebrate or be celebrated (Li, 2007;Rhedding-Jones, 2001). This brief analysis affirms Kristeva's (1991) recognition of the brutal complexity of redefining oneself in a new context, and indicates that it is a process too difficult to know.…”

“…This analysis shows how concepts of knowing and knowledge, and the tensions arising from foreignness within the university environment, are heightened by and perpetuate the neoliberal social and political context. Kristeva illustrates the turmoil and rawness of abstract foreigner experiences which distinguish themselves from but also illucidate the unpredictable situations with which immigrant foreigners grapple in the university (Li, 2007;Rhedding-Jones, 2001). Kristeva illustrates the turmoil and rawness of abstract foreigner experiences which distinguish themselves from but also illucidate the unpredictable situations with which immigrant foreigners grapple in the university (Li, 2007;Rhedding-Jones, 2001).…”

“…Perhaps, forming an attentive commitment to respect the differences in all others would raise immigrants' perceptions of others' recognition of their own singularity and specificity (Mohanty, 2003;Rhedding-Jones, 2001;Todd, 2004). Perhaps, forming an attentive commitment to respect the differences in all others would raise immigrants' perceptions of others' recognition of their own singularity and specificity (Mohanty, 2003;Rhedding-Jones, 2001;Todd, 2004).…”

Shifting realities: Immigrant teacher transitions into early childhood settings in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Living amongst diversity can be difficult. Uncertainty and discomfort can arise where multiple cultures and lifestyles come together (Cherrington & Shuker, 2012;Lewin et al, 2011;Rhedding-Jones, 2001). In certain circumstances, diversity and difference and orientations towards the Other can even lead to widespread resentment and anxiety (Ansley, 2010;Kristeva, 1991;Rivalland & Nuttal, 2010).…”

The shadows of difference: ethnicity and young children’s friendships

“…where repetition makes (them) appear as-if-real'. For Nayak 2006 There is also a significant body of work that has used the ideas of Foucault (1998,2002) and post-colonialism to challenge the dominance of developmental psychology in understanding young children's ethnicity (see, for example, Grieshaber andCannella 2001a, 2001b;Cannella and Viruru 2004;Rhedding-Jones 2001MacNaughton 2005). MacNaughton 2005, for example, draws upon Foucault (1998Foucault ( , 2002 and post-colonial theory to examine the ways in which children's friendship preferences are the result not of developmental processes but of the way in which, even in postcolonial times, power operates through individuals, families, early childhood and other institutions and the state to ensure that whiteness and its customs and practices are taken for granted as the norm, even where they are not (as was the case in the present study) and therefore exclude children who are not white in the process.…”