Hanging on to hope in troubled times. Ethics of care as foundation for pedagogies of relationality

Abstract

As a multiplicity of environmental concerns emerge with increasing frequency and intensity,our awareness of the seriousness of the climate crisis deepens.On a daily basis as we witness the increasingly devastating effects of cyclones, droughts, huge floods and bushfires, along with ocean acidification, ozone depletion, freshwater shortages, species habitat destruction and extinction, chemical pollution, resource depletion, and earthquakes; the repercussion of which are exacerbating the impact on communities of the inequity of resource distribution, poverty, and war.

Our reaction to this overwhelming onslaught might be to retreat into our supposedly safe domain as early childhood education practitioners and academics, feel a sense of powerlessness, dismissing these 'matters of concern' (Latour, 2004).

Drawing from recent research, this paper focuses on pedagogical strategies to strengthen our relationality as global citizens, in both human and more-than -human realms. These strategies are founded in an ethic of care along with Maori concepts such as arohatanga, kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga and wairuatanga.