Thinking Otherwise with Children in Cities: A Storying Approach to Co-Researching with Children and Teachers

This Children in Cities research project examines an approach to storying research that foregrounds collaborative meaning-making between educators and young children in their city. Through exploring how educators and young children might “think otherwise” about teaching, learning, and participation with history, Place noticing and entanglements between humans, more-than-human, and non-humans, three stories and a metaphor surface in the data. Drawing on three stories, metaphor is employed as an analytic and integrative device to deepen interpretation of lived experiences. Central to the methodology is a democratic orientation that seeks to reduce hierarchical boundaries, engaging children aged 3–5 as co-researchers in the selection, interpretation, and representation of stories. This positioning recognizes children as competent participants whose perspectives offer valuable contributions to life learning such as storying Place and taking up socio-historical responsibilities. Findings suggest that such visits with city places can broaden conceptions of fairness in early childhood education, fostering more welcoming and relational approaches to both research and teaching.