About the Author and Theoretical Frameworks

In the previous section, I explain why I have written this textbook for the students of the Early Childhood Studies program at Toronto Metropolitan University. In this section, I want to explain how I came to this book, for it reflects the ideas of others more than those of myself. This book is a learning tool less than it is an original contribution to scholarship.

I am indebted to so many inspiring thinkers, and I can share a bit of that journey with you here so you may understand the purpose and intentionality of this book. So, this section provides you with information about me but also acts as a link to the next chapter on theory. Here, you will understand how my theoretical position has been forged over many years and why I am not particularly loyal to any one theory.

Situating Myself as a Lens on Children’s Thinking and Learning

There are many ways in which an author brings a voice to what they write. It is very important for all of us to think about our life experiences and identity as we communicate our ideas to the world. So, I invite you to think about your identity and experiences as you are introduced to mine. For the first activity of the course, you will also generate your own positionality statement with reference to children’s thinking and learning.

In the concept map below, I include both biographical information about my culture and life experience, as well as recognition of the academic sources of my knowledge. I am building upon ideas that have come from so many before me, and it is important to acknowledge the history of ideas for two main reasons:

1. I recognize knowledge as gifts from others who have thought deeply about things I care about. I owe them a debt, and I hope that while I carry on their knowledge, I am also adding something new to the synthesis of their ideas and the writing of this book.
2. It is important for readers to know why I wrote the book the way that I did and to differentiate my theoretical history from the many varied histories that other scholars bring to their work.

I invite you to look at the many different schools of thought that have contributed to my own knowledge in writing this book. I ask you to observe not only how they all directly impact the study of children’s thinking and learning, but how they are related to one another.

You will see lines connecting them — but not between all of them. That is because the relationships forged from these theories and approaches are a result of my own intellectual journey, and some of the areas may not intersect with others. But when the areas intersect, it means they were changed somehow in my mind; those areas were to be forever merged at some level, informing my work.

Click on the interactive components in the concept map below to read about these perspectives. You can also listen to my personal story at the bottom right (it is an audio file for you to play, so you may want to get your earbuds out if you are on the train!).