We built the walls of this school together, men and women, because we wanted it to be new and different for our children.
The people of Villa Cella, Reggio Emilia, May 1945
Tyler Woodman
Deconstruction
As educators, the world as we knew it screeched to a halt with the sweeping introduction of Covid-19 into our global landscape. At the time of writing, it’s been over two months since I’ve been in my classroom with children. We left on a Friday full of anxiety - the world was changing, we could sense it all around us. Nevertheless, we left the building on March 13th without any fanfare - no goodbyes, no hugs at the door, no extra snuggle. A 4-year-old left his lovey in his cubby, and I thought, “he’ll see it again on Monday.”
Currently, we’re entering a world of complete unknowns. Educators everywhere are grappling with the reality that they won’t return to a normal school year in the fall, and the uncertainty seems to be particularly potent for those of us working in early childhood. The ties to our work and our country’s economy have never been more visible, and there is a palpable tension that many of us in the field can feel vibrating with every governor’s press conference, at every staff meeting, and with every decision being made. There are a lot of shoulds being considered, from the perspectives of employers and working families and those who recognize that not only will the economy fail to thrive without adequate childcare, but the entire structure of childcare as it currently exists is at risk of crumbling beneath us. There are aspects that we may want to resurrect once the dust settles, but there are others that we must intentionally tear down: inaccessibility, class divides, the impacts of capitalism, and deeply rooted inequities, which have plagued early care and education for decades.
The theme of deconstruction has been a constant during my year in the Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program. The concept was introduced to us in the progressive text Leadership Theory: Cultivating Critical Perspectives by John P. Dugan, but I saw ripples of it in other texts and coursework, notably embedded within the process of “moving down the U” outlined by Otto Sharmer’s Theory U. Just as buildings are deconstructed and reconstructed, just as we work to deconstruct and reconstruct systems, so do people undergo a continual process of deconstruction and reconstruction.
Currently, we’re entering a world of complete unknowns. Educators everywhere are grappling with the reality that they won’t return to a normal school year in the fall, and the uncertainty seems to be particularly potent for those of us working in early childhood. The ties to our work and our country’s economy have never been more visible, and there is a palpable tension that many of us in the field can feel vibrating with every governor’s press conference, at every staff meeting, and with every decision being made. There are a lot of shoulds being considered, from the perspectives of employers and working families and those who recognize that not only will the economy fail to thrive without adequate childcare, but the entire structure of childcare as it currently exists is at risk of crumbling beneath us. There are aspects that we may want to resurrect once the dust settles, but there are others that we must intentionally tear down: inaccessibility, class divides, the impacts of capitalism, and deeply rooted inequities, which have plagued early care and education for decades.
The theme of deconstruction has been a constant during my year in the Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program. The concept was introduced to us in the progressive text Leadership Theory: Cultivating Critical Perspectives by John P. Dugan, but I saw ripples of it in other texts and coursework, notably embedded within the process of “moving down the U” outlined by Otto Sharmer’s Theory U. Just as buildings are deconstructed and reconstructed, just as we work to deconstruct and reconstruct systems, so do people undergo a continual process of deconstruction and reconstruction.
“Most change processes are superficial because they don’t generate
the depth of understanding and commitment that is required for
sustaining change in truly demanding circumstances.”
(Senge et. al, 2005, p. 87)
the depth of understanding and commitment that is required for
sustaining change in truly demanding circumstances.”
(Senge et. al, 2005, p. 87)
The path forward is one that requires a deep consideration of the very basic human rights of all involved: the teachers, the families, and always the children. Only when leadership comes from a place not just of compassion and intelligence, but also a strong understanding of social inequity and the rippling effects of historical classism and racism can decisions be made that are supportive of us all. As Senge et. al. remind me, it is commitment to the ongoing process of seeking to understand the world around me, redefining my understanding of leadership theory, and analyzing and reconsidering my own values that will lead to change.
In the previously mentioned text, Dugan ends his chapters with vignettes of leaders who have dared to take the path of least resistance by embracing new paradigms.
“I’ll make the decisions about how to engage within the system, and they’ll reflect who I am and what I care about...I’ve come to learn this tactic - this graciousness - is part of my being: it’s a characteristic of my engagement with others, and it informs how I lead.” -Cindi H. Love (Dugan, p. 82).
Revisiting my journal from earlier in the year, here was my hope, prompted by the excerpt above: “I want to be gracious, I want to be flexible. Capacities like optimism and consciousness of context all seem to relate to perspective-taking and critical hope, and I hope[to] develop some of these skills, while still being able to maintain an outward focus on the complexities that systems and context play into the development of leadership.”
Our charge as leaders is to listen, to learn, to seek to understand, to embrace new perspectives, to challenge and be challenged. It’s to take what we’ve learned and lean into the values of graciousness, flexibility, optimism, and “critical hope.” It is the commitment to consistently redefine ourselves as leaders. As I move forward with my work of deconstructing systems, it is my commitment to also deconstruct my own ideas, beliefs, and actions. Because once the crumbling has occurred, the real work must begin: reconstruction.
In the previously mentioned text, Dugan ends his chapters with vignettes of leaders who have dared to take the path of least resistance by embracing new paradigms.
“I’ll make the decisions about how to engage within the system, and they’ll reflect who I am and what I care about...I’ve come to learn this tactic - this graciousness - is part of my being: it’s a characteristic of my engagement with others, and it informs how I lead.” -Cindi H. Love (Dugan, p. 82).
Revisiting my journal from earlier in the year, here was my hope, prompted by the excerpt above: “I want to be gracious, I want to be flexible. Capacities like optimism and consciousness of context all seem to relate to perspective-taking and critical hope, and I hope[to] develop some of these skills, while still being able to maintain an outward focus on the complexities that systems and context play into the development of leadership.”
Our charge as leaders is to listen, to learn, to seek to understand, to embrace new perspectives, to challenge and be challenged. It’s to take what we’ve learned and lean into the values of graciousness, flexibility, optimism, and “critical hope.” It is the commitment to consistently redefine ourselves as leaders. As I move forward with my work of deconstructing systems, it is my commitment to also deconstruct my own ideas, beliefs, and actions. Because once the crumbling has occurred, the real work must begin: reconstruction.
Reconstruction
When I consider all of the problems, new and old, that our field is facing in the wake of this global disaster, I think again of the schools in Reggio Emilia, that were born in a war-shattered post-WWII Italy. They took what was broken and examined it carefully before proceeding with the process of rebuilding. They didn’t piece together a system with the rubble of the old - they had the bravery to create something brand new, brick by brick, unmarked by the limitations and failures of the past. In this moment, we have the chance to build something better than we had before: a system of early care and education that goes beyond its call to sustain the economy to actually enrich the lives of teachers, families, and most of all, children.
We cannot allow the inherited systems of capitalism and racism to persist in whatever new realities we construct. The systems created by capitalism are crumbling all around us - how much longer will it serve us to build our frameworks around such a fragile paradigm? There are paths forward for envisioning a future where every child from every family has access to quality care and education - and there is a path upon which the definition of “quality” is co-constructed by children, teachers, and families alike.
We must reimagine a future where the voices of children are focal in our work. We must embrace the The Pedagogy of Listening as described by Carlina Rinaldi:
We cannot allow the inherited systems of capitalism and racism to persist in whatever new realities we construct. The systems created by capitalism are crumbling all around us - how much longer will it serve us to build our frameworks around such a fragile paradigm? There are paths forward for envisioning a future where every child from every family has access to quality care and education - and there is a path upon which the definition of “quality” is co-constructed by children, teachers, and families alike.
We must reimagine a future where the voices of children are focal in our work. We must embrace the The Pedagogy of Listening as described by Carlina Rinaldi:
“We should listen to the children, so that they can express their fears but also give us the courage to face our fears, for them and with them...We should listen to the children so that their words give us the courage for the future.”
We must centralize our work around children, now more than ever, as we seek to find the right answers. We must remember our conviction that early childhood education is more than a service to be bought, it is the basic right of every child to be engaged in learning and wonder and exploration, and it’s our duty to ensure that that right is being upheld to the highest degree possible. We cannot lose sight of this as we begin the work of reimagining and rebuilding our field.
And we must commit to the value of reconstructing ourselves: I am not the same person that I was when I started Buell last May, and I’m not the same person that I was when I left school in March. I have watched as inequity has been magnified across sectors, and I have considered the ways that I, intentionally or inadvertently, have benefited or contributed to injustice. I have been moved to action - not the passive action of watching a building fall, but the intentional and difficult work of tearing it down and building it back up. The work is internal, and it is external. Reimagining our work and rebuilding our field also means reimagining and rebuilding ourselves as we seek to build something, as the Italians said, that is “new and different for our children.”
And we must commit to the value of reconstructing ourselves: I am not the same person that I was when I started Buell last May, and I’m not the same person that I was when I left school in March. I have watched as inequity has been magnified across sectors, and I have considered the ways that I, intentionally or inadvertently, have benefited or contributed to injustice. I have been moved to action - not the passive action of watching a building fall, but the intentional and difficult work of tearing it down and building it back up. The work is internal, and it is external. Reimagining our work and rebuilding our field also means reimagining and rebuilding ourselves as we seek to build something, as the Italians said, that is “new and different for our children.”