Transformational (methodological) shifts towards anti-racism: Revolt, realities and rhizomes

Sonja Arndt

doi:10.37291/2717638X.202563612

Authors

Sonja Arndt The University of Melbourne https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0778-1850

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.202563612

Keywords:

Methodological shifts, Early childhood education, Teaching teams, Anti-racism, Revolt, Rhizomatic analysis

Abstract

Many worldly concerns of today are arguably – and potentially increasingly – fuelled by racist orientations. They are institutional, structural, and individual. What is the role then, of early education, and of educational research? In what ways might research contribute to transforming orientations, towards difference, towards racism? Given the emphasis on strengthening young children’s cultural sense of belonging, teachers ask: but what about me? Teachers’ own marginalisations remain an under-researched area, a situation which is further exacerbated in the highly diverse contexts of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, where further immigration is encouraged to fill dire teacher shortages. This paper draws on teachers’ storying of realities and of transformations towards diversities and explicit racist behaviours in Australia and Aotearoa. The research is funded by the Australian Research Council, obtained University of Melbourne ethical approval, and involves 23 participants. In this paper I draw on 1 teacher’s narrative to explicate experiences and orientations in early childhood settings. I argue for feminist philosophical research approaches foregrounded by Kristeva’s notion of revolt, as a state of constant critical questioning. Further, the notions of teachers’ realities and rhizomes elevate the importance of a reorientation of attitudes beyond racism in research and teaching for teachers of young children. Doing research and difference differently, I argue, is crucial for raising awareness of and respecting diversities in more equitable, less racist ways.

References

Arndt, S. & Bartholomaeus, C. (2023). Diffracting early childhood teachers’ culture stories: Reimagining methodologies. Reconceptualising Educational Research Methodologies, 14(1), 4-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.5237

Arndt, S. (2016). Pedagogies of difference: Unknowing immigrant teachers as subjects forever in process. Journal of Pedagogy, 6(2), 119-132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jped-2015-0017

Arndt, S. (2017a). Teacher Otherness in early childhood education: Rethinking uncertainty and difference through a Kristevan lens [Unpublished doctoral thesis]. University of Waikato. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/11259

Arndt, S. (2017b). Dialogic ruptures: An ethical imperative. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(9), 909-921. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2015.1135776

Arndt, S. (2018). Early childhood teacher cultural otherness and belonging. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19(4), 392–403. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118783382

Arndt, S., & Bartholomaeus, C. (2025). What about teachers’ cultures? Elevating early childhood teachers’ culture stories through a Kristevan lens. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 26(1), 6-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221141726

Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority. (2020). Guide to the national quality framework. ACECQA

Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE] (2022). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia (V2.0). Australian Government Department of Education for the Ministerial Council.

Australian Government Department of Home Affairs (2025). Harmony week. https://www.harmony.gov.au/stories/story?storyId=209

Australian Human Rights Commission. (2021). Concept paper for a national anti-racism framework. Australian Human Rights Commission. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/26275

Barad, K. (2014). Diffracting diffraction: cutting together-apart. Parallax, 20(3), 168–187. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2014.927623

Blaich, H. (Ed.). (2009). Exiled from the Holy Land: The loss of the Templer settlements in Palestine and deportation to Australia 1941-1950. Trafford Publishing.

Blaser, M. (2013). Ontological conflicts and the stories of peoples in spite of Europe: Toward a conversation on political ontology. Current Anthropology, 54(5), 523-656. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/672270

Braidotti, R. (2013). The posthuman. Polity

Braidotti, R. (2019). The posthuman condition. Polity.

Braidotti, R. (2022). Posthuman feminism. Polity.

Ceder, S. (2019). Towards a posthuman theory of educational relationality. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351044196

Crabb, A. (2021, June 7). Australia Talks shows we agree there's a lot of racism here, but less than half say white supremacy is ingrained in our society. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/annabel-crabb-analysis-racism-australia-talks/100172288

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1300. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Bloomsbury. Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. (1994). What is philosophy? Columbia University Press.

Fenech, M., Wong, S., Boyd, W., Gibson, M., Watt, H., & Richardson, P. (2022). Attracting, retaining and sustaining early childhood teachers: An ecological conceptualisation of workforce issues and future research directions. The Australian Educational Researcher, 49(1), 1–19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-00424-6

Ferrández, L.F.A. (2013). Ways of living: Tim Ingold on culture, biology and the anthropological task. Antropólogos Iberoamericanos En Red, 8(3), 285–302. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11156/aibr.080302e

Giamminuti, S. (2023). The value of culture and an ethic of research. In S. Giamminuti, P. Cagliari, C. Giudici & P. Strozzi (Eds.), The role of the pedagogista in Reggio Emilia (pp. 223-255). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003181026-7

Gide, S., Wong, S., Press, F., & Davis, B. (2022). Cultural diversity in the Australian early childhood education workforce: What do we know, what don’t we know and why is it important? Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 47(1), 48-61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391211057292

Gillespie, L. (2025). We need more than a ban on Nazi salutes to fight racism. Pursuit. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/we-need-more-than-a-ban-on-nazi-salutes-to-fight-racism

Guo, K. (2015). Teacher knowledge, child interest and parent expectation: Factors influencing multicultural programs in an early childhood setting. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 40(1), 63-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/183693911504000109

hooks, b. (1994). Outlaw culture. Routledge

hooks, b. (2009). Teaching critical thinking: Practical wisdom. Taylor & Francis Group.

Jackson, J. (2021, January 15). Early childhood educators are leaving in droves. Here are 3 ways to keep them and attract more. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/early-childhood-educators-are-leaving-in-droves-here-are-3-ways-to-keep-them-and-attract-more-153187 DOI: https://doi.org/10.64628/AA.wyxtynxwr

Kristeva, J. (1986). A new type of intellectual: The dissident. In T. Moi (Ed.), The Kristeva reader (pp. 292-300). Blackwell Publishers.

Kristeva, J., (1991). Strangers to ourselves. Columbia University. Press.

Kristeva, J. (2002). Intimate revolt: The powers and limits of psychoanalysis (J.Herman, Trans.). Columbia University Press.

Kristeva, J. (2014, March 28-30). New forms of revolt. Paper presented at the The Kristeva Circle, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

McPherson, A., & Lampert, J. (2025). An analysis of Australian teacher workforce policy: Challenges and opportunities for teacher recruitment and retention. Policy Futures in Education, 23(2), 446-463. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241283106

Ministry of Education. (2017). Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa - Early childhood curriculum. Ministry of Education, New Zealand. https://tewhariki.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/early-childhood-curriculum-home

Moxnes, A. R., & Osgood, J. (2018). Sticky stories from the classroom: From reflection to diffraction in early childhood teacher education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19(3), 297–309. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118766662

Murris, K., & Bozalek, V. (2019). Diffracting diffractive readings of texts as methodology: Some propositions. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(14), 1504–1517. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2019.1570843

Papastephanou, M. (2015). On ugliness in words, in politics, in tour-ism. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(13-14), 1493-1515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2014.963493

Reconciliation Australia. (2021). 2021 State of reconciliation in Australia, moving from safe to brave summary report. Kingston, ACT: Reconciliation Australia.

Rivalland, C. M. P. & Nuttal, J. (2010). Sameness-as-fairness: early childhood professionals negotiating multiculturalism in childcare. Early Childhood Folio, 14(1), 28-32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18296/ecf.0173

Robinson, K. H., & Jones-Diaz, C. (2017). Diversity and difference in childhood: issues for theory and practice. Open University Press.

Scanlon Foundation. (2020). Mapping social cohesion report: The Scanlon Foundation surveys. Scanlon Foundation Research Institute. ACJC, Faculty of Arts.

Sellers, M., & Honan, E. (2007). Putting rhizomes to work:(E) merging methodologies. New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education, 10, 145-154. https://oece.nz/wp-content/uploads/Sellers Honan_2007.pdf

Shelton, S. A., & Flint, M. A. (2019). The spacetimemattering and Frankenstein-esque nature of interview transcriptions. Qualitative Research Journal, 19(3), 202–212. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-03-2019-104

Silin, J., Arndt, S., & Bailey, C. (2024). Hide and seek: A game reimagined. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 0(0). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491241266296

Silin, J., Bailey, C., Arndt, S., Brady, J., Kyunghwa, L., Tesar, M. (2025). Viable Vulnerabilities: Rethinking conference pedagogies. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 0(0). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491251340456

Smith, K., & Campbell, S. (2018). Educators in neoliberal Australian classrooms. In M. Bloch, B. Blue Swadener & G.S. Cannella (Eds.), Reconceptualising early childhood education and care – A reader: Critical questions, new imaginaries & social activism (2nd ed, pp. 313-324). Peter Lang.

Srinivasan, P. (2017). What we see is what we choose: Seers and seekers with diversity. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(2), 293-307. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2016.1255243

Srinivasan, P. (2018). Pookey, poory, power: An agentic powerformance. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(2), 121-132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118759979

St. Pierre, E. A. (2018). Writing post qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 24(9), 603–608. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800417734567

St. Pierre, E. A. (2021). Post qualitative inquiry, the refusal of method, and the risk of the new. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(1), 3–9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800419863005

St. Pierre, E.A. (2017). Deleuze and Guattari’s language for new empirical inquiry. Educational Philosophy and Theory 49(11), 1080-1089. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2016.1151761

Stone, L. (2004). Julia Kristeva's 'mystery' of the subject in process. In J. D. Marshall (Ed.), Poststructuralism, philosophy, pedagogy (pp.119-139). Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2602-1_7

Tembo, S. (2021). ‘Hang on, she just used that word like it’s totally easy’: Encountering ordinary racial affects in early childhood education and care. Ethnicities, 21(5), 875-892. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796820963960

Tesar, M. (2021). “Philosophy as a method”: Tracing the histories of intersections of “philosophy,” “methodology,” and “education”. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(5), 544–553. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420934144

Xu, Y., Yip, S.Y., Saido, E., & Adams, M. (2025). The construction of professional identity among immigrant early childhood educators: a systematic review. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2025.2454924