Early childhood colleagues in conversation: Exploring our stories, perspectives on our field, and pedagogies of resistance

This article shares excerpts from the authors’ conversations across racial, generational, and gender borders, exploring our perspectives on and experiences in the field of early childhood education. Our goals were to construct a process of critical dialogue and provide direction to the necessary anti-racist work of early childhood educators. We identify our work as a duo-ethnography with conversations modeled on the kitchen table talk and pláticas of feminists of Color. The article begins by noting the relevant theory and literature and a description of our methods and continues with stories, excerpted from our conversations, recounting our educational journeys. We highlight our histories as racialized learners and educators and our engagements with a range of EC pedagogies and scholars, what we have learned and what we have discarded, and the confrontations and complicity. Our focus is on the critical pedagogies of educators of Color who we believe are moving the field forward, bringing marginalized educators, children, and communities to the center. The article concludes with reflections on critical conversations, implications, where we stand now, and where our field must go.