Talking Early Years: In conversation with Professor Alison Clark

Slow Pedagogy 

Slow pedagogy calls for compassion where we actively do something to address suffering. 

During Covid, the LEYF staff running our 15 nurseries for key workers had a call with me at 3pm every day.  I looked forward to our chats and it wasn’t long until they we talking about  how the reduction in numbers of children, time to play, less curricular demands and  fewer wider issues was positively impacting on the children and they in turn were slowing down the pedagogy to allow the children time to just enjoy being children. It was one of the few joyful moments during the Covid. Little did I realise that Alison Clark was busy pulling  together the concept of slow pedagogy into a pedagogical umbrella that would support an unhurried approach to working with young children.  

Pedagogies draw on early childhood traditions and philosophy but are not fixed in stone and evolve to accommodate the changing world, new research and the needs of modern children.  Pedagogues stand on the shoulders of those who went before them and modern theorists emerge who then shape modern pedagogies for the modern child. According to Alison Clark the slow pedagogy is a response to the shallowness of unwanted neoliberal education trends in early education where everything is rushed, and children don’t have chance to really explore ideas in depth.  

When I talk about a slow pedagogy, I’m really interested in slow and deep, you know, it’s what slow enables educators and children to do and to be. And I think the danger is you might be able to achieve things that can be quickly measured and on tick sheets, but are we really creating children as lifelong learners and of children who love will love reading when they’re older and that takes time to develop.

For example, a new member of staff had been told that they needed to change nappies as quickly as possible rather than seeing nappy changing and an important relational moment, time to have conversations with children and to respect  them. 

The highlight of the discussion was when Alison said the LEYF model of the social pedagogy fitted comfortably into slow pedagogies because of the emphasis on building a compassionate approach through harmonious and multi-generational relationships with everyone from the child to the wider community.  

Let’s think about slowing down early childhood in the world of fast living and undesirable excess  is the message.  Let’s ignore the government or business ethos of targets and consumerism. It isn’t working!  No one is satisfied!

Have a listen and tell us what you think.