Sherlana Schroeder

Pedagogical Commitments:

I am an intergenerational survivor of colonial interruption. In my daily life I am continuously reclaiming my culture, language, and family. I commit to cocreating narratives with children and educators with hopes that today’s children will not need to recover their stories in a postcolonial society that is just awakening. Pedagogically I work with the dream of a future when children will no longer need to recover their stories.

As an ECPN pedagogist, with this gained perspective I aim to honour and enliven relationality with children that reflects and acknowledges the specific early learning contexts of the Peace Region and our connections to the land. As a pedagogist I will co-construct knowledge related to our current conditions with the intention of living well together (Government of British Columbia, 2019) while acknowledging our inheritances as citizens and our relations with the more-than-human. With a childcare crisis currently underway and with government legislation changes happening, the field of early childhood education is making progressive changes during a difficult time in history. I couple that with our land inheritances of Indigenous rights and the effects of colonialism to envision children inheriting a liveable world.

I recognize and resist the discourses of patriarchy, colonization, and neoliberalism that have historically moved us towards a devalued field of education, placing educators in the position of having to advocate for the importance of their work. Through collaboration and dialogue, I hope to alleviate some of the weight of advocacy and demanding work by engaging with theories beyond developmentalism.

I will approach this work with humility, not aiming to manifesting a singular new but holding close Vintimilla’s (2021) assertion that pedagogy enables us to reimagine, experiment with, and recommence liveable worlds alongside children.