Page 118 - To know things we have to have the world inside us

Someone noticed that a pipe-cleaner is twisty because it wrapped around a cork. Then they
noticed that the cork was round but slippery, because the pipe-cleaner kept slipping off. Then
they noticed the colours of the pipe-cleaner (orange) complemented against the brown cork.
The photograph of the pipe-cleaner~cork was pleasing. It had an aesthetic quality that was
satisfying. They noticed the different textures, especially when the photo was enlarged. But it
was difficult to take a pleasing photo because of the position and colour of the overhead lights
which kept generating shadows. They were now working with the shapes of and relations
between the materials in relation with the lights and shadows in the room…They were also

noticing, through documentation and sharing, their own knowledge building strategies the
knowledge building strategies of each other.
There are many challenges of working within a pedagogy of relations in this way.
There is a danger of following and offering contexts that support attention as it shifts from

one thing to another in a process similar to emergent curriculum – a process of ‘following
interests’ without taking time to consider the quality and nature of the relation – how one
thing impacts and is impacted by another and how one person impacts and is impacted by
another. It was difficult to notice and document the many different relations that were being
formed in the large group, especially at the beginning of the project when we were working
with teacher~researchers we didn’t know, and who didn’t know each other or us.

In the end we realised that we were only ever able to capture clues as to what was
happening. A saving grace was the generosity and openness of the teacher~researchers who
shared with each other and with us the relations that they were noticing and who tweaked
our interpretations when we were off the mark. Then there was the challenge of deciding how
to proceed at the end of each chapter of the project – designing a new proposal that
connected to the teacher~researcher experiences so far, whilst seeking to muddle them,
complexify them and to put them in a different context. At the same we needed to hold the
project together, to keep it coherent and ‘safe’ for the participants and connected to our
intentions. In working in this way, we discovered rhythms within the project – movements
backwards and forwards, between wholes and parts, between subjects and
things~objects~materials, between expressive languages, between individuals, small groups
and the whole group. And whilst each particular project has its own rhythm, its own song, we
started to recognise the relation between arrangements of the various strategies and the

melody of this project.

We close these thoughts with a great sense of gratitude to our colleagues in Reggio
Emilia for welcoming us, sharing their experiences and encouraging us to find our own
questions and experience; to the New Zealand teacher~researchers who stepped into their
and our unknown seeking new insights, questions and possibilities; and to REANZ for
encouraging the questioning of assumptions about professional learning and backing a
possibility.

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