Posthuman Pedagogy of the Common Worlds of Children and Animals – From Independence to Relationality

Małgorzata Kowalik-Olubińska

doi:10.18778/2450-4491.17.05

Authors

Małgorzata Kowalik-Olubińska University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2450-4491.17.05

Keywords:

posthumanism, common worlds, pedagogy of the common worlds of children and animals, relationality, common good

Abstract

The author’s intent is to describe the concept of pedagogy of the common worlds of children and animals embedded in the framework of posthuman philosophy. In its assumptions, the child’s essence is tightly connected to non-human beings, individuals and forces, existing in the common worlds of life. Children and animals living in those worlds are not beings separated from one another, but relational and causative ones, affecting and influencing each other. The pedagogy of the common worlds of children and animals is broadly understood as an educational practice, which allows children to maintain non-hierarchical relations with animals during interspecies encounters. It offers children an unconventional way of discovering, exploring and acting, because it allows them not to learn “about” the world, but rather to learn together “with” the world. Staying in heterogeneous common worlds and establishing deep relations with them is hence connected with the need to care about the common good. It can provide people and non-human beings with a successful existence now and in the future.

Author Biography

Małgorzata Kowalik-Olubińska, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

Małgorzata Kowalik-Olubińska specializes in the field of pedagogy of early education and pedagogical therapy. The author’s scientific interests comprise the issues of supporting the development of children with specific learning difficulties and the issues related to the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies.

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