What about teachers’ cultures? Elevating early childhood teachers’ culture stories through a Kristevan lens

Abstract

Curricula and policy documents in Australia and elsewhere commonly call for early childhood teachers to nurture cultural belonging for young children and their families. Meanwhile, there remains a critical gap in addressing teachers’ cultural belonging. In this article, the authors consider early childhood teachers’ culture stories and identities, drawing on an exploratory project involving four teachers from early childhood settings in Melbourne. They use Julia Kristeva's philosophy on subject formation and the Other to explore teachers’ identities as never fully knowable, even to themselves. Reflecting on teachers’ stories through Kristeva's philosophical approach to the subject in process (through the elements of the semiotic, love, abjection and revolt) offers the potential for increasingly nuanced insights into intercultural relations within teaching teams. Thinking through these culture stories creates a space for teachers’ identity constructions to strengthen cultural well-being, belonging and intercultural understanding in early childhood teaching teams and communities.