While juxtaposing the dominant neoliberal pressures of productivity and performativity with feminist perspectives on relationality and care, this colloquium examines the often overlooked and undervalued role of slowness in early childhood education and care. By analyzing an anecdote from infant caregiving, it highlights the pedagogical significance of slowness—reestablishing educators’ connection with time, honoring the unhurried pace of young children, and fostering their agency amid the relentless pressures of urgency against the clock. Reclaiming care, presence, and relational time actively challenges prevailing institutional norms and opens pathways for transformative education, inviting new possibilities for becoming otherwise.
AilwoodJ (2008) Mothers, teachers, maternalism and early childhood education and care: Some historical connections. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood8(2): 157–165.
2.
AslanianTK (2015) Getting behind discourses of love, care and maternalism in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood16(2): 153–165.
3.
BallSJ (2016) Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education14(8): 1046–1059.
4.
BergMSeeberBK (2016) The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
5.
BiestaG (2012) The educational significance of the experience of resistance: Schooling and the dialogue between child and world. Other Education1(1): 92–103.
6.
ClarkA (2022) Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child: Time for Slow Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education. Abingdon: Routledge.
7.
DalliC (2008) Pedagogy, knowledge and collaboration: Towards a ground-up perspective on professionalism. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal16(2): 171–185.
HonoréC (2004) In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed. San Francisco, CA: HarperOne.
10.
LangfordR (2020) Navigating reconceptualist and feminist ethics of care scholarship to find a conceptual space for rethinking children’s needs in early childhood education. Journal of Childhood Studies45(4): 20–34.
11.
LevyDM (2006) More, faster, better: Governance in an age of overload, busyness, and speed. First Monday. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v0i0.1618.
12.
MargettsK (2005) Responsive caregiving: Reducing the stress in infant toddler care. International Journal of Early Childhood37(2): 77–84.
MossP (2019) Alternative Narratives in Early Childhood: An Introduction to Students and Practitioners. Abingdon: Routledge.
15.
OrecklinM (1999) Food: Savor the peach: The slow food movement wants you to honor your roots and vegetables. Time, 17 May.
16.
OsgoodJ (2010) Reconstructing professionalism in ECEC: The case for the critically reflective emotional professional. Early Years30(2): 119–133.
17.
PageJ (2011) Do mothers want professional carers to love their babies?Journal of Early Childhood Research9(3): 310–323.
18.
RaymanN (2014) How a McDonald’s restaurant spawned the slow food movement. Time, 10 December.
19.
RecchiaSLShinMSnaiderC (2018)) Where is the Love? Developing loving relationship as an essential component of professional infant care. International Journal of Early Years Education 27(3): 142–158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2018.1461614.
20.
RouseEHadleyF (2018) Where did love and care get lost? Educators and parents’ perceptions of early childhood practice. International Journal of Early Years Education26(2): 159–172.
21.
ShahjahanRA (2014) Being “lazy” and slowing down: Toward decolonizing time, our body, and pedagogy. Educational Philosophy and Theory47(5): 488–501.
ShinM (2021) To love or not to love, that’s the question: Examining the intersection among love, care, and education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood22(3): 282–285. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949120902864.
24.
SorrellsCMadrid AkpovoS (2024) Time for slow care: Bringing slow pedagogy into conversation with ethics of care in the infant/toddler classroom. Policy Futures in Education22(7): 1404–1420.
25.
Van LaereKPeetersJVandenbroeckM (2012) The education and care divide: The role of the early childhood workforce in 15 European countries. European Journal of Education47(4): 527–541.
