The self that is also the other is fully human: Non-intervention and personhood in an Indonesian kindergarten classroom

Abstract

In this paper, I pose the question “what can children learn when teachers don’t intervene?” It is a common occurrence in the United States in early learning environments for adults to direct or facilitate children’s play. In the world of childhood, play is serious   business. But when we play, it is not thought to be “serious” as we play for pleasure. Through play children explore serious topics and experiences with joy and pleasure. As they explore, they learn about our world, testing its limitations and affordances. It often  appears that, outside of the playground, adults do not fully trust children to conduct this “business” without guidance. We know that young children learn through play, and we know that learning is often done in the presence of a “more knowledgeable other”. Early childhood teachers are often that “more knowledgeable other.” But knowledge and power are often entangled. In this paper I analyze video data to discuss learning through play and teaching through non-intervention in the kindergarten classroom. I spent one month filming a rural Indonesian kindergarten, after which I edited the film down to a length that could be reasonably viewed in one sitting. I spent the following three months traveling the island of Java, showing the video to Indonesian scholars, educators, teachers, children, and parents. Their responses to the video provided valuable cultural insights into behavioral expectations from a non-western developmental perspective. Additional emic perspectives are imbedded in the study through the prioritization of Indonesian scholarly work for analysis.

Keywords: Indonesian early childhood, ethnography, video ethnography, embodiment