The realm of meaning: imagination, narrative and playfulness in philosophical exploration with young children

Censorship of children's voices takes many forms: restricting access to texts, constraining the space in which they are viewed, failing to validate children's responses, interpreting their ideas within limiting perspectives on children's thinking. This paper considers the educator's role in discussion with children, drawing out the connections between the ethical commitment to listen to child/ren and beliefs about forms of knowing that underpin pedagogy. In our professional development work we have noticed that children's responses to picturebooks can evoke sentimental reactions from adults. Such sentimentality leads adults to distance themselves from child(hood) and to miss opportunities for philosophical exploration. Moving away from developmentality, and inspired by semiotics, this paper offers alternative readings of children's responses to picturebooks, in the context of philosophical talk in an early-years setting. The framework for analysis of children's work with Tusk tusk by David McKee is informed by Fricker's (2007) notion of ‘epistemic prejudice’.