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Medicinal Plants as Biocultural Resistance: Epistemic Justice and Intergenerational Dialogue in Rural Colombia

Irlena Esther Bohórquez Acosta and Diana Milena Rueda Arciniegas
Situated in Piñalito, Meta—a region deeply impacted by the Colombian armed conflict and currently facing the challenges of neoliberal agricultural expansion—this article explores how kindergarten children engage with medicinal plants as a practice of world making. Moving beyond a mere pedagogical strategy to teach scientific concepts, this participatory action research involves children, families, and teachers as co-researchers in a horizontal dialogue. We argue that recovering ancestral knowledge is an act of epistemic justice that counters the erasure of local traditions and the commercialization of seeds. Through intergenerational encounters and the exploration of biocultural memory, children do not just learn about plants; they construct identities rooted in the care of life and territorial resistance. The findings suggest that early childhood education can be a pivotal space for decolonizing knowledge and strengthening community bonds against the lasting scars of violence and displacement.

Mentoring Whiteness: A Critical Examination of Equity and Power in Early Childhood Education Field Placements

Melinda Alysha Warren
Mentorship in early childhood education (ECE) field placements plays a pivotal role in shaping professional identity and pedagogical development. Yet, mentorship is not neutral nor universally experienced. Grounded in the theoretical work of Sara Ahmed and Kevin Kumashiro, this article critically examines how mentorship in Ontario ECE programs can reinforce whiteness and marginalize racialized and international preservice educators. Through an analysis of existing policy frameworks, including How Does Learning Happen? and the College of Early Childhood Educators’ Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice, and engagement with critical scholarship, three themes are explored: (1) the reproduction of white professional norms, (2) the misalignment between equity-focused policy and field placement practice, and (3) the potential for antioppressive mentorship as transformative praxis. The analysis demonstrates that mentorship often functions as a mechanism of institutional gatekeeping and exclusion. Reimagining mentorship through an antioppressive and relational lens requires sustained self-reflection, structural change, and accountability. By examining how equity is undermined through daily mentorship practices, this article calls for a critical reorientation of how mentorship is conceptualized and enacted in early learning contexts.

Pictures of Childhoods: The Construction of Contemporary Childhoods Through Children’s Drawings and Conversations

Helena Ackesjö
This article explores how contemporary Swedish childhoods are constructed through analysis of 5,933 children’s drawings and conversations about their living conditions and leisure time. Four constructions are identified: scheduled, isolated, digital, and restricted childhoods. These reflect how structural inequalities, material conditions, and place shape children’s opportunities, participation, and agency. While digital spaces offer new forms of belonging, economic and spatial disparities continue to limit children’s participation and well-being. The study highlights the need for educators and policymakers to recognize children’s diverse realities in an emerging class-based society and to promote more just and equitable conditions for all children.

The World of Ants: A Scenario to Promote the Care of Nature and the Preservation of the Environment With a Group of Kindergartners in a Rural School in Acacías, Colombia

Ayda Liliana Duque Zuluaga, Ismelda Galeano González, Alicia Cortés Toledo and Mariana Padilla-Rincón
This Ideas from Practice article presents an educational experience with kindergarten children in a rural school in Colombia. Sparked by the question “Who bit my cookie?”, an inquiry project with ants emerged that integrated key activities such as play, art, exploration, and literature. Through an action research methodology, the project fostered scientific skills and critical thinking in the children, as well as attitudes of care toward the natural environment. Ants, observed in their everyday lives, became teachers and learning companions. This experience shows how wonder, curiosity, and active listening can open pathways to a situated, ethical, and relational pedagogy in early childhood.

The Creation and Configuration of Asian Girlhood: An Examination of Sharon Tran’s Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of U.S. Empire / Sharon N. Tran’s Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of U.S. Empire

Jung Kim
This review examines Sharon N. Tran’s Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of U.S. Empire (University of Minnesota Press, 2026), which analyzes the construction of Asian girlhood through the intersecting forces of race, gender, and empire. Drawing on literary analysis and historical texts, Tran explores Japanese American incarceration, Korean War camp towns, Operation Babylift, and the Vietnam War to reveal how Asian girls are simultaneously rendered disposable and idealized as human capital. While Tran’s book has been praised as a significant contribution to girlhood and Asian American studies, the review notes gaps in South Asian representation, limited methodological transparency, and an epilogue that offers limited practical direction.