我要吃瓜

Citation

Sidebottom K & Carlyle D (2023) From Reflection to Diffraction: What Toto Teaches Us 我要吃瓜 “Thinking-With” Multispecies Companions in Education. Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 14 (2), pp. 8-21. https://doi.org/10.18733/cpi29674

Abstract
Animal companions have long borne witness to the reflections and ruminations of their human counterparts. From owls, rabbits, horses and insects to reindeer, mice, and lizards, animals frequently play the role of confidant and often advisor in popular culture, alongside the more common and ever faithful dogs such as Toto in the Wizard of Oz (Baum, 1900). For educators, animals can be important agents in learning and teaching assemblages, shifting the norms of human-centeredness and species exceptionalism to an understanding of relationality and interdependence. Companion-animals may enter teaching practice spaces, either as deliberately invited “guests” or surprising visitors in a “pedagogy of response-ability” whereby the construction of knowledge becomes an ongoing practice of interacting with the world (Bozalek et al., 2019, p.97). This paper focuses on how, like Toto, animal companions can alter the course of reflective practice by encouraging diffractive shifts in thinking, different connections with the world, and a (re)connection with, or re-framing of personal and professional values and ethics.

Keywords
Animal Studies; Reflective Practice; Diffraction

Journal
Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry: Volume 14, Issue 2