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Publication Date

11-25-2024

Submission Type

General Submission

Abstract

Cynefin is a key word in the new curriculum for Wales. Yet it is a word that is difficult to define. It has no direct English translation and originates from Welsh hill farming where it was used by farmers to describe how sheep would form a mysterious attachment to different parts of common land. Subsequently, it has come to be associated with a person’s relationship to a place, where they feel at home. This article examines how the concept of cynefin potentially resonates with posthumanist and contemplative pedagogical perspectives. In doing so, it aims to answer the question, “how could children do cynefin in schools”? The article analyzes how the new materialist philosophies of posthumanism are in harmony with conceptualizations of cynefin. Thus, the author provides perspectives on the human-nature relationship that are alternative to the dominant discourse of schooling in industrialized societies. It is argued that conceptualizing the word cynefin from a new materialist perspective allows for ethico-onto-epistem-ological insights that could provide much-needed ecological imperatives and enhanced existential understandings. The analyses reveal how cynefin’s conceptual link to new materialism provides a natural entwinement with contemplative pedagogical approaches. It is shown how the underpinning autotelic and kairotic aspects of contemplative pedagogical approaches resonate with experiencing and understanding cynefin and allow for an expanded sense of interrelationship with the more-than-human world. A concluding discussion outlines the potential pedagogical implications for how children could do cynefin in schools.

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