Moving with Young Children

Dominant understandings of physical activity and health as defined in policy documents, stage development theories, and curriculum frameworks teach about movement through concepts of exercise, fitness, movement skills, and physical literacy. This unit focuses on constructing early childhood pedagogies that think with moving, rather than about movement, as pre-service students consider how moving happens in ways that do not fit pre-existing [or inherited] criteria for teaching, understanding, or describing movement. Intentional working with movement through inquiry and wonder offers students an experience in exploring how children move with/in the world, and how this informs teaching and learning that is complex, ethical, and political.