Pursuing Questions
Kim Barton
Welcome to Pursuing Questions: Imprints of inquiry, possibilities for play, and provocations for living. This is a podcast, formerly known as The Playful Podcast, is for those cultivating an ethos towards mutual flourishing, healing, learning and living well throughout the human experience; and that is the vision for this space. Guided by 5 values and 3 intentions, what might be encounter?
Intentions:
Imprints of inquiry: I wish to capture traces of my journey, because I believe it is worthy of being studied. critiqued, and expanded upon. I aim to cultivate my own awareness, reflection, and empowerment in moving my practice. What I say here is a landmark in time; not meant to be absolute truth, rather, to be interpreted within the context discussed. Podcasting is a tool for collecting and archiving pedagogical moments, thought, decisions, and practice.
Possibilities for play: I strive to expand the potential of parallel practices, by "going public" with incomplete ideas to seek feedback, to embrace questioning and being questioned, and to practice sharing knowledge generously. I believe that through knowledge sharing we are nudged towards improvising and playing with new ideas. Much of what I share is in a light-hearted spirit of saying "yes" to what is offered my way, and responding as best I can from a playful place.
Provocations for living: I take up long-term inquiries about fostering playful dispositions, pursuing human and more-than-human well-being, mutual flourishing, reflecting on practice as a facilitator, broadening relationships with knowledge, highlighting the value to revisiting experiences, playing with ideas, and unraveling pedagogy to inspect its ideals, protagonists, and assumptions. What I share is meant to be generative, to activate possibility and life itself by provoking, expanding, and spiralling that which is most compelling within a pursuit.
Values:
Curiousity: curiousity is my compass. I ask questions and work from a place of pursuing curiosity over compliance, normalcy, or or acceptance. I believe in living the questions, now.
Interconnection: Although I often prefer the term interdependence, my value of interconnection is what guides me towards pursuing connection, always, and lead through connection. I value serendipity, linking ideas, relationships, knowing that we are all connected in multitudes.
Reciprocity: I believe in sharing knowledge generously, making thinking available and accessible, and aiming to live in a world where we receive and give openly. I believe in modelling the kind of offerings I hope others to generate as well.
Wisdom: I believe in entering into embodied relationship with wisdom, as lived, rather than consuming and producing facts or information. I consider lived experience and generational knowledge to be as valued as reliable data, and as such, this podcast is not trying to elevate my work to a hard science; rather, declare its legitimacy as living wisdom and insight.
Upwards Spirals: Joy. Flow. Play. Revisiting. Repetition. Deepening. "Again"....I believe in pursuing the paths towards, and ingredients that, sustain upwards spirals of flourishing, passion, pursuit, and drive. Our nervous systems are hard-wired to detect threat and our instinct is to survive, and as a society we have put so many resources into correcting the undesirable. To compensate for some of these patterns, I believe we need intentional rituals of gratitude and generativity, and a practice of studying what "works". To do so, I believe in starting from a place of what "is," which is so often what "was" and what "will be": the patterns in our thought, behaviour, and emotion that cause us to wonder, repeat, and pursue. Noticing and attuning to our own spirals can support deepened intention, awareness, and joyful pursuit grounded in what we already know, value, and have affinity for.
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Top 10 Pursuing Questions Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Pursuing Questions episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Pursuing Questions for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Pursuing Questions episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Spiralized Experiences: What can the shape of a spiral offer us within our human experience?
Pursuing Questions
02/28/23 • 5 min
In this mini-episode I capture several thoughts I've had over the past several years that have led me to absolutely revere spirals as metaphors in my personal and professional life.
I'd like to give a generous shout-out to the content creators of the music in this episode.
For show notes and transcript, visit: https://playfulpedagogies.ca/2023/04/04/spiralized-experiences-what-can-the-shape-of-a-spiral-offer-us-within-our-human-experience/
Playful Pedagogies and Podcastings
Pursuing Questions
08/14/21 • 30 min
In this solo pilot episode, I introduce myself and my orientations toward play, share some ideas about my intentions for this podcast, and try my hand at defining 'pedagogy' from the ECE perspective. After disclosing some of own playful journey into podcasting, I try answering the rapid fire questions I created for future guests. Let's hope my dream list of guests will manifest! For more show notes check out https://www.playfulpedagogies.ca.
What could happen if we understood pedagogy more like ecology?
Pursuing Questions
02/06/24 • 15 min
This episode was recorded on a walk home, where I ponder how we could shift our understanding of pedagogy towards a study of subtle systems and relations? What would that conceptualization invite of us? Join me as I ponder this question in this first episode of season 3.
Season 3 - Pursuing Pedagogical Documentation and Reflective Practice Through Podcasting
Pursuing Questions
01/01/24 • 13 min
Why do we document? How do we document? What do we document? When do we document? When does documentation become pedagogical? What activates pedagogical documentation? What about pedagogy inherently documents? What routines and rituals facilitate and sustain my reflective, responsive, relational documentation practice? What are the precursors to creating stories about our practice that can reveal and illuminate our communal thinking, children's insights, and the big picture questions we are pursuing in our community? These are just some of the questions I'll be pursuing in season 3 as I explore the use of podcasting in my pedagogical documentation practice and reflective practice journey. Join me to hear my own reflections in action, how I decide to respond to various encounters, how I reflect and capture my decision making, how I critique my own best intentions, and how I become changed by studying my own documentation over time.
How Does Curriculum Really Emerge?
Pursuing Questions
12/12/23 • 36 min
I've spiralled my way back to this question with a desire to unpack why I feel some tension around the terminology of "emergent" curriculum. Is curriculum the active agent? Does it reveal itself? If so, what role do educators play in taking up the passively emerging information? How do we use our interpretations of our experiences with children to respond and expand upon their learning? And what the heck do ukuleles have to do with this conversation?? Join me in wondering about an educator's role in offering responsive, informed, and intentional curricula.
Why and How Do We Celebrate?
Pursuing Questions
11/28/23 • 39 min
In response to questions about celebrating Halloween, I noticed an opportunity to explore why and how we celebrate in early learning communities. From thinking about relationships with families, to upholding integral rituals, to fostering cultural competency, to honouring what a seasons invites, and creating a community protocol for making decisions, this episode documents my journey of reading literature, taking questions to our staff meeting, and capturing our thinking. By wandering through the joys and tensions of celebrations that pedagogy invites, this offers a series of thoughts and decisions that are merely one example of pursuing questions about celebrations within in our community.
Disclaimer: this is one version of the story that took place. As a pedagogical leader, I am in the privileged position of having paid time to reflect deeply on events that take place across our centre, and this episode is offered from my own singular perspective on the topic. Anyone else might tell the same story very differently.
Creating Opportunities for Parallel Practices
Pursuing Questions
10/12/23 • 31 min
I'm embedded within the September welcoming routines and rituals, and it's caused me to reflect on building relationships through the lens of parallel practice. As a pedagogical leader and course instructor, I wonder about the experiences afforded to educators and students that foster or erode connection, and how these experiences mirror that which we hope children and families experience. Play along with me here if you're curious about designing experiences that support congruency between auspice, operators/administrators, educators, children, and families.
08/30/23 • 17 min
I've been curious about mentorship for several years, and I'm only just starting to connect my histories and futures of mentorship with the role(s) of healing, learning, and living well throughout the human experience. Wonder with me, here...
Where are the foreclosures of research and the openings of pedagogy?
Pursuing Questions
06/14/23 • 14 min
In this episode, I capture an ah-ha moment where I challenge the all-knowing assumptions of research by claiming its limitations, and instead leaning into the potential of pedagogical inquiry. I reflect on the constraints I sense as a researcher, and the freedom I can embrace within pedagogy. I briefly reflect on my graduate school research to highlight how research feels close-ended, contained and methodological (in order to be reliable and reproducible) whereas pedagogy, while still being as transparent as possible, feels more open-ended and liberating while still generating knowledge.Join me if you're up for feeling empowered as an educator-as-researcher!
What Does Communal Growth Require?
Pursuing Questions
05/10/23 • 22 min
What does communal growth require? What questions will we pursue together? Why? And what impact do we notice our pursuits have on our community?
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FAQ
How many episodes does Pursuing Questions have?
Pursuing Questions currently has 23 episodes available.
What topics does Pursuing Questions cover?
The podcast is about Higher Education, Leisure, Play, Podcasts and Education.
What is the most popular episode on Pursuing Questions?
The episode title 'Season 3 - Pursuing Pedagogical Documentation and Reflective Practice Through Podcasting' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Pursuing Questions?
The average episode length on Pursuing Questions is 30 minutes.
How often are episodes of Pursuing Questions released?
Episodes of Pursuing Questions are typically released every 24 days, 2 hours.
When was the first episode of Pursuing Questions?
The first episode of Pursuing Questions was released on Aug 14, 2021.
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