Pedagogical Narrations and Leadership in Early Childhood Education as Thinking in Moments of Not Knowing

In this article, I draw from a recent research project that examined how a reconceptualized notion of leadership in early childhood education (ECE) is enacted through the practice of pedagogical narration. Pedagogical narration involves a process through which early childhood educators create and share narratives about significant pedagogical occurrences with children from their early childhood settings with the purpose of engaging others in critical dialogue where construction of children's identities and the values embedded in ECE practices are made visible and open for disputation and renewal. Here I present a particular dimension of leadership enactment that is associated with the practice of pedagogical narration, and I relate this leadership to thinking in moments of not knowing. By providing an example of how leadership was enacted, I wish to illuminate the potentiality of the practice of pedagogical narration to orient educators toward complexity and thinking that is triggered by encounters with unexpected pedagogical situations. Such encounters have the potential to initiate educational judgment that is inspired by events and not by following known rules and standards. They invite thinking beyond generalizations and cliches and they orient future (more) responsive and ethically rich pedagogical ventures in ECE contexts.