Tamara Holmes

Tamara has worked in early childhood education for over twenty years, from community childcare to junior primary classrooms.

Tamara currently teaches and learns with pre-schoolers at Pennington Children’s Centre, located in a vibrant and diverse community in Adelaide’s west.

Tamara’s passion for documenting learning, both children’s and her own, has developed and refined over time with support from the team of educators and leaders she learns alongside and from the valued mentorship of Prof. Alma Fleet. Tamara believes in and advocates for pedagogical documentation as a way of working with children and families because it strengthens relationships, makes visible growth and learning over time and values children as capable thinkers. Tamara also identifies pedagogical documentation as a tool for self-reflection. Before becoming an educator, Tamara was (and may well still be) a visual artist; her creative disposition contributes to her love of writing and her aesthetic approach.

PRESENTATION TITLE:

WE are ALL researchers TOGETHER: Pedagogical ‘BIG-NESS’ in practice

ABSTRACT:

What does it mean to be researchers together? Ourselves, children, families, teams of educators, our mentors and community; we’re all capable of BIG thinking and of contributing to each other’s BIG learning. But, what does this ‘BIG-NESS’ look like in practice? What can WE do to facilitate this BIG collective thinking and why is it even important?

Together we will explore some BIG and not-so-BIG examples of researching alongside children. When we make children’s learning and research visible, we honour their BIG thinking, but that’s not all. Through collaboration and reflection, WE learn about ourselves and improve our practice too. Being researchers TOGETHER supports this pedagogical ‘BIG-NESS’ to become part of our everyday learning lives. This session will share practical insights and opportunities to support you to reflect on and embed this way of working within your learning community.