Dr. Angela Molloy Murphy

“Though our “rescue” of the eastern gray squirrel was well intended, there is a way in which the notion of rescuing both emerges from and reinforces the nature/culture dichotomy and human exceptionalism, disregarding the complex historical, ethical, and environmental factors that contribute to our current environmental predicament.“

Abstract

This is a story situated in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, where encounters with a non-native “rescue” squirrel present disequilibrium for an educator and surprises for an early childhood classroom community.  Thinking with Haraway, Latour, and common worlds frameworks challenges the educator’s ‘back to nature’ narrative and generates opportunities to engage with different perspectives about the intersection of nature and culture, human and non-human kin, and the limiting quality of anthropocentric, child centered pedagogies in early childhood education.