Childhood Memories of Playful Antics and Punishable Acts Risking an Imperfect Future of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This paper takes up the question of risk by examining childhood memories of nuisance-making and punishment shared by 26 participants enrolled in teacher education and/or childhood studies programs. Our analysis surfaces a tension that, on the one hand, idealizes the child as innocent instigator of playful antics and, on the other, produces a child who is guilty of punishable acts. We read these memories as an invitation to theorize a middle ground of the teacher’s role as one of introducing children to a world of limits, while also limiting the force of this very effort