Making Kin with Trees: Three Educators and Children Entangled with Treescapes

Authors

Stephanie Jones, University of GeorgiaFollow
Lindsey Lush, University of GeorgiaFollow
Sarah Whitaker, The Athens Forest KindergartenFollow

Abstract

In this article, three educators from one small U.S. city draw on Donna Haraway’s feminist, posthumanist idea of making kin to explore their personal relations with trees and their work as educators to support children’s entanglements with trees. Working in three very different contexts with children: a working-class neighborhood, a public school kindergarten, and a forest kindergarten, the three authors illuminate the “magical” emergences of making kin with trees that fundamentally shifts what becomes possible to do and be. Their writing contributes to the fields of critical childhood geographies, feminist posthumanist pedagogies in early childhood education, and writing in affect and spirit, to argue for the importance of making kin with more-than-human others within a particular place.

Author Biography

Stephanie Jones



Stephanie is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia where she teaches a wide range of classes in the College of Education and in Women's Studies including courses on social class and capitalism, feminist theories and pedagogies, literacy pedagogies, teacher education, qualitative writing, inquiry and justice-oriented education, bodies and sexuality in K-16 education, and more. She frequently writes newspaper editorials for public audiences responding to current events that impact children, families, teachers, and K-12 education, and she writes regularly about nature, meditation, and healing on her personal substack. Stephanie loves to wander and wonder along trails in public parks where she lives and visits, and she is grateful to have many tree friends.

Lindsey Lush



Lindsey Lush is a veteran elementary school teacher and also a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia where she studies feminist, justice-oriented education. She visits the woods daily with her students.

Sarah Whitaker



Sarah Whitaker is founding director of the Athens Forest Kindergarten and advocate for all local children and youth to have much more access to outdoor time and forest spaces.

Recommended Citation

Jones, S., Lush, L., & Whitaker, S. (2023). Making kin with trees: three educators and children entangled with treescapes. Occasional Paper Series, (50). DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1488