This book explores weaving as a feminist, place-specific technique for thinking about and creating pedagogies for young children that responds to intensifying climate and waste crises. The author uses postqualitative research methods and the common worlds framework, drawing on a number of theoretical viewpoints, including feminist sciences, environmental humanities, anthropology, visual arts, philosophy, waste studies and Indigenous and Latinx theories of place. These interdisciplinary perspectives are used to interfere with prevailing visions of the human in education that separate children from their relations with place and plastics. The book is centred around an educational project in the small town of Racar in the Ecuadorian Andes, a region with a significant plastic waste problem, where children weave with straw and plastic yarn. Through this case study, Berry considers how weaving can slow down pedagogical processes and enable children to engage with the toxic materials in their environment.
Child-Plastic Pedagogy in Ecuador : Weaving As a Feminist Place-Based Approach to Waste