Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The participants, who were all international students, showed a sophisticated understanding of their professional role. A key finding is that they did not always communicate in expectable ways or in the usual places. Students found their own ways of peer learning and despite challenges they often found space for this learning outside the early childhood classroom. Using ideas from Deleuze and Guattari these “smooth” and “striated” spaces are discussed here and Deleuzian ideas contribute to the analysis that includes attention to peer communication as a multiliteracy (Masny & Cole, 2012). The students challenged stereotypical perceptions of how they might behave and show that a site of struggle and scrutiny can also become a place of support and conviviality. This is especially significant as the numbers of international students rise in Australian universities. What is offered here is a way of reducing the individualised and challenging nature of professional learning experience and extending trust to students who will be future educators, mentors and leaders in the early childhood field.