Abstract
This paper explores how early childhood education research can contribute to responsible coexistence, or even conviviality, in a more-than-human world, in light of the ecological, social, and epistemic crises of the Anthropocene. It also considers how the destructive cycle initiated by human activity might be interrupted in this context. The focus lies on two methodological approaches whose potential for multispecies research is examined: phenomenological vignette research and documentary multispecies research. Drawing on two empirical case studies, a perceptually condensed scene centered on a pine cone and a video-based observation of an encounter with a lizard, the paper analyzes the potentials and challenges of both methods for investigating embodied, sensory, and experience- and practice-based relationships between children and the natural environment.
Both methodological approaches aim to sensitively perceive interactions between children and non-human entities in their own dynamics, to reconstruct the experiences inherent in them, and to understand these interactions as possible catalysts for educational processes in line with a posthumanist understanding. While vignette research grants access to dense affective and bodily-sensory experiences, the documentary method seeks to identify typical orientations and their grounding in everyday practices and experiential spaces through comparative case analyses. Despite their differing methodological foundations and procedures, both approaches engage with multispecies interactions from a relational, multisensory, situated, and practice-oriented perspective, one that inquires into how children interact with animals, plants, and natural phenomena, and what transformative potential these encounters may hold.