Kia Tōtika te Haere: Exploring Unhurried Pedagogies Through Child Led Inquiry Learning With Infants and Toddlers

Abstract

This paper explores how inquiry with infants and toddlers can be meaningfully enacted through slow, relational pedagogies that foreground deep listening, documentation, and sustained engagement with people, place, and materials. Drawing on narrative inquiry from two early childhood centres in Aotearoa New Zealand, we examine how kaiako create time and space for infants’ and toddlers’ working theories to unfold through embodied, sensory-rich experiences. We highlight three key strategies: relational practice, pedagogical documentation, and attuned listening, as foundational to inquiry with the very youngest learners. Framed through the concept of Āta (Pohatu, 2013), we consider how these strategies align with Māori values of respect, reflection, and reciprocity, offering a culturally grounded lens for unhurried pedagogy. We argue that in the current political climate, inquiry with infants and toddlers is both a pedagogical and political stance, affirming infants’ and toddlers’ rights to agency, participation, and meaningful learning from birth.