Research uncovers the role of warmth in early childhood education, suggesting narrative inquiry enhances pedagogical practices.
This article addresses a gap in early childhood education and care ( ECEC ) research and policy, where warmth is frequently mentioned in official documents but seldom theorised or translated into pedagogical practice. Drawing on narrative inquiry and agential materialism, the authors explore warmth as both an affect, and a relational force – constituted by and constituting more-than-human entanglements. Using the guided tour method, rooted in narrative inquiry, they co-produced three hours of video, 296 photographs, and field notes during a visit to an ECEC setting in Gdańsk. The research material reveals inspiring enactments of warmth emerging from responsible/ response-able , value-based, and place-attuned practices. These practices cut through dominant dichotomies of power, allowing a life-sustaining web to unfold, entangling humans and more-than-humans across the kindergarten and the city.
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Sadownik et al. (2025) studied this question.
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