'No-body' is my friend: Cultural considerations of young children's 'imaginary companions'
type: CreativeWork
description: The variegated relationships young children may have during their early childhood education (ECE) years have long been of interest to theorists and teachers alike. Relationships, and understandings of companionship, can take multiple forms. Our understandings of what these relationships may look like are frequently informed by complex social and cultural constructs; therefore, seeking to apply a one-size-fits-all interpretation is theoretically and culturally problematic, especially when the companions young children may spend time with may be unseen or unnoticed by surrounding adults. A common Euro-western notion is that unseen companions are not real; hence they are generally referred to in the literature as being imaginary. In an extensive literature review, this thesis explores whether companionship with the unseen are one of many possible forms of relationships. Dominant Euro-western claims that such relationships are imaginary are considered critically before the analysis widens in theoretical scope to draw on various alternative cultural accounts. The analysis draws on the theoretical work of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Karen Barad, in particular. An additional exploration considers the author’s own situated experiences of parenting a child who during her childhood years had companions that were unseen to the author. The final analysis, based on a small selection of carefully chosen autoethnographic accounts, draws on the significance of ancestral inheritance. Within this specific research context that inheritance comprises my daughter’s Māori ancestry and our shared Celtic ancestry. Ancestral inheritance provides reflexive companionship for the entire thesis. Examining inheritance sheds light on ways that traditional Euro-western claims of the imagined worlds of children, and consequently childhood, have produced a legacy of ideas which have subsequently held the term imaginary in place. These dominant worldviews are shown to fall short in their cap…
abstract: The variegated relationships young children may have during their early childhood education (ECE) years have long been of interest to theorists and teachers alike. Relationships, and understandings of companionship, can take multiple forms. Our understandings of what these relationships may look like are frequently informed by complex social and cultural constructs; therefore, seeking to apply a one-size-fits-all interpretation is theoretically and culturally problematic, especially when the companions young children may spend time with may be unseen or unnoticed by surrounding adults. A common Euro-western notion is that unseen companions are not real; hence they are generally referred to in the literature as being imaginary. In an extensive literature review, this thesis explores whether companionship with the unseen are one of many possible forms of relationships. Dominant Euro-western claims that such relationships are imaginary are considered critically before the analysis widens in theoretical scope to draw on various alternative cultural accounts. The analysis draws on the theoretical work of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Karen Barad, in particular. An additional exploration considers the author’s own situated experiences of parenting a child who during her childhood years had companions that were unseen to the author. The final analysis, based on a small selection of carefully chosen autoethnographic accounts, draws on the significance of ancestral inheritance. Within this specific research context that inheritance comprises my daughter’s Māori ancestry and our shared Celtic ancestry. Ancestral inheritance provides reflexive companionship for the entire thesis. Examining inheritance sheds light on ways that traditional Euro-western claims of the imagined worlds of children, and consequently childhood, have produced a legacy of ideas which have subsequently held the term imaginary in place. These dominant worldviews are shown to fall short in their cap…
author: Hayes (Bluett), Shilo Jane
keywords: imaginary companions, early childhood, young children, Celtic, travelling companions, Maori, culturally compatible travelling companions
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/d6b4e887-00d5-41a6-82c6-90501f9a8f32/download
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:36Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato