Children as Social Agents

Lia de Vocht

Glynne Mackey

University of Canterbury

Cork July 2014

Equality for Sustainability – OMEP Project: Children as Social Agents

We believe that the best tool for children in disadvantaged contexts is to give children agency and support their thinking

around social justice, so that they become more confident and see themselves as capable agents who can affect social change

now and in the future.

‘Children who are encouraged to express their views are better able to contribute towards their own protection’ (Lansdown,

2004).

Aims and objectives Aims and objectives

To support children to have/gain a view of themselves as social agent

To build awareness for teachers about possible tools that can support discussions with children on social justice

To use Learning Stories about social justice supporting children to be active agents to capture children’s voices/ contributions related to social justice

To make learning about social justice more visible to children, teachers and families, thereby strengthening children’s dispositions of social agency

Methodology

Participants:

5 teachers from 5 early childhood settings (add in names)

Children aged 3-5years from these settings

Ethical approval from University of Canterbury

Information and consent from teachers, centre managers, children and parents.

Data Gathering:

Teacher workshops, observations and field notes

Children’s learning stories

OMEP World Project

Agency – ‘refers to the capacity of a person to act and create change in a given context’.

Social Justice – across various contexts, power and privilege can be oppressive. Participation through action and agency can lead to change.

(Miller & Kirkland, 2010)

Put in another definition

Agency – ‘refers to the capacity of a person to act and create change in a given context’.

Social Justice – across various contexts, power and privilege can be oppressive. Participation through action and agency can lead to change.

(Miller & Kirkland, 2010)

Literature related to Social Justice and Agency

Empowers children to contribute to positive change and improves their own as well as others’ well-being’ (Smith, 2013, p66).

‘Equity pedagogy, in short, means taking action to limit inequalities’. (Mackey & Lockie, 2012. p.77)

Storytelling led to child expressing his agency and identify him as a citizen ‘with a desire for real-world experiences to create real change’. (Phillips, 2010)

Using children’s books as a tool to build critical literacy Hawkins: investigating how children’s books may help children reflect

upon, clarify and articulate their awareness of and sensitivities to social justice issues.

Golding, C. (2003) : used books to scaffold children’s thinking about what is fair, what is true

Souto-Manning: children’s books to let children see different perspectives, encouraging children to take action towards social justice

Gunn- de Vocht: unexpected outcomes

Using children’s books to draw out thoughts on issues of equity and social justice. (Hyland, N. 2010).

Learning Stories as a tool to make children’s agency visible

Dweck: strengthening children’s dispositions by making the learning visible, children can see themselves as a social agent

Kei Tua o te Pae: foregrounding a particular lens in narrative assessment, shows what is valued learning

Gunn- de Vocht: revisiting the LS again helps build confidence and competence towards social agency, increased dialogue

Carr (2011): teachers learning dialogic skills

The Hueys in the new jumpers – Oliver Jeffries

Girl child’s voice ‘Those boys being mean… they say I

can’t play’

Teacher’s voice: We talked about what was fair and stories we had read about inclusion [such as ‘The Hueys’]. You negotiated your inclusion and your

acceptance that they also had rights or mana atua.

Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman

Girls can’t be firefighters. Only boys can be builders. 4yr old

girl’s voiceTeacher’s voice: I wanted to extend your thinking and knowledge if you really wanted to do or be

anything you can.

LS charlotte

Learning Story Beverley

Challenges: Difficulty of establishing what do we mean by social justice and

children’s agency, until we became more confident to accept uncertainty and complexity

Uncertainty about which children’s book to read to extend conversations with children

One of the teachers realised she needed to find out more about asking questions which scaffold children’s learning

Difficulty of finding time in busy day, especially to provide continuity

Lack of confidence, slow start to share Learning Stories

Changes to date Teachers are foregrounding social justice and children’s agency in their

dialogues with colleagues in their settings

Teachers presented at a teacher conference in Christchurch to share their practice

All teachers have grown confidence in using books as tools and understanding it doesn’t matter which book they read

All teachers have written a number of learning stories which relate to children’s agency, making children’s agency visible for children, parents and their community

All teachers have grown confidence to articulate what they see as social justice