Abstract
This chapter concerns a way of observing activities in early childhood education. It concerns the observation of children’s active participation in interactions with peers and teachers. An important issue in this observation is if children’s participation can also mean children’s agency. Agency means display of autonomy in action, choosing among different possibilities, which allows children’s promotion of change of communication structures, such as hierarchical and role structures. In educational activities, agency is made visible as attribution to children of rights and responsibilities in producing knowledge, i.e. as epistemic authority. The chapter analyses how children’s epistemic authority is constructed in interactions video-recorded in a pre-school setting in the Italian town of Reggio Emilia, exploring some ways in which adults can enhance agency in early childhood education.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bae, B. (2012). Children and teachers as partners in communication: Focus on spacious and narrow interactional patterns. International Journal of Early Childhood, 44(1), 53–69.
Baker, M. (2006). Translation and conflict. Abingdon: Routledge.
Bamberg, M. (2011). Narrative practice and identity navigation. In J. A. Holstein & J. F. Gubrium (Eds.), Varieties of narrative analysis (pp. 99–124). London: Sage.
Baraldi, C. (2003). Planning childhood: Children’s social participation in the town of adults. In P. Christensen & B. M. O’Brien (Eds.), Children in the city. Home, neighbourhood and community (pp. 184–205). London: Falmer Press.
Baraldi, C. (2008). Promoting self-expression in classroom interactions. Childhood, 15(2), 239–257.
Baraldi, C. (2012). Participation, facilitation and mediation in educational interactions. In C. Baraldi & V. Iervese (Eds.), Participation, facilitation, and mediation. Children and young people in their social contexts (pp. 66–86). Abingdon: Routledge.
Baraldi, C. (2014a). Children’s participation in communication systems: A theoretical perspective to shape research. In N. Warehime (Ed.), Soul of society: A focus on the life of children and youth (pp. 63–92). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.
Baraldi, C. (2014b). Formulations in dialogic facilitation of classroom interactions. Language and Dialogue, 4(2), 234–260.
Baraldi, C. (2015). Promotion of migrant children’s epistemic status and authority in early school life. International Journal of Early Childhood, 47(1), 5–25.
Baraldi, C., & Iervese, V. (2017). Narratives of memories and dialogue in multicultural classrooms. Analysis of workshops based on the use of photography. Narrative Inquiry, 27(2), 398–417.
Björk-Willen, P. (2008). Routine trouble: How preschool children participate in multilingual instruction. Applied Linguistics, 29(4), 555–577.
Bohm, D. (1996). On dialogue. London/New York: Routledge.
Danby, S., & Baker, C. (1998). ‘What’s the problem?’ Restoring social order in the preschool classroom. In I. Hutchby & J. Moran-Ellis (Eds.), Children and social competence. Arenas of action (pp. 157–186). London: FalmerPress.
Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (Eds.). (1998). The hundred languages of children. Greenwich: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Harré, R., & Van Langhenove, L. (Eds.). (1999). Positioning theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Heritage, J., & Clayman, S. (2010). Talk in action. Interactions, identities, and institutions. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Heritage, J., & Raymond, G. (2005). The terms of agreement: Indexing epistemic authority and subordination in talk-in-interaction. Social Psychology Quarterly, 68(1), 15–38.
Hicks, D. (Ed.). (1996). Discourse, learning, and schooling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hutchby, I. (2007). The discourse of child counselling. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
James, A., & James, A. (2004). Constructing childhood. Theory, policy and social practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Jans, M. (2004). Children as citizens. Towards a contemporary notion of child participation. Childhood, 11(1), 27–44.
Luhmann, N. (1990). Social systems. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Luhmann, N. (2002). Das Erziehungssystem der Gesellshaft. Frankfurt: Surkhamp.
McHoul, A. (1978). The organization of turns at formal talk in the classroom. Language in Society, 7, 183–213.
Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mercer, N., & Littleton, K. (2007). Dialogue and development of children’s thinking. Basingstoke: Routledge.
Norrick, N. (2007). Conversational storytelling. In D. Herman (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to narrative (pp. 127–141). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Palludan, C. (2007). Two tones: The core of inequality in kindergarten? International Journal of Early Childhood, 39(1), 75–91.
Percy-Smith, B., & Thomas, N. (Eds.). (2010). A handbook of children’s and young people’s participation. Perspectives from theory and practice. Abingdon: Routledge.
Prout, A., Simmons, R., & Birchall, J. (2006). Reconnecting and extending the research agenda on children’s participation: Mutual incentives and the participation chain. In E. K. M. Tisdall, J. M. Davis, M. Hill, & A. Prout (Eds.), Children, young people and social inclusion (pp. 75–101). Bristol: Policy Press.
Rogers, C. R. (1969). Freedom to learn. Columbus: Merrill.
Seedhouse, P. (2004). The interactional architecture of the language classroom: A conversation analysis perspective. Oxford: Blakwell.
Sinclair, R. (2004). Participation in practice: Making it meaningful, effective and sustainable. Children & Society, 18, 106–118.
Sinclair, J., & Coulthard, M. (1975). Towards an analysis of discourse. The English used by teachers and pupils. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Somers, M. (1994). The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach. Theory and Society, 23(5), 605–649.
Walsh, S. (2011). Exploring classroom discourse: Language in action. Abingdon: Routledge.
Wyness, M. G. (1999). Childhood, agency and education reform. Childhood, 6(3), 353–368.
Wyness, M. (2013). Children’s participation and intergenerational dialogue: Bringing adults back into the analysis. Childhood, 20(4), 429–442.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baraldi, C. (2019). Practices/1, Italy: Facilitating Participation in Early Childhood Education. In: Farini, F., Scollan, A. (eds) Children’s Self-determination in the Context of Early Childhood Education and Services. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14556-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14556-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14555-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14556-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)