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  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, 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 voice Teacher’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 