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
Participants:
5 teachers from 5 early childhood settings (add in names)
Methodology
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 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
