This book introduces the use of facilitation to support children’s agency in the classroom as authors of knowledge. The authors draw on research undertaken in two Year Three classrooms, in which children were invited to share photographs in a workshop to facilitate the sharing and creation of narratives. Motivated by the idea that elevating children’s status to constructors of knowledge is essential for a pedagogy of authentic listening, understandings of childhood are challenged in relation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the tension between self-determination and the protection of children. The book will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners in the areas of education, early childhood studies, sociology of childhood, social work, children’s rights and educational management.
Author(s): Federico Farini, Angela Scollan
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 287
City: London
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introducing the Book
1.1 What Is the Book About?
1.2 The Ideas That Fed the Development of This Book
1.3 A Sure Start: Presenting Some Key Concepts for This Book
1.3.1 Self-Determination
1.3.2 Agency
1.3.3 Positioning
1.3.4 Pedagogy of Listening
1.3.5 Democratic Pedagogy and Dialogic Pedagogy
1.3.6 Project-Based Approach
1.4 Two Philosophies That Inspired a Journey of Pedagogical Innovation
References
Chapter 2: The Culture of a Project of Pedagogical Innovation
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Education for Young Children, Education with Young Children
2.3 Self-Determination: A Concept with a Long History, But Still Unsettled
2.4 Trying to Overcome the Conflict with Fresh Theorisations: A Psychological Approach to Self-Determination
2.5 Agency Becomes a Key Concept for the Sociological Study of Childhood
References
Chapter 3: What Is Facilitation?
3.1 Facilitation of Children’s Agency: What Does Facilitation Mean?
3.2 Voices of Children in Educational Encounters: A Critical Comparison Between Facilitation and Neo-Vygotskyian Methodologies
3.3 High Chairs, Low Chairs, Where Do Children and Adults Sit in Educational Encounters?
3.4 Does Children’s Agency Have a Place in Pedagogies?
3.5 Early Childhood Education: A Pedagogy of Listening Therefore a Dialogic Pedagogy. What Can Facilitation Do for It?
3.6 A Few Words on Narratives, Because Authoring Narratives Is Authoring Knowledge Is an Expression of Agency
References
Chapter 4: How We Can Say What We Say: The Methodology of Facilitation, the Methodology of Observing Facilitation
4.1 How We Designed Facilitative Workshops: The Project-Based Approach
4.2 ‘Seeing’ Self-Determination in Adult–Child Interactions: Methodological Observations
4.3 A Few How To? Notes on the Observation of Project-Based Approach Workshops
4.4 The Local Contexts Where Our Pedagogical Innovation Became Real
4.5 The Production of Data: On Video Recording
4.6 What About the Background? Critical Remarks on Expectations and Assumptions, Including a Methodological Point
4.7 What We Looked for When We Looked at Child–Adult Interactions
4.7.1 Facilitative Actions: Invitations to Talk
4.7.2 Facilitative Actions: Asking Questions to Promote Narratives
4.7.3 Facilitative Actions: Feedback to Support Children’s Authorship of Narratives
4.7.4 Facilitative Actions: Facilitator’s Personal Stories
4.8 Children’s Personal Initiatives
4.9 Ethical Essentials
References
Chapter 5: How Did It Go? Building Knowledge Together with the Help of Facilitative Actions
5.1 Introduction
5.2 How Facilitative Actions Can Upgrade Children’s Status as Authors of Knowledge
5.2.1 Promoting Narratives: Inviting Children to Talk
5.2.2 Asking Questions to Support Authorship of Narratives
5.2.3 Every Little Bit Helps: Actions of Feedback to Support Children as Authors of Knowledge Narratives
5.2.4 Making It Real: Facilitators’ Personal Stories
5.3 To Bring It Home: Insights on How Facilitative Actions Can Support Children’s Agency
5.3.1 Invitations to Talk
5.3.2 The Use of Questions
5.3.3 Actions of Feedback
5.3.4 Power That Needs Control: Facilitator’s Personal Stories
References
Chapter 6: Children’s Personal Initiatives and What They Mean for Facilitation
6.1 Constructing Knowledge Via Agentic Participation 1: Children as Coordinators of Interaction
6.2 Constructing Knowledge as Agentic Participation 2: When Personal Initiatives Disrupt Other Narratives
6.3 Insights on Children’s Personal Initiatives in Facilitation, for Facilitation, with a Few Words on Those Disrupting Instances of Agency
References
Chapter 7: Welcome to the Real World: A View on the Intricacies of Facilitation During Project-Based Approach Workshops (and Probably During All Sorts of Educational Practices)
7.1 Facilitation Is Complex Because Interacting with Others Is Complex
7.2 Intricate, But We Can Work It Out: Insights on the Interaction Between Facilitative Actions and Children’s Agency
References
Chapter 8: Trusting the Process: Pedagogical Innovation for Children’s Agency in the Classroom
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Facilitators Are Unique Too, and This Is Important for the Design of Project-Based Approach Workshops
8.3 We Got Praxis! A New Idea Emerging from Reflection on Practice: Facilitation as an Environment That Enables
8.4 Closing down the Book, Opening up Opportunities for Change: Outlining Possible Implications for Policy and Practice
8.5 Be Bolshie!
References
Appendix A: A Glossary
Appendix B: Ethical Procedures
Appendix C: Demographic Profile of Participating Schools
Index
