Negotiating Agency and Well-Being: Children’s Coconstructed Accounts of Positive Events in Their Lifeworlds

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Issues in Early Education and Child Development

Abstract

Drawing on the socio-cultural perspective, this study examines the ways in which agency is manifested in children’s social interactions while they reflect upon their self-taken photos of positive events in their lives. The empirical data were collected via the ‘children as co-researchers’ methodology, and were examined via a micro-level interaction analysis of video-recorded photo reflection situations. The results illuminate interactions in which the children are constructing, maintaining and contesting the cultural practices of what it means to have agency in their social settings in and outside school. The study contributes towards a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between co-participatory practices upon positive in children’s lives and the promotion of children’s sense of agency that engenders their socio-emotional wellbeing.

Authors

• Kristiina P. Kumpulainen, University of Helsinki

• Lasse Lipponen, University of Helsinki

• Jaakko Hilppö, University of Helsinki

• Anna Mikkola, University of Helsinki