Reimagining Policy Enactment in Early Childhood: Chinese Children's Agency in Enacting Collective Through Play

• In Event: Examining Diverse Perspectives in Policy

Abstract

This research investigates how children within the Chinese ECE enact policy with agency, focusing on the notion of 'collective' as conveyed through play. By integrating the theoretical perspectives of policy enactment and children's agency, we expand the definition of policy from static texts to dynamic discursive processes, examining how children encounter, interpret, and re-contextualize policy discourse in their everyday lives. Conducted in 2018 over four months at a public kindergarten in Wuhan, we adopted non-participatory observations and semi-structured interviews with children. The findings reveal a stark contrast between the idealized vision of the collective in policy documents, the structured approach of teacher-designed activities, and the fluid, dynamic children's play. This research thus highlights children's agency in challenging rigid policy frameworks.

Authors

• Jingyun Zhang, University of Cambridge

• Yan Zhu, University College London - IOE