Why Children's Agency? What Kind of Children's Agency? A Literature Review

• In Event: 53.035 - Problematizing Early Childhood Education Since the 19th Century

Abstract

This paper reviews the heterogeneous discourses of children’s agency in existing educational research. In light of Foucault’s (1980, 1998) theories of power/knowledge and genealogy, first, I examine the emergence of the discourse of children’s agency. Second, I elaborate the liberal, critical, relational, discursive and material sense of children’s agency, corresponding empirical studies and critiques of each discourse. In my conclusion, a multi-dimensional understanding of agency is discussed.

Author

• Xiaoying Zhao, University of Georgia - Athens