Agency and voice: Using critical theory to reposition children from refugee backgrounds when considering their transition to school in Australia

Abstract

A wide range of benefits are associated with children's positive transition to school. Applying a critical sociological lens in understanding transitions allows for cycles of sociocultural inequality to be challenged and disrupted. This is of particular importance for understanding transition experiences of children from socially demarcated groups, such as children from refugee backgrounds. This paper outlines how critical sociological theory can be used to identify settler-colonial ideology and to unpack how children are understood and positioned within their broader sociocultural context, and how this understanding can lead to a strength-based approach that recognises the rights, agency and voice of children and their families.