“Where did you go to?” recognizing child agency as it emerges dynamically in interaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper presents an in-depth analysis of a shared mother-toddler book-reading activity. We build on critiques of progressive approaches to child education and warn against the subtle subversion of children’s agency. Our praxis-based analysis interprets the child’s initiatives as they emerge dynamically during the interaction, revealing their underlying systematic structure independently of the predetermined trajectory prescribed by the mother’s goals and guidance. We argue that an account of child agency must consider the uneven power dynamics between children and adults and how it influences the child’s legitimacy to affect transformation that transcends their initial position in the activity.