Exploring autonomy and agency in the early years classroom using notions of figured worlds

• Principal supervisor: Dr Stephanie Ainsworth
• Supervisor: Dr Dominic Griffiths
• Start date: September 2016
• End date: September 2021

Backgrounds and aims

As Early Years Lead in a setting with high pupil premium, my intention for this research was to explore the autonomy and agency of children in my early years classroom using notions of figured worlds.

The research investigates whether using the ‘planning-in-the moment’ method – as advocated by Ephgrave (2018) – would help create further space for the children to author the ‘self’, as well as consider factors that might act to limit their autonomy and agency. This developed the three following research questions:

1. What factors affect autonomy and agency for the child?
2. Within the constraints of governmental regimes, is it possible for teachers to follow children’s interests in order for children to gain autonomy and agency?
3. Can ‘planning-in-the-moment’ provide further space for authoring?

The research involved observing children in both the nursery and reception classroom whilst implementing a ‘planning-in-the-moment’ approach to follow the interests of the child.

Observations were conducted from September 2018 until December 2019 and followed the same group of children from their nursery to reception experience.

It employed a methodology based on action research using thematic analysis to uncover emerging themes and a cross-case comparative method in order to analyse the ‘planning-in-the-moment’ method.

Conference presentations

Exploring the autonomy and agency of children in the early years using notions of figured worlds, Three Minute Thesis 2020

Exploring the autonomy and agency of children in the early years using notions of figured worlds, PGR Conference 2020

Contact Chloe

Email: [email protected]