Nurturing agentic children in early childhood education: thinking about children's agency with a childhood studies lens

Early childhood practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand are guided by a vision of children as competent and confident learners in the national early childhood curriculum Te Whariki (Ministry of Education 2017). This vision reflects an assumption of children's agency which has been the subject of discussion in early childhood education and childhood studies. In this article, the meaning of children's agency is discussed through a childhood studies lens. Childhood studies as a discipline and its key tenets in examining knowledge of children and childhood as socially constructed will be briefly introduced. The meaning of children's agency will be further unpacked through a sociological perspective. Two themes from childhood studies in relation to children's agency, the relational approach to agency and notions of being and becoming, will be discussed to explore pedagogical possibilities for realising children's agency in early childhood settings. This article makes practical recommendations for early childhood practitioners to nurture agentic children in a relational way, embracing both notions of being and becoming.