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Making agency matter: rethinking infant and toddler agency in educational discourse
This article engages critically with the concept of agency in infant and toddler educational discourse. It is argued that agency, when conceptualised with emphasis on individuality and the autonomous self, poses a conceptual 'dead end' for those who are not-yet-in-language, such as babies and toddlers. In considering agency as an aspect of becoming that is inherent in all matter, the article seeks to explore new pathways for conceptualising agency in infant and toddler education. Methodologically, the article aims to generate complex questions and, following Nigel Thrift's call, 'wild ideas', rather than solutions by addressing the relationship between discourse and matter to open up new spaces for thinking and doing 'agency' in education, for babies and toddlers and beyond.
History
Publication title
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of EducationVolume
36Issue
6Pagination
920-931ISSN
0159-6306Department/School
Faculty of EducationPublisher
RoutledgePlace of publication
United KingdomRights statement
Copyright 2014 Taylor & FrancisRepository Status
- Restricted