Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling
In this article, we explore how childhood artefacts and memories might help us think retrospectively about children’s agency and its relationship to schooling and teaching. Across four university sites in Canada and the United States, we asked undergraduate students in teacher education and childhoo...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Journal of Childhood, Education and Society
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Journal of Childhood, Education & Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.j-ces.com/index.php/jces/article/view/170 |
| _version_ | 1797907754600366080 |
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| author | Julie C. Garlen Debbie Sonu Lisa Farley Sandra Chang-Kredl |
| author_facet | Julie C. Garlen Debbie Sonu Lisa Farley Sandra Chang-Kredl |
| author_sort | Julie C. Garlen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this article, we explore how childhood artefacts and memories might help us think retrospectively about children’s agency and its relationship to schooling and teaching. Across four university sites in Canada and the United States, we asked undergraduate students in teacher education and childhood studies programs to choose an artefact or object that encapsulates contemporary conceptions of childhood and to discuss them in a focus group setting at each site. Building on three participants’ descriptions of how they remembered and reflected upon school-oriented objects – a progress report, a notebook, and a pencil sharpener – we explore how participants used their artefacts in ways that allow us to theorize children’s agencies as assemblages, where agency is relational and contingent on multiple social and cultural factors. Drawing on our participants’ interpretations, we consider how a reconceptualized concept of agency may expand our understanding of the possibilities of children’s agencies in school and raise new questions about the meaning of childhood within contexts of teacher education and childhood studies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T10:42:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4d55351c35a34de7bcbad16f30856f3b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2717-638X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T10:42:05Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Journal of Childhood, Education and Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Childhood, Education & Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-4d55351c35a34de7bcbad16f30856f3b2023-02-15T16:20:31ZengJournal of Childhood, Education and SocietyJournal of Childhood, Education & Society2717-638X2022-07-013212213810.37291/2717638X.202232170158Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schoolingJulie C. Garlen0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2224-5688Debbie Sonu1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1885Lisa Farley2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4907-1120Sandra Chang-Kredl3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1754-9860Carleton University Hunter CollegeYork UniversityConcordia UniversityIn this article, we explore how childhood artefacts and memories might help us think retrospectively about children’s agency and its relationship to schooling and teaching. Across four university sites in Canada and the United States, we asked undergraduate students in teacher education and childhood studies programs to choose an artefact or object that encapsulates contemporary conceptions of childhood and to discuss them in a focus group setting at each site. Building on three participants’ descriptions of how they remembered and reflected upon school-oriented objects – a progress report, a notebook, and a pencil sharpener – we explore how participants used their artefacts in ways that allow us to theorize children’s agencies as assemblages, where agency is relational and contingent on multiple social and cultural factors. Drawing on our participants’ interpretations, we consider how a reconceptualized concept of agency may expand our understanding of the possibilities of children’s agencies in school and raise new questions about the meaning of childhood within contexts of teacher education and childhood studies.https://www.j-ces.com/index.php/jces/article/view/170childhoodagencyschoolingmemoriesartefacts |
| spellingShingle | Julie C. Garlen Debbie Sonu Lisa Farley Sandra Chang-Kredl Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling Journal of Childhood, Education & Society childhood agency schooling memories artefacts |
| title | Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling |
| title_full | Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling |
| title_fullStr | Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling |
| title_short | Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children’s relations with schooling |
| title_sort | agency as assemblage using childhood artefacts and memories to examine children s relations with schooling |
| topic | childhood agency schooling memories artefacts |
| url | https://www.j-ces.com/index.php/jces/article/view/170 |
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