Building on the positive in children's lives: a co-participatory study on the social construction of children's sense of agency

Abstract

This study is grounded on the argument that agentic experiences and their reflection in supportive social contexts are crucial protective elements mediating children's socio-emotional well-being. Drawing on the socio-cultural perspective, we investigate the ways in which agency is manifested in children's social interactions while they reflect upon their self-taken photos of positive events in their lives. The empirical data were collected with primary school children via the ‘children as co-researchers’ methodology, and were examined via a micro-level interaction analysis of video-recorded photo-reflection situations. The results illuminate interactions in which the children are constructing, maintaining and contesting the cultural practices of what it means to have agency in their social settings in and outside school. The study contributes towards a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between co-participatory practices upon positive in children's lives and the promotion of children's sense of agency that engenders their socio-emotional well-being.

Keywords:

• agency
• social interaction
• socio-emotional well-being
• socio-cultural approach
• ‘children as co-researchers’ methodology

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this article has been funded by the Academy of Finland, SKIDI-KIDS research programme (Project no. 135138).

Notes on contributors

Kristiina Kumpulainen is a professor of education, specialising in pre-school and elementary education at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. Her research takes a sociocultural and dialogic approach to children's learning and well-being. In her research she has contributed to understanding social interaction in dialogic learning, illuminating the ways in which participation, agency and meanings are situationally negotiated across space and time. She has also addressed methodological questions in the analysis of social interaction in educational settings. Lately, her research work has extended to visual methodologies and co-participatory research.

Lasse Lipponen is a professor of education, with special reference to early childhood education, at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. His research work is directed to children's learning at the intersection of formal and informal learning environments; understanding children's experiences and perceptions in their life-world with digital documentation and participatory research methods; and teacher education.

Jaakko Hilppö is a PhD student at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. His research focuses on children's agency, and of children's understanding of it.

Anna Mikkola is a PhD student at the Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on children's resilience, co-participatory research and visual methodologies.