This book analyzes children’s agency as interactional achievement in formal and informal contexts of education and illuminates how agency can be encouraged and supported in these educational contexts. Taking a sociological approach, the author deals with children as social agents rather than learners and considers structures of interaction which encourage and support agency, rather than teaching. The book draws from field research conducted over more than twenty years in a variety of Italian and international contexts. This book is unique in providing a theoretical reflection on the social structures that can support children’s agency, as well as a large amount of examples which show how these structures and agency work.
Table of Content
1. Introduction.- 2. The Concept of Agency and the Sociology of Childhood.- 3. Educational Interaction: Tradition and Change.- 4. Facilitation in the Education System.- 5. Researching Agency and Interaction: Methodological Considerations.- 6. Facilitating Organized Manifestations of Agency.- 7. Facilitating Unpredictable Manifestations of Agency.- 8. Facilitating and Mediating Agency Across Cultures and Languages.- 9. Managing Conflicts Related to Children’s Agency.- 10. Reducing and Suppressing Exercise of Agency.- 11. Beyond Education?
About the author
Claudio Baraldi is Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes in the Department of Studies on Language and Culture at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. His research concerns communication systems, especially intercultural and interlinguistic communication and adult-children interactions in educational contexts. He has co-authored, edited and co-edited eight books for international publishers, and published more than 60 chapters and articles in international volumes and journals.
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