Civic action and play: examples from Maori, Aboriginal Australian and Latino communities

Abstract

Using data from an international, comparative study of civic action in preschools in New Zealand, Australia and the US, we consider some of the types of civic action that are possible when time and space are offered for children to use their agency to initiate, work together and collectively pursue ideas and things that are important to the group. We use an example from each country and apply the work of Rancière and Arendt to think about collectivity as civic action in young children's schooling lives. Play, rather than an act itself, is positioned here as political time and space that make such civic action possible in the everyday lives of children. We argue here that play is the most common (and endangered) time and space in which children act for the collective.

A Systematic Scoping Review of Pre-School Self-Regulation Interventions from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective

“…A recent evaluation of the literature suggests that play can be conceptualized as unfolding across a continuum on which child autonomy varies [81], from free play characterized by full child-autonomy (under which pretend play might fall; Pyle & Daniels [82]) to games that limit autonomy through embedded game rules, and then to direct adult-led instruction in the absence of child autonomy. Play can be influenced by the context in which it occurs: the structures in place allow the extent to which children are able to use their agency [83], as well as available resources across a wide spectrum; from adults and other children to imagination and tools [84]. Play is a context, therefore, which offers an opportunity for the components of SDT to be fulfilled.…”

Early childhood education and care for Indigenous children and their families from colonised nations

“…In a recent study, teachers in a public kindergarten in a culturally diverse urban community in Aotearoa New Zealand intentionally fostered rangatiranga (self-determination, leadership) within their play-based programme (Adair et al, 2016). Planning and learning stories written by teachers highlighted children's rangatiratanga (i.e.…”

Positioning Children Citizens: Exploring Discourses in Early Childhood Curricula in China and Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Correspondingly, young children's status and membership as citizens should be respected and treated fairly and equitably (Bath & Karlsson, 2016;Phillips & Moroney, 2017). In addition, young children can be considered active citizens and contributors when citizenship is conceived as practice (Adair, Phillips, Ritchie, & Sachdeva, 2017;Larkins, 2014). As Larkins (2014) stated, "if citizenship is conceived of as a practice, children can be firmly seen as citizens in the sense that they are social actors, negotiating and contributing to relationships of social interdependence" (p. 7).…”

“…I do so through a crossnational analysis of discourses of young children's citizenship as this provides opportunities and different angles for reconceptualising young children's citizenship. For example, research about young children's citizenship in the United States has revealed that the individual is emphasised over the collective (Knight & Watson, 2014;Payne, et al, 2019), while other studies have shown that collective forms of civic engagement are more prevalent in the Indigenous Māori of New Zealand, Latinx in the US, and indigenous Australian contexts (Adair et al, 2017;Phillips et al, 2018). In addition, children's persistence during conflict situations in Japanese kindergartens has also inspired American teachers to think about more possibilities for young children's civic actions (Payne et al, 2019;Tobin, Hayashi, & Zhang, 2011).…”