Children's Agency in the National Curriculum

At a time when children’s experiences of English schooling are dominated by teacher-led learning Children's Agency in the National Curriculum's important message is that we need to pay serious attention to children’s agency, enabling them to make choices, and exercise some control over what and how they learn. The book is a timely reminder that children are our future, and that they need to grow up to be active participants in society, with the skills to think critically and creatively about the immensely complex world they face. The consequences of turning children into passive learners and not giving them a voice are not only damaging for teaching and learning in schools, but democracy and society more widely. - Diane Reay, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Cambridge This inspiring and rigorous exploration of agency in the primary school combines its collection of real children’s voices with measured critique of current policies and practices in English primary schools today. Although this book is an exploration of Structure v. Agency, and also adopts a critical realist methodology like Margaret Archer (2007), its authors however focus more on Emirbayer and Micshe’s (1998) conceptualisation of agency. Agency, they explain, is a ‘socially situated capacity to act’. The authors draw on children’s and educators’ perspectives about agency in three case studies of primary schooling, providing a range of appealing and well-chosen quotations from both groups of participants. Their data provoke comment on a comprehensive array of agency-related themes, including how mathematics and English dominates children’s and teachers’ experiences and thereby limits both children’s and teachers’ agency. The authors focus also on the vital link between agency, social relationships and effective learning, which provides a very welcome reminder of agency’s core importance across all aspects of primary schooling. These discussions lead the authors to develop the conception of ‘structured freedom’ as an approach that takes account of structures and maximises children’s capacity to exercise agency. They define this approach as including ‘genuine child leadership opportunities, clear procedural frameworks, and supportive but non-directive adult guidance’. This gem of a book is very accessibly and coherently written, drawing on up to date literature as well as vibrant examples from three real primary schools currently operating in England. The data were collected from children using an array of attractive and effective innovative methods, appropriate for young children as research participants. Every parent, teacher and policy-maker should make sure they indulge in this book! - Eleanore Hargreaves, Professor of Learning and Pedagogy, UCL Faculty of Education and Society (Institute of Education), London This book responds in thoughtful and research-informed ways to ideas about education that position students as passive receivers of information embedded in the curriculum and transmitted by teachers. Manyukhina and Wyse draw on children’s perspectives, as what Jean Rudduck referred to as ‘expert witnesses’ of their school experience, to systematically document the structures of contemporary schooling and specifically curriculum that both enable and constrain student agency. It provides sounds evidence of what can be accomplished in schools when children’s curiosities and interests are restored to the centre of teaching and learning, and as such is essential reading for educators navigating complex times and contexts. - Nicole Mockler, Professor of Education, Sydney School of Education and Social Work This is an important and timely book, reflecting how international trends in national curricula are increasingly shaping a new paradigm for children's education. This new paradigm embraces a holistic view of the child and their educational experience, emphasizing not only what children learn but, importantly, how they learn and who they become through the learning process—recognizing the transformative role that education can play in the lives of children. The authors have done a superb job of capturing the importance and relevance of agency for education today, making this essential reading for anyone involved in building progressive education systems that embody contemporary values. - Tracy Curran, Director for Curriculum & Assessment with National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Ireland