18 March 2022 – Facultad de Psicología – Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Seminario 301) / Online (Zoom)
Infants’ and young children’s (in the 0-3 age range) agency and participation are socially supported and co-constructed processes built on emerging semiotic and communicative resources. Considering children as social actors and legitimate participants in ongoing activity is also an epistemic, ethical and political position connected to ideologies and cultural beliefs about age, child-rearing and child-care. Turning attention to the earliest stages of development poses methodological and conceptual challenges to conventional social theories on participation and agency – which, among other issues, over-rely on verbalized discourses and internal reflexive processes to empirically construe these processes.
This workshop gathers researchers and practitioners interested in early childhood to discuss different projects focused on unpacking the social construction of agency and participation in the first years of life. Some of the projects have a «basic research» orientation aimed at documenting and understanding these dynamics in particular developmental contexts, while other projects are born out of a much more «proactive» stance aimed at fostering these processes in settings relevant to children’s development. In addition, individual projects may have the family family or early childhood and care settings as the starting point of interest.
The workshop is organized as a one-day research seminar combining presentations and slots for open discussion. WS#8 is a hybrid event with an on-campus face-to-face morning session and an online afternoon session with colleagues who cannot come to UAM.