Between Prescription and Agency: Children’s Participation in the Lived Curriculum in Early Childhood Education
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| Autori: | , , |
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| Natura: | artículo original |
| Status: | Versión publicada |
| Data di pubblicazione: | 2026 |
| Descrizione: | This article analyzes children’s participation in the lived curriculum of Chilean Early Childhood Education, an educational level intended for children from birth to six years of age. Its objective is to understand the tensions between curricular prescription and the real agency of children within the educational experience. The research was conducted during 2025, using a qualitative interpretive approach and a multiple case study design. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with early childhood educators (n=3), along with group interviews with children (n=18) aged five to six, from institutions with different administrative dependencies in the Metropolitan Region. The data collection was supported by the photo-elicitation technique as a mediating resource, and the analysis was conducted through open coding and the construction of emergent categories. The results are organized into three main axes: first, participation as a regulated practice, where children early internalize interventions shaped by adult authority; second, variations in agency, with the classroom as a highly controlled environment and the playground as the space where peer autonomy emerges; and third, the coexistence of active operational autonomy with a nearly nonexistent capacity for pedagogical decision-making. Based on these findings, a typology of three coexisting modalities is proposed: technical, practical, and emancipatory participation. The study concludes that expanding participation requires transforming the structural conditions that shape children’s possibilities for influencing their educational experiences. |
| Stato: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Istituzione: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Portal de Revistas UCR |
| Lingua: | Español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:portal.revistas.ucr.ac.cr:article/6609 |
| Accesso online: | https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/raie/article/view/6609 |
| Keyword: | participación estudiantil currículum vivido educación inicial autonomía educativa student participation lived curriculum early childhood education educational autonomy participação estudantil currículo vivido educação infantil autonomia educacional |