EECERA Conference 2025 – Guest Blog # 22: Whose Paradigm?

One of a series of short blog posts by presenters who will be sharing their work at the upcoming annual conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA.

Whose Paradigm? Rethinking Childhood Agency in Education Policy: Ecuador, Spain, and Wales

By Dr. Gisselle Tur Porres – Swansea University, UK 

Photo by La-Rel Easter on Unsplash

In international/global policy studies in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), childhood has been often conceptualised through universalised, developmental frameworks rooted in Western and Eurocentric paradigms. While these models lead international policy discourse, they risk presenting childhood as a fixed, ahistorical, and culturally neutral stage (Burman, 2016). However, scholars such as Mignolo (2000), Mohanty (2003), and Tuhiwai Smith (2021) remind us that these frameworks systematically marginalise non-Western, Indigenous, and Global South epistemologies, especially those that challenge the dominance of “objective” science and liberal humanism.

But what happens if we analyse these universalising discourses of childhood with a focus on children’s agency? What happens when we look beyond the lens of agency centred on autonomy and rational individualism, largely informed by Western and Eurocentric paradigms?

This blog introduces a critical research study that explores national policy frameworks in Ecuador, Spain, and Wales and how children’s agency is recognised in ECEC. Drawing on a decolonising perspective to understand children’s agency in cross-cultural contexts, we engage with some critical reflective questions: Whose knowledge shapes the understanding of childhood agency and participation?  Whose voices remain unheard in national education policy frameworks?

The analysis of children’s agency with the sole approach of psychological models that view agency as self-directed or Western liberal ideals of the autonomous child becomes a narrow framing that may exclude relational epistemologies that position children within land, community, and ancestry (Nxumalo and Cedillo, 2017). There is also a risk to exclude historical and political contexts, including colonial legacies that continue to shape education systems (Martínez Novo, 2021). This creates a disconnect between what is recognised as valid knowledge and the diverse realities of children’s lives in different cultures.

Who Gets to Speak? Who Gets to Be Heard?

Drawing on Fraser’s (1997) theory of recognition and Crenshaw’s (1991) concept of intersectionality, this research stands on a critical reflexive approach to key questions:

• How do national policies in Ecuador, Spain, and Wales conceptualise children’s agency?

• Whose voices are legitimised in education policy?
• Whose knowledge is acknowledged, and whose is systematically excluded?

Children from marginalised groups, including Gypsie-Roma, Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and migrant communities are often framed as “at-risk” or “deficient,” rather than as holders of knowledge in their own right (Quennerstedt and Quennerstedt, 2014). Meanwhile, elders, oral historians, and community leaders from non-Western traditions are rarely recognised in formal policy documents or research citations.

Why This Research Matters?

This study does not just explore existing policy frameworks, but it analyses how Ecuador, Spain, and Wales frame children’s agency and participation in education policy. This exploration opens space for further debates on plural epistemologies in education, recognition of children’s voices, especially those historically silenced, and policy transformation that reflects diverse ways of being, knowing, and learning. The understanding of policy education frameworks with cultural pertinence can open inclusive debates that honour the rights, identities, and voices of all children.

Concluding Reflections

This study sets out to explore how national education policies in Ecuador, Spain, and Wales acknowledge or overlook children’s agency, particularly among those from historically marginalised communities. The study engages in a cross-cultural policy analysis through a decolonial lens, to illuminate how childhood agency is framed and enacted across diverse contexts.

Our findings will contribute to further debates and research for:

• A deeper understanding of how policy shapes children lived experiences across cultures;
• A decolonial perspective that challenges dominant narratives about childhood and agency;
• Reflective insights for developing inclusive, culturally responsive education policies that genuinely recognise all children’s voices.

References

Burman, E. (2016). Deconstructing Developmental Psychology (3^rd  ed.). Routledge.

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

Fraser, N. (1997). Justice interruptus : critical reflections on the “postsocialist” condition. Routledge.

Martínez Novo, C. (2021). Undoing Multiculturalism: Resource Extraction and Indigenous Rights in Ecuador. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Mignolo, W. (2000). La colonialidad a lo largo y a lo ancho: el hemisferio occidental en el horizonte colonial de la modernidad. In, E. Lander (ed.) La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas latinoamericanas. (pp.34-52). CLACSO, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales.

Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without borders : decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822384649

Nxumalo, F., & Cedillo, S. (2017). Decolonizing place in early childhood studies: Thinking with Indigenous onto-epistemologies and Black feminist geographies. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(2) 99 –112. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610617703831

Quennerstedt, A., & Quennerstedt, M. (2014). Researching children’s rights in education: Sociology of Childhood Encountering Educational Theory. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35(1), 115–132.

Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2021). Twenty-five Indigenous Projects. In Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (pp. 163–185). London: Zed Books. Retrieved June 26, 2025, from http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350225282.0013

Gisselle Pau Torres will present work referred to in this blog in Symposium Set E2 | Wednesday 27th August 2025, 13:00 – 14:20 | Room G104, First Floor, Faculty of Arts (Schedule liable to change; please refer to final programme for details).

Author and Team Bios

Lead Author: Dr. Gisselle Tur Porres– Swansea University, UK 

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1494-0549

Research Team Members and Contributing Authors:

Dr. Michelle Brinn - Swansea University, UK 

Dr. Hazel Acosta – National University of Education (UNAE), Ecuador

Dr. Juan Carlos Brito – National University of Education (UNAE), Ecuador

Dr. Virginia Gamez Ceruelo – National University of Education (UNAE), Ecuador

Dr. Jacky Tyrie – Swansea University, UK

Ms. Lauren Henderson – Swansea University, UK 

Mr. Rubén Chao Garcia – Universidad Santiago de Compostela