ChildLinks Issue 1: Agency in Practice

Abstract

After a hiatus in 2025, we are delighted that ChildLinks is back in publication. With this issue, as with all past and future issues, we aim to inspire and engage all those dedicated professionals working with children in early childhood and school-age settings in Ireland, as well as those working in support agencies and organisations, and working and studying in higher education institutions. A key focus of updated Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, is the concept of the agentic child and the agentic educator. In this issue, we consider what agency means for both, and what it looks like in practice. The first article in this issue from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment explores agency in the lives of babies, toddlers and young children, and for their educators, as presented in Aistear, examining how responsive, inclusive and meaningful learning experiences can realise rights and agency during early childhood. Later in this issue, there is an exploration of how the universal and targeted supports of the Access and Inclusion model (AIM), and the mentoring offered by Better Start Early Years Specialists, enhance agency for both children and educators in settings in Ireland. Other articles in this issue focus specifically on agency for children, with Lorraine Farrell, National Aistear Development Officer, highlighting how, when educators hold a strengths-based view of children as agentic, competent and confident from birth, opportunities to realise agency are supported. Dr Sharon Skehill then looks at agency through the lens of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, highlighting that when adults focus on children’s rights, they create opportunities for babies, toddlers and young children to negotiate and develop their agency. Later, in an article from Kristianstad University, Sweden, we are introduced to an exploration of the promotion of children’s agency in activities that integrate play and teaching (in this case science-play), identifying agency not as something that individuals possess in isolation, but something that is continuously negotiated and supported in interaction. Aistear also presents the educator as agentic, with the freedom to use their knowledge and skills to support learning and development. In two further articles, owners of Irish settings outline how they intentionally support agency by ensuring that educators recognise the significance of their role in a culture where they feel respected, capable, and valued. This sense of being valued as an agentic professional is seen to impact on educators’ sense ofprofessional purpose and satisfaction in an article by Dr Jessica Ciuciu from Deakin University, Australia, and is shown to connect to workforce retention, one of the most pressing challenges facing the early childhood sector, not only in Ireland, but internationally. We are sure this issue will give you plenty to reflect on in terms of both your own agency and the agency of the children in your care as you support them to have a voice, make choices, actively participate in their own learning and development, and influence the relationships, decisions and the workings of their social worlds