How the Implementation of Children's Agency Impacts their Academic Attainment and Holistic Development Within their Educational Environment

The aim of this piece of research is to understand how teachers implement children’s autonomy in their educational settings, and its impact on their holistic development. This research project is an empirical study that used a non-probability snowball sample of two semi-structured interviews of early childhood teachers and 10 observations of 10 children aged 4 within a preschool nursery setting. This research employed a mixed-method research design in an interpretivist paradigm. The results of this research indicate that agency within childhood settings is facilitated in several ways, including the incorporation of child interest and the promotion of child-led activities. However, the role of agency within educational settings can be impacted by pressures teaching staff face to obtain high academic success within settings. The role of agency is also limited by the question of who the teacher is working alongside, as parent/carer partnerships interject with the expression of agentic behaviours for children within the nursery setting.