Chapter 3 explores and critically evaluates the main tenets of Childhood Studies by addressing the key concepts of voice, agency, participation and children’s rights. The discussion starts by exploring the challenges of working with child voice, highlighting that voices are messy and multi-layered, heavily influenced by social, cultural and institutional discourses. Like voice, agency must also be understood within intergenerational relationships. A large part of this chapter discusses the differences between the various definitions and descriptions of participation frameworks (e.g. Fielding, 2001; Hart, 1992; Lundy, 2007; Shier, 2001) with a view to draw out actual roles children can take in research studies (such as consultants, partners or researchers in child-led research projects). Similarities and differences between research ‘with’ children and research ‘by’ children are discussed. Addressing opportunities and limitations drawn out of current debates in empirical research, the chapter highlights the most important implications and opportunities for child second language research.

Early years teaching programs at undergraduate level introduce student teachers to sociocultural theorists such as Vygotsky, Bruner and Rogoff. Situating teaching techniques within these theoretical perspectives encourages student teachers to work with children within the metaphor of a ‘zone of proximal development’ (Vygotsky) to ‘scaffold’ (Bruner) children from one level of knowledge to the next through ‘guided participation’ (Rogoff). Understanding pedagogical interaction as a social and collaborative event between teacher and child is fundamental, but these metaphors can be challenging – particularly for pre-service teachers – in the practical implementation of early years curricula frameworks. Excerpts of real-life everyday interactions between teachers and young children explored using conversation analysis can demonstrate what the role of the early years teacher might look like when participating in a ‘zone of proximal development’ with children. The skilful ways in which teachers ‘scaffold’ learning with children through ‘guided participation’ in verbal and non-verbal turn taking will then be demonstrated. Through this exploration, the chapter brings together contemporary socio-cultural approaches to early years teaching and ethnomethodology’s concern with the practical achievement of participation to explain how participation frameworks provide a useful lens for understanding pedagogical interaction between children and teachers.

The role of embodiment in social interactions has attracted increasing attention in the last decade, both in the area of conversation analysis and that of cognitive science. Embodiment refers to all aspects of nonverbal, bodily behaviour, such as body posture and orientation, hand movements and gaze. This chapter will explain the concept of embodiment in both cognitive science and conversation-analytically informed research on social interaction, will present a state-of-the art review of research on embodiment in childhood interaction and will make clear the implications of this research for embodied practices in interactions with children, especially for childhood educators.

This chapter explores how tools from discourse analysis can contribute to our understanding of digital surveillance. It lays the groundwork for this exploration by first examining the role of discourse analysis in our understanding of surveillance more generally. It then goes on to discuss the mediated nature of all surveillance and the different affordances and constraints that different media bring to it. Next, it provides an overview of the main discursive processes involved in digital surveillance, including participation, pretexting, entextualization, recontextualization and inferencing, showing how they occur differently when mediated through digital technologies. A range of key issues and ongoing debates around digital surveillance related to discourse analysis are then identified and elaborated upon, specifically identity, agency and power. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications of a discourse analytical approach to digital surveillance for the professional practices of applied and sociolinguists and suggests some future directions for research on discourse and digital surveillance.