The paper describes a research project which sought to explore a deeper understanding of the enactment of children’s voice within early years practice settings. The research project built on previous research exploring factors for eliciting young children’s voice. Further previous research had also examined how these factors were manifest when practitioners were working with young children with diverse cultural backgrounds, including those from indigenous communities. Following both projects, the research team sought to illustrate key factors for facilitating children’s voice, that might be understood and employed by practitioners, academics and children. Through a series of dialogic encounters with the research data, the metaphor of a spider’s web emerged as a way in which this might be captured. The application of the web may be useful to interrogate voice practice in educational settings.

In this paper, it is proposed that the spider requires consideration prior to discussion of the web it creates. Acting on the basis that agentic behaviour is required if children’s voice is to be effectively facilitated. We problematise who the spider may be and suggest that there may be a requirement for collaborative working; this collaboration may include practitioners, children, and other members of staff, including management. Indeed, the web may support consideration of who is required to facilitate effective voice in a range of educational settings.  

Germane to identifying the ‘spider’ is an assumption that the centre of the web represents an aspiration around which the enactment of voice revolves, a recognition of the imperative to hear the voices of young children. Key to the construction of the web are the spokes that maintain its structure. In our web there are currently eight spokes, which we propose are essential elements of voice practice. These spokes, including definition, inclusivity, power, listening, space and time, process, approach and purpose were surfaced during the Look Who’s Talking Project, as a consequence of dialogue between academics and practitioners.

The web’s anchor points represent context specific mechanisms that support the facilitation of voice, including, for example, professional connections, memberships of social media support groups, or professional learning opportunities that work collaboratively with other like-minded practitioners. There is no expectation that the web is perfect – no ideal web exists. Indeed, the web, its shape, size, strength and anchor points represent practice as it exists or is understood by the spider. The web may be considered a learning tool that allows a more informed understanding of voice in educational settings, thus enabling users to reflect on the extent to which practice is meeting the needs of the individual children with whom they work. While, at this stage in the process, we have identified a number of key concepts that contribute towards the bridging threads, and will share these in the paper, we welcome further dialogue from colleagues in other European policy and practice contexts.

As a research group, we have a long-term focus on developing insight into voice work in early years settings, which is situated in the realm of children’s rights. Key to our academic work is a commitment to working with and through practitioners in the field. This conceptual piece of work has been informed by dialogic encounters with practitioners. Engagement with practitioners in the field permits troubling of theoretical concepts arising from our academic research, thus giving warrant to our findings. While this is a conceptual piece of work, we maintain a co-participatory approach to ensure validity within the field.

Building upon the outcomes of previous research has allowed the research team to surface insight into what the bridging threads between the spokes might be. Insight into the nature of what the bridging threads represent is important work. While much academic research has focused on the enactment of children’s voice in practice, we would suggest that a lacuna within academic work on voice is to provide a spotlight on the connections between the web’s spokes. Only by understanding these connections, can we further enhance voice in ways that are meaningful, effective and emancipatory. From the methodology employed, we posit that connections such as agency, and collaboration are fundamental to build a strong and sustainable web. The individual must have agency within her own context in order to ensure that they can respond appropriately to the needs of the individual young children with whom they work. In a similar manner, we suggest that it is key that practitioners have the opportunity to work in a collaborative manner with others to interrogate their practice to ensure continual reflection on the strength and sustainability of their practice with respect to voice.

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