Finding self-determination. Conversation analysis as a methodology for interpreting adults-children interactions

Facilitation was observed as developing sequences of adults’ actions and children’s actions including 1) adults’ actions promoting children’s authorship of knowledge and displaying attention for their choices and, 2) children’s actions displaying authorship of knowledge and choices.
The analysis of facilitation combined ethnomethodological observations and analysis of interactions to identify facilitative actions that prove effective in supporting children’s access to the role of authors of knowledge and as producers of narratives and, co-producers of narratives.
The results of the research suggest that facilitation can create conditions of agency that are a presupposition of dialogic pedagogy. In particular, the new knowledge generated by the research consists in the identification of an array of facilitative actions that can successfully upgrade children’s epistemic authority as responsible decision-makers and promote their access to the role of authors of knowledge.
Based on the exploration and knowledge generated by the research an innovative idea is presented, conceptualising facilitation as an environment that enables children to choose if and how to express their perspectives and experiences, accessing the role of co-constructors of the social contexts of their experiences. Environments that enable position children as knowledge leaders and knowledge creators