Reconceptualising Shier’s pathways to participation with infants: listening and responding to the views of infants in their encounters with curriculum

Much has been written about affording young children (including infants) rights to participate in matters that affect them. In particular, most early childhood curriculum guides that include infants, reflect contemporary images of infants as powerful learners, capable of contributing to their own and others learning. While these strong images of capable children may sit comfortably with curriculum approaches for older preschoolers, there is less clarity about how infants might have their agency and rights to be participants in curriculum honoured. This chapter presents three narratives, developed as part of a case study considering infants’ encounters with curriculum. Drawing on the Levinasian idea of encounter (Levinas, Time and the other. Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, 1987), these narratives are an attempt to get closer to infants’ perspectives and illuminate the ways in which these infants propose their learning agendas and invite others into the encounter. The narratives suggest that infants’ contributions and key signals about their interests and ambitions for learning can be easily overlooked. As a way of overcoming these oversights, Shier’s (Child Soc 15(2):107–117, 2001) principles of participation are considered as a possible framework for listening to infants and fostering their participation rights in curriculum. A reconceptualising of these principles, based on insights gleaned from the narratives, provides new ways of thinking about infants as protagonists and partners in their curriculum encounters. This chapter will invite conversations about hidden, silenced and overlooked aspects of the curriculum experience for infants and provide a framework for considering how infants rights to have a say in curriculum might be honoured.