Colilles, S 
ORCID: 0009-0008-1104-315X, Pascal, C and Bertram, T
(2026)
'A funds of knowledge approach to explore how play-based pedagogies support mixed ethnic identity formation: listening to children’s perspectives.'
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.
doi: 10.1080/1350293X.2026.2640023
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Abstract
Ideologies in educational research focused on the experiences of mixed ethnic children, and the importance of mediating tools of language (fundamental in Vygotskian thinking), fail to incorporate the unique contributions and agentic ways in which this group of children choose to share ‘knowledge'. What appears to be missing in discourse is the child's perspective on how they choose to categorise their mixed ethnic identity. Building upon sociocultural theorisation to respond to the research question: what are the key influences on mixed ethnic children's ability to relate to and connect constructs about their ethnic identity in an early years setting? This article contends that identity development employing children's perspectives enables educators to acknowledge and respond to their unique personal identities. Created are opportunities to validate insights about how children choose to co-construct and ascribe meaning to their mixed origins. Aligned with empowerment and development of self-efficacy, praxeological methods utilise play-based experiences to generate data for accessing children's ‘voices’. Drawing on the preferences of children who can identify with more than one racial group, findings reveal mixed ethnic children use new emergent terminologies of brown, light brown and whiteish with established societal classifications of black and white interchangeably in their dialogic conversations.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| UN SDGs: | Goal 4: Quality Education |
| Keywords: | funds of knowledge, mixed ethnicity, play pedagogy, children’s perspectives, socio-cultural theory |
| Divisions: | School of Education |
| Research Centres and Groups: | Centre for Research in Equity, Inclusion and Community (CREIC) |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Mar 2026 11:34 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Mar 2026 11:34 |
| ISSN: | 1350-293X |
| URN: | https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/17620 |
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