Environments: tools of the educational trade or networked spaces of learning? Reflections at the intersection between learning environments and intergenerational relationships

This article discusses the concept of environments that enable as networked social spaces structured by expectations of personal expression, equal positioning of adults and children, and empowerment of children. The article critically compares environments that enable with the concept of enabling environment promoted by the English curriculum for Early Years education. The latter is disentangled from its underpinning adult-centric vision that approaches the environment as an educational tool that competent adults can utilise to achieve curricular goals, enabling children’s learning.

In the second part of the article, the coevolution of enabling environments and trust on expertise on the one hand, and the coevolution of environments that enable and personal trust on the other hand are discussed, arguing that the type of trust underpinning adults-children interactions may signal the ontological status of children vis-à-vis an intergenerational order.

The final section of the article approaches environments that enable as networked social spaces where expectations of children’s agency are promoted, thus contributing to the transformation of the structures of intergenerational order. The concept of environments that enable is contextualised in the discourse on children’s agency, investigating the social conditions that make it viable, with a focus on facilitation as a form of communication that can support personal trust. Personal trust positions persons and expectations of personal contributions as the main references for communication, rather than roles and expectations of standardised performances: in the conclusion of the article, personal trust is approached as foundation for processes of intergenerational learning characterising environments that enable.