An Inferentialist Reading of Play: Agency as Self-Determination
Sarah Oatney-Weiler (UCL)

Notwithstanding the extensive 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. Drawing upon a Vygotskian framework, this seminar introduces inferentialist resources to discuss children’s agency in terms of rules and their relationship to concept development. Brandom’s inferentialism offers the possibility of a more fine-grained account of rules as norms governing the application of concepts. This perspective allows for a detailed exploration of how the interdependence of rules and concepts can be mobilised to facilitate the development of children’s agency in play.

Sarah Oatney-Weiler is a long-time educator with a PhD in Education from the Institute of Education at University College London, an M.A. in Global Education from the University of Illinois and an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. She has studied and worked as a school leader across three continents: North America, Europe and South America. Throughout her career she has taught from preschool to high school and lectured at the university level. She has published several articles and book chapters about education and has presented at conferences internationally.