Being borderless: A Baradian analysis of agency and early literacy in Vietnam’s early childhood education context

This qualitative study explores how agential realism can reframe understandings of early literacy and agency in Vietnam’s digital childhoods. It examines the entangled intra-actions of a 5-year-old Vietnamese child, Dat, with digital media, materials, spaces, and institutional discourses across home and early childhood education (ECE) settings. Data were gathered through observations, fieldnotes, video recordings, and interviews with teachers and parents over 8 weeks and analysed through an agential realist lens. Findings suggest that agency and early literacy experiences were not solely individual capabilities but were materially and discursively produced through dynamic engagements with digital encounters, classroom routines, spatial arrangements, and adult expectations. By situating agential realism in a Global South context, this study contributes to debates on early literacy and digital childhoods beyond the Global North and highlights possibilities for rethinking agency and pedagogy in Vietnamese ECE.