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Dr. Adair is a national expert on early childhood education, children's agency, and community-centered, large-scale approaches to educational research. She studies how injustice impacts children's learning experiences, and what adults, systems, and institutions can do to support the intelligence and capability expansion of all young children.

Coming December 2026

Smart and Capable 

Supporting Children's Agency

in a Complex World

Published by Beacon Press and distributed by Penguin Random House

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Reviews

“Smart and Capable is a powerful, rigorously researched invitation to recognize children—especially those too often controlled or pathologized—as imaginative, agentic human beings who deserve safety, complexity, and freedom. I highly recommend this book for anyone committed to creating the conditions for young people to thrive.”
—Dr. Dena Simmons, author, scholar, and founder of LiberatED

Want to know more about children's agency?

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Visit the Agency and Young Children Research Collective

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