Children’s Self-determination in the Context of Early Childhood Education and Services: Discourses, Policies and Practices

Description

This book investigates the position of young children’s self-determination within a range of social contexts, such as education, social care, mass-media, health, politics, law and the family. It brings to the fore the voices of the children in the present, with their interests, agendas and rights. Based on original primary research, the chapters tackle hegemonic discourses on children’s self-determination as well as current policies and practices. They address a broad range of topics, from the planning of role-play to national policies, from the use of digital technologies for pedagogy to children’s health and well-being, and from democratic practices in the classroom to the preservation of traditional family values. The book presents case studies to unravel how childhood and young children’s self-determination are constructed at the intersection with intergenerational relationships. Coming from different disciplines and using a diverse range of methodological traditions, the contributions in the volume eventually converge to generate a rich, complex and multi-layered analysis of contemporary cultures of childhood and young children’s rights. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction (Federico Farini, Angela Scollan)....Pages 1-20 Front Matter ....Pages 21-21 Practices/1, Italy: Facilitating Participation in Early Childhood Education (Claudio Baraldi)....Pages 23-36 Practices/2, Japan: The Exploration of Four-Year-Olds Potential: Focusing the Democratic Meeting During the Sports Festival Day (Yuta Miyamoto)....Pages 37-50 Practices/3, Finland: A Collective Method of Early Childhood Self-Determination (Leif Rosqvist, Jarmo Kinos)....Pages 51-62 Practices/4, United Kingdom: Finding the Voice of Children. Video-Observation to Discover Children’s Claims of Knowledge Through Play (Sarah Vipond)....Pages 63-76 Practices/5, Kazakhstan: Keeping It Real: Making Space for Play in Early Education Policy and Practice (Martin Needham)....Pages 77-91 Practices/6, United States of America: Hybrid-Transitions as a Space for Children’s Agency. A Case-Study from a Pre-kindergarten in Boston (Angela Scollan)....Pages 93-105 Practices/7, Wales: Foregrounding Relationships in Classroom Practices Framing Children’s Learning: Case Studies from Two Primary School Classrooms in Wales (Carolyn Morris)....Pages 107-123 Practices/8, New Zealand: Attentive Encounters: Infant and Toddler Participation in an Early Childhood Community (Iris Duhn)....Pages 125-134 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 Discourses/1, Australia: Whose Rights? The Child’s Right to Be Heard in the Context of the Family and the Early Childhood Service: An Australian Early Childhood Perspective (Fay Hadley, Elizabeth Rouse)....Pages 137-149 Discourses/2. Ireland: Listening to Children’s Voices in Irish Social Work through Cultural and Organisational Filters (Angela Scollan, Eileen McNeill)....Pages 151-167 Discourses/3. Kenya: Challenging Negative Perceptions around the ‘African Child’ (Evelyn Wandia Corrado, Leena Helavaara Robertson)....Pages 169-186 Discourses/4. Brazil: Accessing the Rights of Children with Disabilities: Attitudes Towards and Challenges for SEND in Brazil (Clare O’Donoghue)....Pages 187-203 Discourses/5. Mexico: Children’s Rights in Mexico Analysis of a Legal and Policy Framework (Miguel Antonio Santillan Torres Torija, Carolina Santillan Torres Torija)....Pages 205-214 Discourses/6. England: The Position of Children’s Rights in the Discourse on Citizenship. The Case of the Early Years Foundation Stage for England (Federico Farini)....Pages 215-230 Discourses/7. New Zealand: “I Have a New Taiaha”: Learning New Ways to Advocate for the Rights of Mokopuna Māori (Sarah Te One, Marlene Welsh-Sauni)....Pages 231-246 Discourses/8, China: Children’s Participation Rights in Chinese Early Childhood Education: A Critical Investigation of Policy and Research (Fengling Tang)....Pages 247-265 As a Conclusion, to the Future: A Discussion on Trust, Agency and the Semantics of Rights in Intergenerational Relationships (Federico Farini)....Pages 267-280 Back Matter ....Pages 281-284