Young Children’s Participation

What does it mean for young children to participate? How do you listen and respond to children in your own practice and within your setting? This text provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to children’s participative rights in the context of education and care. It supports early years students and practitioners to understand the implications for practice of the participative rights embedded in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It also considers the tensions that exist when trying to realise these rights in practice. Exploring the key concepts, debates, and participation in practice with children at different ages and stages, the chapters cover:

• The policy context for participative rights
• Models of participation
• Voice and being heard
• Participation and the social construction of the child
• Spaces for participation
• Agency and participation
• Measuring participation
• International contexts for child participation

Supported by case studies and examples, this is an essential text for practitioners and students on early childhood studies and early years degree courses, as well as those working in early childhood settings or studying as post-graduates.

Jacky Tyrie is Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and Programme Director on the MA Childhood Studies at Swansea University, UK.

Jane Waters is Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK.