Session Information
25 SES 01, Children’s Rights in Pre-School, Early Childhood and Out of School Contexts
Paper Session
Contribution
Polish preschools are required to abide by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when planning and carrying out their daily work. They all claim to be doing so (as reflected in bylaws or statements put on bulletin boards), and to be child-oriented and treat children as individuals whose interests and needs have to be recognized. However, everyday practice casts doubt on such declarations. From schedules and specific activities to nap and meal times, teachers tend to determine what happens in the preschool with children having little say on issues that concern them – quite contrary to what the UN CRC stipulates. The research project that my paper will be based on aims, first, at detailing children’s participation in defining the shape of the preschool. Are children consulted at all about preschool everyday life? What specifically are they allowed to decide about, and what is beyond their decision-making power? How does it change from one place to another (especially when social class is a factor), and depend on children’s age? Do children think they have any influence on what is happening in a preschool? What input would they like to have in shaping their preschool experiences? Second, the project aims at exploring teachers’ attitudes toward children’s participation, and identifying main obstacles that prevent them from granting children more decision-making power. The assumption is that working through these obstacles will be instrumental in increasing children’s participation. Finally, by rendering current preschool practices visible and encouraging teachers to challenge them, the project intends to develop ways to enable children’s larger participation, ultimately making preschool a more democratic place.
The project was inspired by the “Democracy and Attitudes in Kindergartens” project carried out by kindergartens in Denmark, England, Sweden and Norway, whose aim was to develop awareness of the importance of democracy in early childhood education. Theoretically, it draws on the recognition of preschool as (1) a place of power operation, where discourses circulate and children and teachers are made into specific subjects; (2) a site of political practice, driven by specific ideologies and understandings. As writers such as Dahlberg, Moss, Pence or Petrie emphasize, preschools in Europe are increasingly being organized as places where technical practice dominates and that aim at producing – in a factory-like mode – subjects who will be well adapted to the neoliberal reality of capitalist states. However, preschools can also be sites of democratic practice, yet this requires systematic and conscious reflection on one’s own practice (as typical of, for instance, the Reggio Emilia approach) and the readiness to relinquish the idea of a teacher/adult as a competent knower and decision-maker, and a child as weak and to be directed. The project that my paper will draw on intends to create conditions for working through teachers’ constructions and fears and trying out alternative solutions that would entail taking children’s views seriously.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Clark, A. (2005), Ways of seeing: using the Mosaic approach to listen to young children's perspectives. In A. Clark, A.T. Kjørholt and P. Moss (eds.), Beyond Listening. Children's Perspectives on Early Childhood Services. Bristol: The Polity Press. Dahlberg, G. and Moss, P. (2005), Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Dahlberg, G., Moss, P. and Pence, A. (2007), Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care. Languages of Evaluation. London: Falmer Press. Eide, B. J. and Winger, N. (2005), From the Children's Point of View: Methodological and Ethical Challenges. In A. Clark, A.T. Kjørholt and P. Moss (eds.), Beyond Listening. Children's Perspectives on Early Childhood Services. Bristol: The Polity Press. Foucault, M. (1982), The Subject and Power. In H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Foucault, M. (2003), Technologies of the Self. In P. Rabinow and N. Rose (eds.), The Essential Foucault. Selections of the Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984. New York: The New Press. Katz, L. (1998), What Can We Learn from Reggio Emilia? W: C. Edwards, L. Gandini i G. Forman (red.), The Hundred Languages of Children. Westport: Ablex. Mac Naughton, L. (2005), Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies. Applying Poststructuralist Ideas. London: Routledge. Malaguzzi, L. (1993), History. Ideas and Basic Philosophy. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini and G. Forman (eds,), The Hundred Languages of Children. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Moss, P. (2007), Bringing Politics into the Nursery. Early Childhood Education as a Democratic Practice. Working Paper 43. Bernard van Leer Foundation: The Hague. Moss, P. and Petrie, P. (2002), From Children’s Services to Children’s Spaces. Public Policy, Children and Childhood. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Rinaldi, C. (2006), In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia. Listening, Researching and Learning. London and New York: Routledge.
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