The 21st Century has seen multiple socioeconomic and geopolitical changes and crises that have impacted children’s lives. A global pandemic (COVID-19), wars and climate changes have led to increased disruption, displacement, exploitation (e.g., digital threats to privacy and safety online), violence and poverty (Eisenstadt et al., 2019). These issues affect all children, especially those from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds (SDBs) (UNICEF 2021, Loopstra et al., 2019) and are an ongoing violation of their human rights.  

Since 1998, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has driven implementation of children’s rights worldwide, leading to researchers and policymakers examining how children can access their rights. To date research examining children’s rights (e.g., Michell, Lundy & Hill, 2023), has either focused on older children (seven+) (Tyrie and Beachamp 2018) or on participation within school decision making related to Article 12 in particular.  Less attention has been paid to children’s perspectives on broader rights. Furthermore, research on the experiences and accessibility to rights of children under five years is limited (Correia et al, 2019, Urbina-Garcia et al. 2022) and it is this gap that this research project seeks to address for three- to five-year-olds.

Moreover, public opinion, policies and laws in England and Wales are converging in support of assuring self-determination rights for children to validate their person status. To do so responsibly an appropriate balance between protection and self-determination rights must be achieved for children at every point in their development, no matter their socio-economic background.  To determine and support this balance will require the existence of (a) empirical evidence of need and readiness for various protection and self-determination opportunities throughout the developmental period, (b) a broadly supported positive ideology of the child and (c) the active involvement of children in establishing their needs and rights.  However, this involvement is problematic in disadvantaged socio-economic areas across UK.  

The rights of children within educational settings are well acknowledged within the literature (e.g. Quennerstedt, 2016), and in the last 20 years much work has been undertaken in Human Rights Education (e.g.  Robinson at al. 2020).  Limited research focuses on the convergence between younger children’s rights (within education and in their everyday lives), however, and their experiences of socioeconomically deprivation. This research focuses, therefore, on the intersectionality between the two marginalised characteristics; younger children (3–5-year-olds) and socio-economic deprivation and seeks to evaluate how these impact access to rights. As discussed below, this is a three-year project that aims to:

1. gain an understanding of educators’ perspective of young children’s access to their rights (age 3-5) [Year 1],
2. to explore pedagogical practices that educators use (if any) to listen to young children about their rights [Year 1],
3. gain an understanding of young children’s experiences of their rights (age 3-5) in four urban regions affected by socio-economic deprivation in England and Wales [Year 2],
4. identify current practices of how children access their rights in practice and if any change is needed [Year 2],
5. investigate ways of amplifying and enacting change where needed through collaboration and co-production with key stakeholders and communities [Year 3].

This presentation is focusing on the first two research questions being examined in Year 1 and reports data from educators in two urban regions in England and Wales that are affected by socio-economic deprivation.

This project is driven by rights-based principles (rooted in UNCRC), has a conceptual framework of ‘child agency’ (James and Prout, 1997) and draws on Ecocultural Theory (Bernheimer et al., 1990). ‘Ecocultural Theory’ focuses on social phenomena within participants’ cultural settings and how families and communities construct meaning(s) of their circumstances. ‘[I]n ecocultural theory a critical unit of analysis is daily routines (or active settings) that are created and sustained by ecocultural focus’ (Bernheimer et al., 1990, p.221). Such lenses provide a framework that will enable us to understand how educators think, feel and act in certain ways, rather than homogenise voice(s). This theoretical framework enables us to understand the complexities of voice(s) of SDBs children and their families, as well as the multilayered meanings of their values and beliefs within their social spaces. This project is developed over multiple stages across three years: Stage 1: Exploring Educators’ perceptions (2024): This stage employs qualitative methodology and uses semi-structured interviews with educators in early childhood education, addressing research RQs 1 and 2 (see above). Currently, this stage is work in progress as we collect data from the educators. In the initial research stage (2024) the approach is a Case Study (Denscombe 2021) with two case study sites, one in Swansea (Wales) and one in Bristol (England). The sample population is educators from early childhood education in each city who are accessed via opportunity sample and approx. 10 educators (on going data collection at the time the abstract submitted) will take part, divided equally between the two case study sites. Stage 2: Understanding children’s perspectives (2025) Address RQs 3 and 4. Stage 3: Making change (2026) Address RQ 5. Stages 2 and 3 employ a combination of Participatory Action Research (PAR), case study and mixed methods research strategies (Denscombe 2021). During this period, we aim to work together with the children, caregivers and practitioner participants to examine children’s rights and to, where identified by participants, empower and support changes to rights access.

We consider this research is important both in the UK context and for other nations as in the last five years young children have grown and developed in a world of extraordinary change. This includes a global pandemic and a cost of living crisis, with evidence that 72 per cent of households go with without essentials and 58 per cent reporting not having enough money for food (UK Poverty 2024). Recent research has shown an exacerbation of social and educational inequalities for less privileged children and families (Baker and Bakopoulou, 2021). Thus, it is important to examine the educator’s perspectives and find out their perspectives on how young children from SDBs access their rights. As we are collecting data, final conclusions cannot yet be drawn, however expected themes are outline below: • Educators will unpick both their own understanding of rights for the children in their care, but also provide an insight into children’s experiences of rights (from their adult perspectives – the second stage of the research will explore the children’s perspective). • The data will draw out educators’ perceptions of the impact of socio-economic deprivation on children’s access to their rights. • We will examine educator’s views on how best to engage and research with 3–5-year-olds in their settings, to support the next steps of the research in 2025.

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