Session Information
25 SES 06, Cross Cultural Perspectives on Children’s Rights: Sweden / Australia; Switzerland / Germany
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
This paper aims to provide further examination on ways in which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child (United Nations, 1989) is being upheld in early childhood education in Australia and Sweden. Using examples from the data generated with children from two early childhood settings, one in Australia and one in Sweden, the paper will discuss and explore the beliefs and observed enactments of teachers and the lived experiences of children. We seek to learn how consideration is being given to the general mandates of the UNCRC and where the mandates are positioned and enacted in the over arching curriculum frameworks for early childhood education in both countries (Early Years Learning Framework (DEEWR, 2009); Swedish National Curriculum for Preschool (LpFo98, rev. sid. 2010).
This paper’s objectives are to:
1. Examine international law and public policy in relation to a commitment to action regarding children’s rights
2. Examine the public policy and pedagogical practices that enable the enactment of children’s rights in early childhood education
3. Explore and discuss young children’s lived experience of their rights in early childhood settings in Australia and Sweden
4. Suggest from observational data what a rights based pedagogy “looks and feels like” in practice
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (United Nations, 1989) is widely regarded by the international community as the most comprehensive statement on children's rights and provides a foundation for developing policies and practice about children.
By ratifying the UNCRC (1989), a country undertakes legal obligations to accord children their rights and therefore has a moral, ethical and legal imperative to enact these rights. Human rights cannot be of benefit to people unless people are aware of them. Article 42 of the UNCRC asserts that governments are obligated to make the Convention known ‘by appropriate and active means’ to all adults and children. This means that governments should make available the Convention’s principles and provisions to all sectors of the population, including incorporating the Convention into school curricula and, into the training of all those who work with/for children. As a result of the research project that informs this paper, we now recognize that that political, cultural and professional contexts impact greatly on the intended outcomes in research of this nature.
Sweden has a highly developed view of the child based on democratic values, which gives respect for the child as a person in its own right and a belief in the child´s inherent skills and potential. As childhood is regarded as having value in itself, the early childhood years are viewed as of great importance in the child´s growing understanding of self, as they are in Australia. However, unlike Australia, Swedish prior-to-school and formal school settings are making a concerted effort to give children influence and encourage their participation in decision-making processes (ibid). This may not be, as we have discovered, quite as rosy a picture as first thought.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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