Session Information
25 SES 08, Participation, Power and Place
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
The base for this paper is the Convention on the Rights of the Child and preschool children’s rights to participation. The latest version of the Swedish curriculum for the preschool (Lpfö98, rev 2010) states that the child should have possibilities to have an influence over her/his situation and that the preschool teacher has a professional responsibility to see to that this is accomplished. In Europe, the implementation of the CRC has gradually been established in educational practice, but still there is a substantial lack of knowledge about theoretical underpinnings of conditions and outcomes (Hägglund & Thelander, 2011).
The aim of this study is to describe young children’s participatory rights, in particular as understood from the view of language and communication as presented by Merleau-Ponty (1973).
Participation is a complex phenomenon. Bae (2009) highlights the need of a critical reflection on relevant concepts to understand preschool children’s right to participate. Children’s formal rights, such as their right to make choices, are just one aspect of participation. Other relevant aspects are pedagogues attitudes towards children and children’s own understanding of participation, wich are described by, for example, Johansson (2005) and Sheridan and Pramling Samuelsson (2001). Bae (2009) argues for participation as a part of everyday interaction. She describes the current research development as a process from a more instrumental towards a more “lived” perspective on participation. I agree with Baes perspective and consider this text as a contribution to the discussion of the concept of participation for young children. How can a “lived” participation be described?
Preschool children’s rights to participation are often associated with different actions. There are other aspects that are important for the experience of participation, for example, the experience of belonging to and being part of a group of children. Participation includes being, not just doing. How can a life-world perspective contribute to a deeper understanding of participation as doing and being?
In phenomenology human beings are regarded as always creating meaning. To Merleau-Ponty (2002), man is an intentional corporeal subject. We create meaning instantaneously, both when we perceive and when we act. I am interested in preschool teachers’ everyday interaction with children. How can we understand preschool teachers’ actions as creating meaning on children’s participation? And how can we understand the children’s actions as a part of this joint creating of meaning?
I am inspired by the view of language that Merleau-Ponty (1973) represents. He argues that language is like a web woven by those who use it. Talking and communication doesn’t have a direction from one person to another; we are all in the middle of it. From this perspective you can describe important aspects of participation. Participation can be seen as how each person, teachers and children, takes part in and makes a difference to the joint experiencing of participation. Participation is here understood as something that is both formed and manifested in the interaction between the preschool teachers and the children.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bae, Berit (2009). Children’s right to participate: Challenges in everyday interactions. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 17:3, 391-406 Hägglund, S. & Thelander, N. (2011). Children’s rights at 21: policy, theory, practice. Introductory remarks. Education Inquiry. Vol 2, No.3, September 2011, pp.365-371. Johansson, E. (2005) Möten för lärande : pedagogisk verksamhet för de yngsta barnen i förskolan. Stockholm : Myndigheten för skolutveckling. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). Interrogation and intuition. In M. Mearleau-Ponty, The visible and the invisible: Followed by working notes (C. Lefort, Ed., pp. 105-129). Evanston: Northern University Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1973). The prose of the world (C. Lefort, Ed.). Evanston: NorthernUniversity Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge Sheridan, S., and Pramling Samuelsson, I. 2001. Children’s conceptions of participation and influence in preschool. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 2, no. 2, 164–94. Van Manen, M. (1997). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy (2nd ed.). Ontario: The Althouse Press.
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