Children's Standpoints on Rights: Through the Lens of Being 4

Author(s):

Deborah Harcourt(presenting / submitting)Solveig Hagglund

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

25. Research on Children's Rights in Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

25 SES 02, Implementation and Constructions of Children’s Rights: International Perspectives

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

15:15-16:45

Room:

A-205

Chair:

Ann Quennerstedt

Contribution

Children’s rights have been studied from several perspectives. The implementation of children’s rights has been argued in a corpus of seminal works that have sought to problematise ways in which rights may be integrated and visible with a particular focus on children’s participation. There has also been research undertaken in the areas of policy, democratic practice and methodological considerations, particularly in the field of early childhood education. Although the obligation to realize children’s rights has been repeatedly argued in the literature, there are few, if any, studies that have started with rights from the child standpoint. An on-going Australian-Swedish study on young children’s self-constructed rights, as seen through the lens of their everyday experiences of life, is currently being explored. This paper will present some of the significant early findings around a potential disjunction between rhetorical rights and lived rights. The authors will argue that the implementation and action around children’s rights should be positioned as a bottom-up perspective, rather than constrained to the UNCRC Articles.

Method

Children must be afforded the opportunity to demonstrate their competence as research participants in all aspects of the research enterprise, including the design of data collection tools, unbiased representation, data analysis and dissemination. Using collaborative and participatory methods respects children’s developing capacity to authentically engage with the representation of their ideas and opinions. Validating the research data through seeking children’s input during the analysis ensures that the power imbalance often evident in the interpretation of data is considered (Morrow, 2005). When the research is ready for reporting and dissemination, the researcher holds an ethical and moral obligation to ensure that children and their views are respectfully presented and the focus is on children’s competence as research participants, upholding the image of the child as a trustworthy and skilled informant. In this pilot examination, two early childhood settings were invited to participate in the study, one setting a middle-sized city in the south west of Sweden and one setting in a coastal region of south east Queensland, Australia. Approximately 30 4-5 year old children participated. The methods drawn upon to document the children’s experiences and ideas were those employed as everyday communication strategies by the children in expressing their understandings of the world around them. These included drawings, narratives and conversations with a purpose.

Expected Outcomes

In the dialogues, the children recognized themselves, individually and collectively, as persons with valuable knowledge. They regarded their experiences of rights, not only as worth talking about but also as worth disseminating to others. By writing a book on rights (Harcourt, 2012), their knowledge can be useful also for others. This can be seen as an illustration of children’s perception of themselves as subjects of rights. Secondly, rights in the view of the children seemed to be linked with action, with a preparedness to act accordingly to own and others´ rights. When disagreeing to the way resting time was organised and, when formulating a letter to children in need, the children expressed rights as being linked with their own possibility to act. This may be seen as an expression of their view on themselves as rights agents and rights actors. Finally, when discussing rights and its meanings, the children embedded the concept in terms of relationships with other people. Parents, teachers and other children were almost always involved in their thoughts and reflexions. This may be a reminder of the fact that lived participatory rights, not only for children but for all human beings do have strong and necessary links with belonging and togetherness.

References

Brighouse, H. (2002) What rights (If any) do children have? In D. Archardand C. Macleod (eds.) The moral and political status of children. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 31-52. Carr, M., May, H., & Podmore, V. (2002). Learning and teaching stories: Action research on evaluation in early childhood in Aotearoa-New Zealand. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 10(2), 115-126. Cocks, A. (2006). The ethical maze: Finding an inclusive path towards gaining children’s agreement to research participation. Childhood, 13(2), May, 247-266 Cook-Sather, A. (2002). Authorizing Students' Perspectives. Educational Researcher, 31(4), 3-14.Dockett, S., & Perry, B. (2003). Children’s views and children’s voices in starting school. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 28(1), 12-17. Hagglund, S. (2009) Barn, rättigheter och medborgarskap. Några tankar om medborgarskap som status och som praktik. /Children, rights and citizenship. Some thoughts on citizenship as status and as practice/ In A.-M. Markström, M. Simonsson, I. Söderlind, E. Änggård (red) Barn, barndom och föräldraskap. Stockholm: Carlssons bokförlag. Pp. 81-104. Author (2012) Harcourt, D., & Conroy, H. (2011). Informed consent: Processes and procedures in seeking research partnerships with children. In D. Harcourt, B.Perry & T. Waller (Eds). Young children’s perspectives: Ethics, theory and research (pp. 38-51). Harcourt, D., & Keen, D. (2012). Learner engagement: Has the child been lost in translation? Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(3), 71-77. Katz, L. (1992). Early childhood programs: Multiple perspectives on quality. Childhood Education, Winter, 66-71.

Author Information

Deborah Harcourt (presenting / submitting)

Australian Catholic University

Early Childhood Education

Buderim

Solveig Hagglund

Karlstad University

Faculty of Arts and Education

Karlstad

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