My particular interest is in child's rights. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has been an important guiding document in my own practice and research. In my PhD study, that I did at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) and Birmingham City University, I researched the very young child's rights (under-threes) in early childhood, in settings in England and Finland, two countries with very distinct histories of engagement with children’s rights.

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My PhD Study

Much research on children’s rights has focused on legal theory and the implementation of the UNCRC at a national level, with limited research on how children’s rights can actually be implemented in practice (Reynaert et al., 2009). Bridging theory and practice therefore became fundamental to my study. I have developed a 5-level theoretical framework, based on Walker and Avant’s (1989) approach to theory construction, linking theory to practice, to bridge this gap in knowledge and understanding on how children’s rights can be implemented in early childhood practice, with children under three in particular. 

 

Research Question

My central research question was: What does child rights pedagogy entail in early childhood education?

 

I was particularly interested in exploring how the UNCRC can be used as a frame of reference in early childhood in order to guide pedagogical practice. 

 

Research Design

My study was an instrumental, collective, case study in line with Robert Stake’s (1995) understanding of case study research. Although not a phenomenological study per se, it was much inspired by phenomenology. I used van Manen's five lifeworld existentials  (van Manen 1997; 2014) to structure observations. Kraus’ (2013, 2015) reformulation of the phenomenological term lifeworld (Lebenswelt) was used as well as his interpretation of the concept of life conditions (Lebenslage) to frame interpretations. To this I added the concept of life interactions (Lebensinteraktion) (Cole-Albäck, 2019) in order to get a deeper more nuanced and relational understanding of children’s lived experiences.

 

I also analysed documents, carried out audio-visual recordings, interviews and held conversations with parents. The most interesting about my methods was the development and use of an approach in line with the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1954), to identify what I call Significant Events in children’s everyday life, as representing issues, priorities or concerns young early verbal children have. Through my thematic analysis, in line with Braun and Clarke (2006), I looked at how these events are related to the UNCRC. Issues, interests, and concerns observed, but not identified as Articles in the UNCRC I reconceptualised and formulated as value statements drawing on the concept of rights bundling, as described by sociologist Mark Frezzo (2015).

 

Discussion

I am suggesting we need to reconceptualise how we work with children’s rights in early childhood, as I discovered through my data that there were some Articles that were more significant or relevant than others when working with very young children. Just as the Convention as a whole has 4 General Principles for children 0-18, I am suggesting there are Articles or rights that can be seen as more relevant for working from a participatory child rights perspective in early childhood. I call these Articles Guiding Articles.

 

This study illustrates how the UNCRC can be used as a frame of reference in early childhood settings, in order to influence pedagogical practice and improve respect for children’s rights and very young children’s experiences of rights in early childhood education.