One of the points we discussed was that researchers on rights, democracy and participation often do not discuss or articulate the adult’s role in providing information and guidance for young children to form their views and helping them to exercise their rights.
There was a presenter at EECERA (Diana Sousa, University of Winchester) who insisted that democracy cannot be taught, only experienced. I however question the notion that children somehow “pick up” and understand democracy and rights through the environment, routines and interactions without any need for direct engagement with the topic or co-construction of democracy and rights with adults. I actually believe that affordances are not enough. I cannot see how children can try to claim and exercise their rights if they don’t know what rights they have and I doubt they can understand rights and democracy simply through “osmosis” or affordances alone. This is integral to my theoretical framework. As I said in my EECERA presentation, I am looking to develop an understanding of rights based pedagogy based on participation, guidance and influence that helps transform practice using the UNCRC as a frame of reference.
