The purpose of this thesis was to investigate perceptions of young children’s rights in
early childhood settings and contribute to the expanding discourse about children’s
rights. The research focus canvassed teachers’, parents’, and young children’s
perceptions of their rights in early childhood settings: How did they understand
children’s rights, and what did these perceptions mean for them in the early
childhood settings they participated in?
A qualitative, interpretive approach to the research generated data through interviews
with young children, teachers, and adults, focus groups with the adult participants,
and observations of day-to-day life in the three case study centres. The early
childhood centres selected represented three mainstream services and included a
teacher-led crèche for under-two-year-olds, a sessional state, teacher-led
kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds, and a parent-led playcentre for mixed
ages from birth to six years old. NVIVO, a qualitative data classifying computer
program, was used initially to sort and categorise the data alongside more
conventional methods for coding categories and identifying emerging themes.
The research found that perceptions of children’s rights were interwoven,
interrelated, and interdependent. Provision rights, protections rights, and
participation rights are recognised categories of children’s rights. These categories
were used to foreground participants’ perceptions of rights in particular early
childhood settings. Findings suggest that more in-depth awareness of children’s
rights in early childhood settings would support the development of a children’s
rights-based pedagogy.
This thesis potentially contributes to a growing body of international research about
children’s rights with a particular focus on the early childhood sector in New Zealand
Aotearoa. The contribution that this thesis makes is both theoretical and sociological.
It combines sociocultural constructs and ecological perspective with an international
human rights convention to understand more clearly what children’s rights mean in
an early childhood sector. The study of childhood sociology is relatively new and
challenges universal definitions of childhood and child. This thesis highlights how
different conceptual theoretical ideas intersect with diverse sociological constructs.
The broad conclusion drawn by this thesis is that for children to participate fully in
their early education, the ethos of the community of practice/learners must explicate
what that participation entails in a particular context.