Pedagogical constructions of young children’s participative rights across initial teacher education and professional learning in Wales

Clement, Jennie; Chicken, Sarah; Tyrie, Jacky; Alison, Murphy; Jane, Williams; Jane, Waters-Davies; Louisa, Roberts; Georgia, Fee

Abstract

This research aims to understand to what extent programmes within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and wider Professional Learning (PL), support the Welsh Government vision for pedagogic practice that embeds young children's participative rights within education. This sits within a wider ESRC funded project, which is attending to the challenge of transitioning young children's participative rights policy into educational practice. To date, wider literature demonstrates the prominence of children’s rights in Welsh devolved law and policy (Williams, 2022), but a varied understanding of participation across early years practitioners working in Wales (Murphy et al., 2022). Drawing on Tibbet’s (2002; 2017) three models of Human Rights Education (HRE), this paper categorises the teaching of young children’s participative rights across ITE and PL as either taking a Values and Awareness, Accountability or Activism approach. Conducted within an interpretivist research paradigm (Lincoln, 2010), this paper draws on qualitative questionnaire data from both ITE and PL providers across Wales. All participants gave voluntary, informed consent before undertaking the questionnaire and all data was anonymous at the point of collection. Tibbet’s (2002; 2017) models of HRE allowed for a critical reflection on where in ITE and PL programmes knowledge about children’s participative rights sit and how participatory pedagogic practices are developed. Moving forward, giving explicit recognition as to how programmes across ITE and PL in Wales support pedagogic practice which embeds young children's participative rights is important, as they provide a significant bridge between policy rhetoric and educational practice.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: EECERA
• Start Date: Aug 29, 2023
• End Date: Sep 2, 2023
• Deposit Date: May 9, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Keywords: Children’s Participative rights, Initial Teacher Education, Professional Learning, Early Years Education, Wales.
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10770839
• Related Public URLs: https://2023.eeceraconference.org/