Children’s perspectives on quality in ECEC as a specific form of participation

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we want to present research on children’s perspectives in the context of participation. We emphasize that the survey of children's perspectives is a form of participation. We understand participation based on children’s rights. We refer to the Lundy model ([2007]. “‘Voice’ Is Not Enough: Conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.” British Educational Research Journal 33 (6): 927–942. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701657033), which emphasizes that it is not enough to simply ask children to speak their minds. Rather, they also need the experience that their views have an influence. In the discourse on quality in ECEC, children's perspectives became only recently the focus of extended research. In evaluation instruments, at least in Germany, the inclusion of children’s perspectives is rare. In the study presented here, these two aspects are brought together using the example of the evaluation instrument QuaSi. We describe how children's perspectives are taken into account in the evaluation and feedback process in contrast to everyday life in ECEC centres. It becomes clear that the collection of children's perspectives and their feedback to the pedagogues in the centre does not automatically lead to their views influencing the quality of the centre.

KEYWORDS:

• Participation
• children’s perspectives
• quality in ECEC
• children’s rights
• power dynamics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We choose to use the German expression Kita. It is short for ‘Kindertageseinrichtung’ and actually the most common word for ECEC settings in Germany. Kitas cater for children from two months of age until their change into primary school, when they are about 6 or 7 years old. Not every child goes to Kita and many children start Kita at the age of one or two years old.

2 Pedagogues, leader, provider, children and parents.

Additional information

Funding

As part of the EDIT project at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, this work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.