Anne B. Smith

Children's Participation Rights in Research:

This article explores childrens participation in research, from the perspectives of researchers who have conducted research with children. Researchers reports, gained using an email interviewing method, suggest that childrens participation rights are particularly compromised when the potential child participants are considered vulnerable and the topic of the research is regarded as sensitive. Such perceptions result in stringent gatekeeping procedures that prevent some children from participating in research. This article concludes that children should be viewed, not as vulnerable passive victims, but as social actors who can play a part in the decision to participate in research. Such a view would result in more careful attention to communicating effectively with children about research, and ensuring that they may have a more central role in decision-making about participation.

Children and Young People's Participation Rights in Education

The paper outlines a new orientation towards constructing childhood arising out of childrens rights discourse, sociology of childhood and sociocultural theory. Children have traditionally lacked voice and visibility, but slowly a recognition of childrens role as social actors who are active co-constructors of meaning and experts on childhood is emerging. The paper looks at how the childhood studies paradigm highlights the importance of participation rights for children and young people. The paper describes how these theoretical paradigms are being reflected in educational policy and practice. It analyses examples of research and practice on how children are encouraged and supported to be active participants and social actors in their early childhood, primary and secondary education settings. The paper argues that having participation rights and being a citizen are part of an ongoing learning process, and that what happens in educational settings give meaning to childrens understanding of what it is to be an active and involved citizen. This paper examines the application of the new paradigm of childrens studies to the development of policy and practice relating to childrens participation rights in education. Theory and research is used to develop a framework for the principles of effective participation, and then an example at each level (early childhood, primary and secondary) of how these principles have been put into practice in education analysed.

Children’s perspectives on their learning: exploring methods

This paper reports on efforts to access four‐year‐old children’s perspectives on their learning experiences. Interviews with children in various contexts were carried out using photographs of recent activities to stimulate discussion and recall. Small group interviews with a researcher or teacher; one‐to‐one interviews between researcher and child; researcher interviews with target child and a friend; researcher interviews with target child and a parent; and informal conversations between a researcher and child in the context of play and activities were the varying methods used. All contexts elicited useful information on children’s perspectives, although the focus groups were difficult to manage. Photographs were an effective way of locating the conversation in the child’s experience and adults were able to provide a supportive framework to encourage children to interpret their interests and involvement in learning. Children’s perspectives are an important source of information about what engages them in learning and why.

Quality Childcare and Joint Attention

Abstract This study examined the experiences of infants and toddlers in New Zealand child care centres to evaluate whether they provided opportunities for learning in the context of shared attention. One hundred childcare centres througough New Zealand comprised the centre sample. Running records were carried out on 200 under 2‐year‐old children (99 boys and 101 girls, two children from each centre) for 20 minutes each. Two hundred and thirty six episodes of sustained joint attention were observed during running records, most commonly during object/toy related play, but also at a relatively high level during caregiving routines, book/picture related activities, messy creative activities and large motor play. A third of all children in the study participated in no joint attention episodes at all. Just over half (51.3%) of episodes were child‐initiated and just under half were adult‐initiated. Centres with no joint attention episodes scored significantly lower on the Assessment Profile Infant Score and cent...

Taking Students Seriously: Their Rights To Be Safe at School.

In a broader study of students rights at school, high school students in New Zealand were asked about whether gay/lesbian/bisexual students would feel safe at their school. Data are reported from a nationwide survey of 107 high schools involving 821 students (aged 15-16 years) and 438 staff who responded to a questionnaire. The article focuses on how students and staff describe attitudes to lesbian/gay/bisexual students, and identifies the most prevalent discourses, including a counter-discourse of acceptance. Although attention to a discourse of acceptance risks the effect of undermining the implications of extreme violence against lesbian/gay/bisexual students, it also challenges the pervasive construction of lesbian/gay/bisexual students as victims. The authors argue that attention to discourses of acceptance might open up further discursive and material strategies for working towards the safety of all school students, including lesbian/gay/bisexual students.

Early Childhood Educare: Seeking a Theoretical Framework in Vygotsky's Work.

Abstract This paper argues that there is no meaningful distinction between care and education for young children so that the early childhood field should be renamed early childhood educare. The predominant theoretical framework for early childhood philosophy and curriculum has been Piagets theory. Piagets theory describes development as determining current cognitive competence and influencing what children are capable of learning. Children are seen as natural scientists who investigate the world and thereby broaden their understanding. Teachers are expected to stand back and provide resources for childrens autonomous learning but not to interfere with it. The paper argues that Vygotskys theory as applied to the responsive social contexts provided in early childhood educare should be given more consideration because it gives more attention to the importance of the social and cultural context on childrens thinking than Piaget. Vygotsky saw learning as driving development and the development of thinking...

The Early Childhood Curriculum from a Sociocultural Perspective

This paper presents a theoretical base for building an early childhood curriculum. An “educare” approach says that it is impossible to separate the nurturing and educational aspects of early childhood environments. Educare means promoting childrens social and intellectual development in responsive social contexts. The educare concept fits better within a sociocultural theoretical framework, based on Vygotsky and more recent work such as that of Rogoff and Fleer, than within the “developmentally appropriate practice” model. Five principles are explained which incorporate a sociocultural perspective. First that all development begins with social interaction and that it consists of the internalisation of social processes. Second that learning drives development rather than development drives learning. Third that close interpersonal relationships and mutual understanding are crucial for optimal development. Fourth that the goals of development are determined by cultural rather than individual development. Fi...

Rights important to young people: Secondary student and staff perspectives

Abstract How young people construct rights, which rights are important to them, and their awareness of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, are the focus of the present study. The study also compares adults’ and young people’s knowledge, priorities and awareness of rights issues. A postal survey of 107 secondary schools in New Zealand targeted ten 15-16 year-old young people and five staff members, participating in each of the survey schools. A total of 721 students and 449 staff responded to the survey. The vast majority of staff and students understood the meaning of rights, and defined them in terms of entitlements. Only 15% of students were aware of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, while 85% of staff said that they knew about it. Students and staff showed different priorities in terms of which rights they thought were important to young people. About two out of every three students prioritised participation rights, while around a quarter prioritised provision rights, and only just over one in ten prioritised protection rights. Staff were relatively evenly spread in their views of which rights were most important to young people, with just over a third prioritising provision rights, a third protection rights, and just under a third prioritising participation rights. The right to be treated as social actors with views which should be heard respectfully by others, is a salient one for young people. 2

The Relationship of Classroom Organisation to Cross‐age and Cross‐sex Friendships

Abstract The friendship nominations of 40 standard 2 children (aged 8‐10 years), 20 in multi‐level and 20 in single‐level classes, were examined. Children nominated friends, including age and whether they went to the same school, by writing down friends’ names in class and stating them verbally in an interview situation. Children were asked in the interview about their best friends, their views on cross‐sex and cross‐age friendships, and what friends do together. Results showed that 65% of interview‐nominated and 56% of class‐nominated friends were of the same age, while 91% of interview‐nominated and 81% of class‐nominated friends were of the same sex. Children from multi‐level classes had significantly more different aged friends on class and interview measures, and more different sexed friends on the class measure, than children from single‐level classes. Childrens out‐of‐school friendships were more likely to be with cross‐age or cross‐sex children than were their in‐school friendships. Children tend...

Social Interaction in Same and Cross Gender Preschool Peer Groups: a participant observation study

About a third of play groups observed in a part‐time and full‐time early childhood centre were of mixed gender and two‐thirds were same gender. Mixed gender groups were larger than same gender groups and kindergarten (part‐time) groups were larger than childcare (full‐time) centre groups. In the kindergarten, outdoor play was much more common and there was a significant difference in boys preferring to play outdoors, followed by mixed groups and then girls. In both centres boisterous play was more likely in boys’ groups than girls’ groups, with mixed groups more similar to boys’ groups in the predominance of boisterous play. Boys’ groups in both centres exclusively used male themes for pretend play, while girls mostly used female themes and an occasional male theme. Mixed gender groups used male themes almost as much as male groups, but rarely or never used female themes. There was more physical conflict and rejection in mixed groups, than boys’ groups and none in girls’ groups in the kindergarten. There ...