More awareness of children’s rights needed

More could be done to promote the rights of children in early childhood settings, according to Victoria University graduate, Sarah Te One.

As part of her PhD research, Mrs Te One investigated children’s rights in three Wellington early childhood settings – a care and education centre for under two-year-olds, a play centre for under five-year-olds and a kindergarten for three and four-year-olds.

“Because NZ is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, I was interested to see if early childhood centres understood those rights and how they relate to children in terms of the freedom of expression, freedom of critical thought and freedom of appropriate participation.”

She canvassed teachers’, parents’ and young children’s perceptions of their rights in the three 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?

“My research supported that fact that NZ’s early childhood services are world class and people overseas rightly look to us as leaders in this field.

“I found that while teachers valued children’s rights, more work is needed to be done to develop an awareness of how their rights can be put into practice.”

A lecturer at Victoria University’s School of Education Policy and Implementation, Mrs Te One says her interest in children’s rights stems from the years she spent as a kindergarten teacher, and from a commitment to liberal education.

She says the study of childhood sociology is relatively new, and challenges universal definitions of childhood.

“For children to participate fully in their early education, teachers and parents need to more fully inform themselves about children’s rights in a meaningful way. This will give us a starting point to better understand and respect the rights of everyone.”

Mrs Te One has been presenting her research at conferences around NZ and hopes to send it to the MoE.

She graduated with a PhD in Education in December last year. Her supervisors were Associate Prof. Val Podmore and Dr Robert Strathdee.