Are you listening to me? Understanding children's rights through Hungarian pedagogic practice

Abstract

Hungarian pedagogues agree that children should be listened to, have their rights recognised, and their voices heard. The UNCRC recommends that children’s rights should be part of early childhood education, but this is not typical in Hungarian kindergartens and there is little pedagogical material to support the education of children about their rights. This paper focuses on 5 kindergartens each typically accommodating over 150 children between the ages of 3-6 years old across Hungary. Six pedagogues worked with multi-age groups (4 kindergartens) and same-age groups (2 kindergartens). The research adopted participatory methods to gather children’s views recognising them as valuable collaborators. Children provided insight into their own lives through play based creative activities that focused on eliciting children’s thoughts and feelings. Pedagogues collected video data using a ‘toolkit’ of children’s play activities during a 6-week period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pedagogues reflected on children’s play through a series of online focus groups with emphasis on how children expressed their views and preferences through play. Participants were encouraged to examine the power relationships between children and adults and analyse their role in knowledge production rather than knowledge extraction. Six themes emerged through thematic analysis, mapped to the 4 guiding principles of children’s rights: participation, survival, development and protection. The findings highlight the juxtaposition between children’s life-as-experienced and life-as-told by adults; the skill of pedagogues to hear and sensitively interpret children’s voices based on their play and the challenge to slow down and reflect on practice.

Thinking through the lens of dialogical self, I positions and intersectionality for exploring how Hungarian kindergarten pedagogues experienced the new Curriculum Framework

“…We found that participants told similar stories in which they referred to concerns about how to continue to teach children traditions. We also found similarities between Habinyák (2022), Rădulescu (2006) and Canning et al (2022) research, and our research outcomes. Resistance to change was evident and it was assigned to cultural and historical weight of expectation that shapes values and beliefs the kindergarten pedagogues.…”

“…After the fall of the communist regime Habinyák (2022) further argued that teachers found it challenging to respond to the curriculum change, and reported that early learning still follows strict educational rules. In Hungary, Canning et al (2022) observed a similar pattern. They stipulated that incorporating child-led ECE practices could be challenging, as their voices intertwines with the routine of daily practice and they act as an influential force that present potential barriers to adopting change.…”

“…(Ibolya) Hermans (2001) said that dialogical self and the I positions are often contradictory and yet work together. Incorporating children led practices proven to be challenging to Ibolya, the presence of multiple and conflicting I positions can be linked to Canning et al (2022) research where they highlight the issue of power between children and pedagogues. This particular quote resonates with Hermans (2001) view of the 'self' which is relatively autonomous.…”

Conversation with My Classmates: Displacement, War, and Survival

“…This policy ensured the use of the Hungarian language in educational institutions, especially when, in 1977, a new education law was passed that encouraged the use of the mother tongue (Tóth 1994;Wright et al 2000). The state attributed great significance to the education of citizens following a strictly normative and outcome-driven framework and requiring unconditional obedience to ideological expectations (Canning et al 2022;Bogic 2018). The identity was also shaped by the state's patriarchal and masculine ideology of family patterns (Milićević 2006).…”

Children’s participation in documentation processes in local outdoor spaces

“…Smith (2015) underlines the principle of respect for the child's views and feelings outlined by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and argues that this principle should be enacted in all Early Childhood Education (ECE) settings. Canning et al's (2022) study of Hungarian kindergartens highlights the importance of including children's voices through play-based creative activities that focus on eliciting children's thoughts and feelings and providing insight into their lives.…”