Foundation Phase teachers' understandings and enactment of participation in school settings in Wales

Constructing child participation in early years classrooms: An exploration from Wales

“…Findings from primary analysis of the data concluded that the Welsh Government's 'child first' commitment to children's rights does not translate directly into practice (see Murphy et al, 2022). The data indicated that practitioners' perceptions of participation are varied and context specific.…”

“…Sometimes referred to as 'pupil voice', 'the voice of the child' or 'the right to be heard', terms which have been traced back to the endorsement of the UNCRC (Noyes, 2005), we recognise that these terms are poorly defined and contested (Murray, 2019;Robinson & Taylor, 2007). Alongside this, we note there is a paucity of research that explores what children's participation in early education looks like within Wales (see Murphy et al, 2022), and we set out to understand better the relationship between teachers' perception(s) of the child and their descriptions of pedagogies that support children's participation. We adopt the lens of agency, discussed below, to support analysis of data provided in a survey offered to teachers of children aged 3-7 years which set out to explore perception and practice associated with the enactment of young children's participation rights in Welsh classrooms.…”

“…This curriculum was in place during the time that these data for this project were collected and is characterised by play based, experiential pedagogy incorporating a balance between adult and child-initiated activities. Embedding the Seven Core Aims, the framework presented an emancipatory vision for children (Waters, 2016) with well-being and personal development as central tenets of this vision with the intention of supporting the child's right to participation (Murphy et al, 2022).…”

“…This paper addresses the research problem that arises from evidence that, despite supportive policy contexts, enactment of pedagogies that attend to young children's participation rights in classroom settings is highly variable and can be weak or lacking (Konstantoni, 2013;Lewis et al, 2017;Murphy et al, 2022). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989) has been embraced in the global context and fervently adopted in post-devolution policy and law in Wales.…”

Talking with children: A Handbook of interaction in early childhood education

“…Evidence also suggests that adults do not routinely consider children's competencies when planning for their learning and participation in ECE contexts (e.g. Waters & MacDonald, 2020;Murphy et al, 2022). The exemplification throughout this book provides deep and clear insight, through empirical evidence, of children's competencies, and as such supports educators to frame the child as both competent and capable.…”