Young children’s citizenship membership and participation: comparing discourses in early childhood curricula of Australia, New Zealand and the United States

Abstract

Recognition of young children as citizens is relatively new in sociology, with translation emerging into education. Discourses of children and childhood shape ideas of young children as citizens and national discourses of citizenship frame what civic participation can be. The authors analysed national early childhood education curricula frameworks of Australia, New Zealand and the United States to understand how discourses authorise constructions of children as citizens and opportunities for young children's civic participation. They sought to locate how children are positioned as citizens and what opportunities there are for young children's citizenship participation in national early childhood curricula documents of Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Illustrative examples of children's citizenship membership and participation from the three nations' early childhood curricula were critically read to locate how prevalent discourses of children, childhood and citizenship in each nation define children as citizens and shape possibilities for citizenship participation for young children.

Positioning Children Citizens: Exploring Discourses in Early Childhood Curricula in China and Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Early childhood curricula can be seen as a symbolic articulation of discourses which contain various forms of knowledge and power relations (Pechtelidis & Stamou, 2017;Phillips et al, 2018). These discourses and embedded power relations shape young children's civic behaviours and practices, and control how young children's citizenship is understood and enacted through curriculum.…”

“…Each curriculum strand contains several learning goals, and learning outcomes are illustrated for different age groups. It should be noticed that the 2017 Te Whāriki strengthens the bicultural framing (Kaye, 2017;McLachlan, 2017), and inherits the vision to support young children as contributing and culturally competent citizens (Betts, Mackey, Rarere-Briggs, & Summers, 2018;Phillips et al, 2018). According to the Treaty of Waitangi |Tiriti o Waitangi, ECE will provide young children with equitable opportunities to learn.…”

“…Current citizenship studies call for a more caring and encompassing notion of citizenship that recognises the flexibility of identities (e.g., Kennedy, 2018;Osler & Starkey, 2018). It has been argued that acknowledging young children as citizens empowers and enables them to build, experience and exercise their citizenship in the early years, transforming the traditional adult-centred frameworks and producing greater intergenerational dynamics (Devine & Cockburn, 2018;Phillips, Ritchie, & Adair, 2018). In light of this, citizenship studies about children, especially young children, should be taken into account more seriously, holding the potential to enrich traditional citizenship theories and practices (Xu, 2019).…”

“…I do so through a crossnational analysis of discourses of young children's citizenship as this provides opportunities and different angles for reconceptualising young children's citizenship. For example, research about young children's citizenship in the United States has revealed that the individual is emphasised over the collective (Knight & Watson, 2014;Payne, et al, 2019), while other studies have shown that collective forms of civic engagement are more prevalent in the Indigenous Māori of New Zealand, Latinx in the US, and indigenous Australian contexts (Adair et al, 2017;Phillips et al, 2018). In addition, children's persistence during conflict situations in Japanese kindergartens has also inspired American teachers to think about more possibilities for young children's civic actions (Payne et al, 2019;Tobin, Hayashi, & Zhang, 2011).…”

“…The focus of the early years' curriculum is a useful starting point for studying young children's citizenship in different contexts, as ECE curricula exert a key influence on the establishment of norms and boundaries, and children's capacities to enact their citizenship (Bath & Karlsson, 2016;Farini, 2019;Phillips et al, 2018). What's more, these curricula carry "historical and sociopolitical influences, values, curricula beliefs, and aspirations" (Wood & Hedges, 2016, p. 389), and serve as an "avenue" (Kennelly & Llewellyn, 2011, p. 900) where the ideology of citizenship can be discerned.…”