Peer-reviewed article
Child Participation in Early Childhood Education from the Perspective of Female Students Specialising in Preschool and Early Childhood Education
Natalia Stek-Łopatka, Karolina Piekarska ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study explores how female students training to become teachers in Poland understand and view child participation in early childhood education. Using Hart's Ladder of Children's Participation framework, researchers conducted focus group interviews with university students. The students strongly supported the idea of full child participation but expressed doubts about whether young children were developmentally ready for it, and worried that curriculum requirements would prevent creating participatory environments. The analysis found that teacher training programmes in Poland address child participation only marginally.
Key points
- Female teacher trainees equated child participation with formal education and social involvement
- Respondents expressed strong support for full child participation models but lacked confidence in implementing them at the early childhood stage
- Key barriers identified: perceived lack of developmental readiness in children and rigid core curriculum requirements
- Analysis of teacher training programmes showed child participation issues are covered only marginally in coursework
- Study suggests teacher education programmes need to integrate more content on child participation
Limitations
This study captures only the perspectives of female teacher trainees in one Polish university and does not examine actual classroom practices or child outcomes. It does not test whether interventions to improve teacher training actually change teaching practices or enhance child participation in real early childhood settings.
Abstract
This article addresses the subject matter of child participation in decision-making, events and social or civic activities at the early childhood education stage from the perspective offemale students at a Polish university. This study aimed to explore and analyse the opinions of female students preparing to become teachers for grades 1–3 in primary school, focusing on their perspectives regarding child participation while utilising Roger Hart’s “Ladder of Children’s Participation” concept. In this qualitative study, a semi-directed, problem-oriented focus group interview was conducted, followed by a content analysis of the data obtained. Female students at a large university in a medium-sized city in Poland were invited to participate in the study. The study depicted that they equated theprocess of developing skills related to participation, understood as involvement in society,with formal education. Their responses were dominated by approaches related to full participation, while other views indicated a lack of confidence in implementation of full participation at the early childhood education stage. These concerns, inter alia, include the presumed lack of developmental readiness of children, as well as the requirements that prevent the creation of a participatory environment (compulsory core curriculum). As the analysis of the study programme of future female teachers, conducted as a context, has shown, issues related to child participation have been dealt with marginally, which needs to be corrected.