Peer-reviewed article
Participatory pedagogy for values education in early childhood education
Jennifer van Krieken Robson ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This research explores how early childhood education practitioners teach values to young children in ways that respect children's rights. The study argues that participatory approaches, where children actively construct their own understanding of values rather than passively receiving them, are more effective and rights-respecting. The author suggests practitioners need to reflect critically on their beliefs about how children learn and consider children's positioning within teaching relationships through a child rights lens.
Key points
- Moral pedagogies positioning children as constructors of knowledge about values support rights-respecting ECE practice
- Practitioners need to adopt a critical stance and examine their epistemic beliefs about how children learn
- Reflecting on the positioning of children within pedagogical relationships through child rights lens may enhance practice
- State governments often direct ECE practitioners to mediate specific values through pedagogy
Limitations
This is a small-scale empirical study that reports findings but the document does not specify the methodology, sample size, or whether findings have been validated across different settings or populations. The abstract does not provide evidence of effectiveness or measurable outcomes of the proposed approach.
Abstract
Practitioners working with young children in the provision of early childhood education (ECE) are often directed by state governments to mediate specific values through their pedagogical practice. This paper reports the findings from a small scale empirical research study exploring the pedagogy applied by ECE practitioners in this context. I argue that moral pedagogies, where children are positioned as constructors of knowledge about values, have the potential to support ECE practice in ways that respect and uphold children’s rights. Such an approach requires practitioners to adopt a critical stance and consider their epistemic beliefs about how children learn. I suggest that this process may be enhanced by practitioners’ reflecting on the positioning of children within pedagogical relationships through the lens of child rights.