Children's Rights and Early Childhood Education

Abstract

THERE IS STILL RESISTANCE and hostility within some circles to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Convention), but professionals working with children should be familiar with rights principles and their use in advocating for change. A rights perspective fits well with the new paradigm of Childhood Studies, which is critical of developmental psychology and recognises multiple childhoods, children's agency and competency, and the primacy of children's lived experience. The Convention has been used in advocating for reforms in early childhood services in New Zealand. One example is the development and implementation of our early childhood education curriculum, Te Whariki. The second example is New Zealand's Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education (Ngā Huarahi Arataki), which is focused on improving early childhood education quality and participation. It is argued that child advocacy for better early childhood education policies can be strengthened by the use of the Convention.