Direito de participação das crianças: Ideias de educadoras de infância

Abstract

This qualitative study aimed to investigate early childhood education (ECE) teachers' ideas about children's right to participate. Participants were 59 ECE teachers from Greater Lisbon region. The data, collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed through content analysis, suggest that ECE teachers conceive children's right to participate in terms of four dimensions: to contribute, to be heard, to have agency, and to make decisions. ECE teachers consider that the exerting the right to participate brings benefits for children, at an individual and interpersonal level. As for the conditions for implementing the right to participate, ECE teachers recognize the importance of their role, as professionals. However, they identify challenges to its promotion, focusing mainly on children's characteristics. This work suggests the need to raise awareness on the importance of promoting children's right to participate in ECE.