Participatory, rights-based methodologies in childhood studies have explored conditions that realise children's rights to participation. One avenue of investigation has been to explore assent procedures that respect children's rights to make informed decisions about participation. Less attention has been directed towards the ways in which children…

The learning and development of educators in schools can take many forms. This paper is a critical reflection about the coaching and mentoring practices of the authors, set within the context of a state-wide transition to school initiative in Queensland, Australia. The paper describes the context of the initiative, the role of the authors,…

This article presents some of the challenges that arise in research aimed at listening to children under three years of age in order to improve everyday school life. The article is based on research carried out over several years in schools and funded by the Spanish Ministry responsible for Research and Development (R&D). Drawing on a…

The Mosaic approach has been used as a form of participatory research for over two decades. It has been popular with researchers in the early childhood education and disability sectors because it encourages the participants to utilise a large range of communication tools, rather than relying on verbal and written data. Promoters of the Mosaic…

Shown to be the single most influential factor in children's early learning and development experiences, quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) teaching has attracted increasing interest in research and policy globally. Yet almost all definitions of quality ECEC teaching to date reflect only adults' notions of the features that…

As emerging literature reflects, "praxis" is an important and useful concept for thinking about the many aspects of early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood research. In this article, I seek to contribute to discussions about praxis in ECE as a valuable concept for meeting the ethical challenges that arise in participatory…

Engaging with children as research informants and supporting their participation in research is increasingly recognised as valuing children's views on matters that affect them. Less attention, however, is given to the ways in which children co-construct and manage their participation in child-researcher interactions. Drawing on sociology of…

In recent times there has been a major international push for giving voice to children in the provision of services for early education and development particularly among researchers and non-government organisations. However, what has been missing from this body of literature and activity is the children's perspective when centres and services are…

This article evidences the existing inter-relations between the rights perspective, the listening approach and participatory research with children, emphasising its contributions to the ECEC research field. Specifically, the contributions of visual participatory research in the field of early years transitions are discussed to illustrate the…

This article will report on a project, which consulted children about their understandings of safety in relation to the people and places in their lives. Thirty-nine children aged between three and five years attending preschool and long day-care services reflected on their experiences of what is safe and unsafe in their world through dialogue,…

Socio-dramatic play is preschool children's leading learning activity (Karpov 2005; Vygotsky 1978). Yet entering play often poses challenges (Corsaro 2003), particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children (Hruska 2007). At preschool four-year-old CALD children are both acquiring a new language, and learning new rules, social…

Praxeological-learning has emerged as a potential theoretical framework that has considerable potential to support and improve teacher education preparation programs. This article presents a study with participative research on early childhood with four groups of students. In response to new twenty-first century Teaching Standards and enhanced…

Drawing on a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study that was undertaken in two Australian preschool settings this article examines strategies that support the pedagogy of teaching for social justice and outlines how these strategies raised critical consciousness of both preschoolers (aged three to five years) and early childhood educators to…

The discipline and practice of participatory, practice-led research has grown rapidly in recent years and it is now widely accepted as making an important and serious contribution to the knowledge base of early childhood. Despite this progress recently we have come to understand that our worldview has needed to shift again in response to the…

The present study seeks to extend current thinking on participatory research by actively engaging 36 young children with and without a known disability in all aspects of a research project. Matched according to age and gender, six dyads of children attending four early years settings in Northern Ireland chose the research question, selected the…