Producing and performing participation and place with children in two Australian early childhood centres

Abstract

This thesis explores young children, participation and place in two Australian early childhood centres. It responds to Mannion's (2007) call, over a decade ago, for a shift in early childhood policy, practice and research to move place and space from part of the background to "centre-stage" (p. 406) and to consider the socio-spatial aspects of participation. Few studies have explored the role of place within a participatory agenda and fewer still have done so within early childhood educational settings. This study addresses this gap by exploring the encounters between adults and children in early childhood settings and how the place supports children's participatory rights. The methodology is located within a critical paradigm and draws on two key research methods: critical ethnography and child focused participatory research workshops. The workshops supported children's roles as co-researchers utilizing well established child friendly, data generation methods. These approaches were selected because they acknowledge the importance of children's perspectives and positioned children as active participants within the research. The significant role that the educators and especially the centre leader, played in supporting a participatory pedagogy is explored throughout the thesis. There is a particular focus on the ways in which educators are complicit in enabling or impeding children's participatory opportunities and how children subvert educator's regulatory practices and find spaces and places to engage in their own play. The study also considered how attuning to children's experiences of participation requires educators to be attentive to noticing what children are communicating beyond the verbal through their bodies, their expressions and a host of other sensorial means. Finally, throughout the research journey I came to realise the significance that the place played in shaping the participation process and this too became a central theme. This research took place in two early childhood community-based, not-for-profit preschool centres operating in New South Wales, Australia; the Coastal Centre and Mountain Centre. In Australia, preschool settings cater for children aged three to six years of age in the years before they commence formal school. The twenty-two key participants included 10 children and one educator from each of the two centres. Findings from the study were explored from three perspectives - place, children and educators.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English