ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part focuses on the educational program elements of the Australian National Quality Standards. It invokes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and makes the case for authentic approaches to research that ensure children truly express their voices. The part offers methods to support children’s control of the research agenda that takes place in their space. It describes the engagement of children, educators and researchers in projects that hold particular significance for our future-ecology and sustainability. The part also focuses upon the aforementioned transformative impact of curriculum documents. It considers how standardised systems can work in partnership with children’s common worlds that are the “messy, unequal, and imperfect worlds real children inherit and co-inhabit along with other human and nonhuman beings and entities”.
