ABSTRACT
This chapter deconstructs the notion of children’s participation within the early childhood education (ECE) policy and provision in Indonesia. Despite the fact that Indonesia has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the meaning of children’s participation in Indonesia remains a contested term. Through our analysis of both ECE policy and provision in Indonesia, we found that the term children’s participation is still confined to the concept of child protection and children’s access to ECE. The concept of child protection can be discovered in the government’s policy of Satu Desa, Satu Paud (one village, one centre), which operates on the principle of ‘saving’ children in the rural areas. At the same time, the idea of children’s participation is also understood only as improving children’s access to the ECE centre, evident in the government’s push for children’s participation. Our findings call for reconceptualisation of the meaning of children’s participation so that it can move beyond protection and children’s access to ECE to include children’s voices and their ability to make decisions for themselves.
