ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses participatory pedagogy in practice through respecting children, listening to them, empowerment, ownership and choice, socially just practice for participatory learning, and children’s spaces and places. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises children as agents who are capable of influencing their social realities. Participation rights seem to consist of two elements: right to express a view, and right to have the view taken into account. In relation to early childhood education and care (ECEC), many advocates that participation is a right of all children, an entitlement, and a public responsibility that should be offered free of charge. The chapter suggests that within a participatory pedagogy children are competent and social beings who have agency and construct their own knowledge and understanding in collaboration with others. The word ‘empowerment’ is found abundantly in children’s studies and children’s rights studies, but there is seldom any discussion of what it means in the context of ECEC.
