Participation is a basic civil right and is defined as participation and collaboration in co-decision-making. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) has changed the viewpoint on children and childhood. It emphasises the rights of children and grants them the possibility of cooperation. Participation as a starting point of teaching is contained in different pedagogical approaches and curricula, and most consistently are the principles of participation represented and materialized in the pedagogical concept of Reggio Emilia.
The Slovenian kindergarten educators actualise the participation in kindergarten in different ways – in everyday practices / routines, in active forms of learning and projects of democratic (active) citizenship. However, participation can be successfully pursued also with a methodical approach of open-ended problem solving (Maxim, 1989), which predicts that we can find solutions to the problems affecting the daily life in kindergarten with the help of children or their ideas, suggestions, while using their creative potential.
In the theoretical part of the thesis are presented the starting points of participation as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Following is a presentation of the pedagogical concept of Reggio Emilia, and the results of research showing the position of the Slovenian educators towards participation.
The empirical part describes the implementation of the project of children's participation – How to spend time in the kindergarten in December holidays, in which the children had the opportunity to help create the events or life in the kindergarten in accordance with their ideas. All suggestions of children were original and subsequently interesting to children, since all children participated in the activities with great enthusiasm. Their ideas were innovative and interesting. The evaluation showed that the project has achieved a high degree of children's participation.
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