Young children’s citizenship membership and participation: comparing discourses in early childhood curricula of Australia, New Zealand and the United States

ABSTRACT

Recognition of young children as citizens is relatively new in sociology, with translation emerging into education. Discourses of children and childhood shape ideas of young children as citizens and national discourses of citizenship frame what civic participation can be. The authors analysed national early childhood education curricula frameworks of Australia, New Zealand and the United States to understand how discourses authorise constructions of children as citizens and opportunities for young children’s civic participation. They sought to locate how children are positioned as citizens and what opportunities there are for young children’s citizenship participation in national early childhood curricula documents of Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Illustrative examples of children’s citizenship membership and participation from the three nations’ early childhood curricula were critically read to locate how prevalent discourses of children, childhood and citizenship in each nation define children as citizens and shape possibilities for citizenship participation for young children.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship education
• discourse analysis
• early childhood
• curricula
• young children

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly appreciate the thoughtful feedback provided on earlier versions of this article by Bob Lingard, Christine Winter and Andrew Peterson, along with the provocations from anonymous reviewers - all of which assisted in the formation of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Education in Australia is a state and territory responsibility, so some states have adapted the EYLF to create a state early childhood curriculum. EYLF is the nationally approved educational programme for registered education and care services for birth to five-year-olds to utilise.

2. Te Whāriki literally means the woven flax mat. It is a metaphor for weaving the curriculum principles and strands together to form a curriculum particular to each setting. Te Whāriki is the mandated curriculum for all licensed early childhood care and education services in New Zealand. These services include kindergarten, Playcentre, Kōhanga Reo and other early education and care settings.

3. The NAEYC Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement provides guidelines by which childcare programmes can be accredited in the United States. Accreditation is not mandated, though NAEYC accreditation is a nationally recognised symbol of quality early learning programmes.

4. Please note we have used selected examples only in each of the Aotearoa sections.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spencer Foundation’s New Civics Initiative under Grant number 201400172.