Qualitative case study reveals that young children's participation relies on adult responsiveness and institutional conditions, highlighting rights as dynamic lived capabilities.
Key Points
Examine how very young and pre-verbal children experience participation rights in everyday early childhood education and care settings through the Capability Approach.
Conducted a qualitative multiple case study across three early childhood education and care settings in Wales.
Used naturalistic observations and child-centred, play-based methods to capture multimodal and embodied claims such as gesture, movement, affect, and refusal.
Interpreted observational and qualitative data using the framework of the Capability Approach.
Demonstrated that participation is not achieved solely through child expression but critically depends on adult recognition, relational responsiveness, and institutional conditions.
Reframed participation from a static legal entitlement into a lived capability shaped directly by everyday pedagogical practices and structural environments.