Young Children, Rights and Voice: The Child’s Voice in Research

Early childhood education and care practice is shaped increasingly by policy (Rebello Britto, Engel and Super, 2013). During the past twenty years, national governments have produced early years frameworks for their countries where previously there were none (i.a. Australian Government Department for Education, 2009; Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Department for Education and Employment, 2000; Department of Basic Education, 2015). Equally, recent international policy has included the World Health Organisation’s Nurturing Care Framework (2018) which focuses on an integrated holistic approach to early childhood, the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals which target pre-primary education for major focus until 2030 (United Nations (UN) 2015) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (2019) which frames specific - albeit contested - expectations for young children’s development (Moss et al., 2016). The explosion of national and global early childhood policy is driven by persuasive evidence for the importance of the early years for lifetime outcomes (Shonkoff and Richter, 2013). Strong policy is informed by evidence, so research that produces evidence can be powerful (Bridges, Smeyers and Smith, 2009).