Jane Murray

Abstract: Written to commemorate 30 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights reflects upon the status of the rights of children aged 0–8 years around the world, whether they are respected or neglected, and how we may move forward. With contributions from international experts and emerging authorities on children’s rights, Murray, Blue Swadener and Smith have produced this highly significant textbook on young children’s rights globally. Containing sections on policy, along with rights to protection, provision and participation for young children, this book combines discussions of children’s rights and early childhood development, and investigates the crucial yet frequently overlooked link between the two. The authors examine how policy, practice and research could be utilised to address the barriers to universal respect for children, to create a safer and more enriching world for them to live and flourish in. The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights is an essential resource for students and academics in early childhood education, social work and paediatrics, as well as for researchers, policymakers, leaders and practitioners involved in the provision of children’s services and paediatric healthcare, and international organisations with an interest in or ability to influence national or global policies on children’s rights.

TL;DR: This article investigated beliefs and practices of 25 early childhood education and care practitioners in the English midlands regarding school readiness and listening to children's voices, and found that practitioners agreed they listen to and act on children's voice but are confused about school readiness; their belief and practices align more strongly with social pedagogy than pre-primary schoolification.

TL;DR: The relevance of Susan Isaacs' practice and research for twenty-first century early childhood education, reflected in two studies conducted discretely nearly a century apart as discussed by the authors, was considered.

TL;DR: In this paper, a small-scale interpretive study was conducted with children aged four to eight years in three "good" schools in England to investigate whether young children's self-initiated explorations are rarely regarded as research by adult researchers and policy-makers.