Reinterpretation of the Child’s Right to Participate and Application to the Early Childhood Education and Care Setting
AUTHOR : 이성옥,이순형
INFORMATION : page. 67~88 / 2015 Vol.22 No.3
ABSTRACT
The object of this study was Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12, Clause 1, so-called
the right to participate. This study was to explore the aim of this provision and to suggest an
interpretative concept that could realize the aim better than the concept of the right to participate,
and to propose the core contents of the interpretation. For this study, Dworkin’s value-based
interpretation theory was used. The findings were as follows. First, the provision corresponded to the
right of self-determination of the constitution, so the aim of the provision was to realize the right of
the self-determination of the child. Second, it would be better to interpret to conceptualize Article
12, Clause 1 as the right to be heard, not the right to participate in order to realize the children’s
right of self-determination. Third, adults’ hearing of the view of the child and normatism as right as
core contents of the concept were emphasized. These findings show that teachers or other adults
should take the view of the child seriously in the early childhood education and care setting. The
implications for future studies and policy proposals were also discussed.