Discourses/1, Australia: whose rights? The child’s right to be heard in the context of the family and the early childhood service: an Australian early childhood perspective

This chapter unpacks how children’s rights are positioned in Australian early childhood education services and asks readers to consider the rethinking of the child’s position within the current parent/teacher partnership discourse. Early childhood educators have a complex and multi-faceted responsibility in their work with children. Balancing the ever-increasing interconnecting network of policy frameworks, societal expectations of what a ‘good’ early education and care program looks like, parental expectations, anxieties and concerns and supporting all children’s rights to be heard creates potentially competing tensions. This chapter aims to support the educator in finding a balance between the child’s rights alongside that of family, community and broader societal influences, offering theoretical tool to reflect on whose voice(s) is/are heard and whose are silenced in their practice.