Renegotiating an early childhood pedagogy for rights in Rwanda

Research involved responsive multi-modal methods with ten ‘research influencers’ (aged three to six years), and two talking circles with their peers. Research with adults included two online questionnaires and four talking circles. Thematic analysis was used to explore participants’ perceptions through a postcolonial optic.

The findings illuminate plural perspectives on CHRE, where fusions, resistances, negotiations, and transformations coexist. Sociocultural values and emotions were interwoven into perceptions, reflecting and transcending binary positions that insist on the uniqueness of culture or shared universal ideas.<br><br>Presenting a postcolonial way of theorising CHRE, contributes to critical theorisations that challenge dominant assumptions in children’s rights research and knowledge production in, and about, Rwanda.

The thesis concludes that reconstructing a legally informed but culturally legitimate early childhood pedagogy for rights is required in this study’s context. Beyond Rwanda, a conceptual model is proposed for activating a methodological third space to (re)negotiate contextually connected approaches to CHRE, with communities who will engage with it.<br><br><br>