It is good! It always reminds us that they have rights and we have rights – A study about working with children’s rights in a few preschools in South Africa

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The rights of the child are a subject that never stops to be of immense significance and import. All people are bearers of human rights yet children are, due to their vulnerability, always subordinated adults. It is therefore of great magnitude that we learn to respect and treat the child with dignity. It is our duty as preschool teachers to implement these rights and to raise the children in a democratic spirit, to achieve this we need to act accordingly. This can sometimes be a complex matter. South Africa has a history of violence and discrimination; nonetheless the country has made substantial progress in these areas. I decided to go and see for myself how the work with children’s rights was coming along. PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study is to find out how a few preschool teachers work with children’s rights in the country of South Africa. I decided to focus on children’s participation and on corporal punishment and the teachers own views on these topics METHOD: This study takes a hermeneutic scientific conduct, through ethnographic research I try to analyze and interpret a few preschool teachers’ views and actions concerning children’s rights. In this field study data was collected through interviews and observations. RESULT: Earlier research and concluding observations say that South Africa is having difficulties in realizing children’s rights in numerous areas. Both the child’s participatory rights and the continuous use of corporal punishment are expressed as concerns. In this thesis I find that teachers are unfamiliar with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and that they receive no education or support from the government in these matters. The teachers are however aware of the concept “children’s rights” and they have some understanding of what it is relating to. The teachers states that the work with children’s rights every day and in all activities but no organized situations about this is observed. The child’s possibilities to participate are scares and the teachers are relatively novel towards the involvement of the child. Most teachers consider benefits from corporal punishment and the continuous use is evident.