Emotions and human rights education in early childhood: insights from young children in Rwanda

Human rights education in early childhood should be relevant to children’s experiences, however there is a tendency to avoid the subject. This paper draws from a participatory study undertaken in Rwanda with 38 children aged three to six years. Research, practice guidance and young children’s perspectives on human rights education have been overlooked globally in early childhood spheres. The paper explores how insights from young children can contribute to renegotiating an early childhood pedagogy for rights. Framed by postcolonial theory and pedagogical working theories, findings from multi-modal methods illuminate emotional dimensions of children’s relational ontologies and working knowledges about rights. Pedagogically, this paper offers new ways of thinking about the role of emotions as a bridge between teaching and learning about, through and for rights in early childhood.