as a social investment strategy has been accompanied by worldwide concerns to\ud identify appropriate pedagogical practices for working with young children.\ud Here, we trace the developing interest in child-centred approaches, before\ud considering whether there can be shared understanding of the term between\ud countries with different histories of early childhood provision. Case studies of\ud England, Hungary and Italy consider focus group and questionnaire responses\ud from staff and students on early childhood courses, together with curriculum\ud guidance, to examine ‘child-centredness’ in the context of the cultural-historical\ud background to early childhood provision in the three countries. Findings suggest\ud that the term ‘child-centred’ has rich pedagogical associations that can be easily\ud subsumed into different value systems prizing, for example, individuality, child\ud development or democracy. In the light of these findings, we consider the\ud implications of the use of the term ‘child-centred’

Hungary was one of the first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This commitment is enshrined into the Constitutional Act LXIV of 1991. Children's rights can be found most comprehensively in the Act XXXI. of 1997 on Child Protection and Social Services Administration. This chapter outlines how children's rights prevail in kindergarten practice in the Hungarian context. First, the understanding of children's rights is addressed in view of policy and legislation and key government documents are highlighted that serve to frame and guide practice in early childhood institutions. In the second half of the chapter the implementation of children's rights is demonstrated and aspects of practice are outlined that aim to facilitate children practising their rights.The chapter is concluded with emphasising the need for pedagogical materials to be embedded into kindergarten pedagogue training nationally to ensure children's rights are embraced in institutional care.

Increasing interest in the provision of early childhood education and care services as a social investment strategy has been accompanied by worldwide concerns to identify appropriate pedagogical practices for working with young children. Here, we trace the developing interest in child-centred approaches, before considering whether there can be shared understanding of the term between countries with different histories of early childhood provision. Case studies of England, Hungary and Italy consider focus group and questionnaire responses from staff and students on early childhood courses, together with curriculum guidance, to examine 'child-centredness' in the context of the cultural-historical background to early childhood provision in the three countries. Findings suggest that the term 'child-centred' has rich pedagogical associations that can be easily subsumed into different value systems prizing, for example, individuality, child development or democracy. In the light of these findings, we consider the implications of the use of the term 'child-centred'.

Whilst international policymakers have reached consensus on the importance of investing in early childhood development and increasingly monitor that investment using standardized measurement, the nature and rationale of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision remain diverse. In the context of that disparity, this article explores an aspect of ECEC provision that is commonly recognised for its potential to enhance young children's development and learning, yet for which characteristics remain variable: partnerships between ECEC practitioners and parents. The article reports and discusses results from a cross-cultural narrative study that investigated the nature of such partnerships in three different countries: England, Hungary and Kazakhstan. During focus group interviews, ECEC academics (n=16) discussed five themes that emerged from literature reviews. Findings indicate more differences than similarities between the countries' narratives concerning ECEC parent-practitioner partnerships, suggesting such partnerships may be an aspect of ECEC provision for which a homogeneous approach and quality measure across countries are not feasible.

Hungarian pedagogues agree that children should be listened to, have their rights recognised, and their voices heard.  The UNCRC recommends that children’s rights should be part of early childhood education, but this is not typical in Hungarian kindergartens and there is little pedagogical material to support the education of children about their rights.  This paper focuses on 5 kindergartens each typically accommodating over 150 children between the ages of 3-6 years old across Hungary. Six pedagogues worked with multi-age groups (4 kindergartens) and same-age groups (2 kindergartens).  The research adopted participatory methods to gather children’s views recognising them as valuable collaborators.  Children provided insight into their own lives through play based creative activities that focused on eliciting children’s thoughts and feelings.  Pedagogues collected video data using a ‘toolkit’ of children’s play activities during a 6-week period of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Pedagogues reflected on children’s play through a series of online focus groups with emphasis on how children expressed their views and preferences through play. Participants were encouraged to examine the power relationships between children and adults and analyse their role in knowledge production rather than knowledge extraction. Six themes emerged through thematic analysis, mapped to the 4 guiding principles of children’s rights: participation, survival, development and protection.  The findings highlight the juxtaposition between children’s life-as-experienced and life-as-told by adults; the skill of pedagogues to hear and sensitively interpret children’s voices based on their play and the challenge to slow down and reflect on practice.