Abstract
This comparative qualitative study addresses the ways educators within Early Childhood Education and Care institutions understand children’s participatory rights as defined by the United Nations on the Rights of the Child, and how they manage to translate these beliefs into practices. This study draws on a constructivist approach to childhood, as well as socio-cultural theory, in order to approach concepts such as action and agency. This multiple-case study looks at two ECEC centres, one in Mexico and the other in Norway. They were chosen for their similarities, forming part of the same field of education and committing to similar pedagogical visions, and for their differences, mainly related to socio-cultural contexts and provision. The research design is built on semi-structured interviews and observations of educators in San Cristobal de las Casas and Oslo. Major differences were unveiled through the comparison of these two cases. These concern understandings of childhood, participation, and rights. While such discourses are in Norway rooted in pedagogical and political traditions and easily taken for granted, the same concepts are within the Mexican case envisioned and worked with as a form of political resistance to the hegemonic socio cultural discourse. The greatest similarities between the two cases are related to collaborative issues along with the importance of the school culture and structure for educators to be able to transform their beliefs into real life practices.