Dr Gillian Lake, Chief Education Officer, Child Paths Ltd. As Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) continues to embrace rights-based practice, educators are increasingly challenged to ensure that children’s voices are not only heard, but genuinely influence curriculum, documentation, and decision-making. The move towards a rights-based approach within the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s updated Aistear 2024 framework reflects this growing commitment to participation, agency, and inclusion. One digital tool that supports this shift in meaningful ways is the Child Paths Learning Record feature. More than simply a documentation platform, the feature offers educators opportunities to slow down, listen carefully, and co-construct learning stories with children at the centre.
Creating Space for Children’s Voices
Drawing on Laura Lundy’s Model of Participation (2007), participation begins with space,
ensuring children have safe, inclusive opportunities to express themselves. The overall structure
of the Learning Record feature supports this through an inclusive and reflective approach to
documentation. Rather than rushed observations, educators can regularly complete Learning
Records for every child, ensuring all children are seen, heard, and valued over time.
The ability to upload photos and files further strengthens this process. Educators can quickly
and authentically capture moments of engagement as they unfold, preserving the child’s
interests, interactions, and experiences in real time. Importantly, this feature also opens
possibilities for children themselves to capture images and contribute directly to the
documentation process.
However, authentic participation requires more than collecting evidence. Following the upload of
photos or observations, conferencing with children creates valuable opportunities for dialogue.
Educators can revisit moments with children, allowing them time and space to explain their
thinking, feelings, and intentions. This aligns closely with Slow Pedagogy and Iram Siraj’s
emphasis on observing, waiting, and listening before acting (Siraj, 2025).
Listening Deeply Through Observation and Connection
The “Noticing” aspect of the feature also reflects rights-based practice. When educators
intentionally let children know they are being observed and that their learning matters, they
begin building trust, security, and connection. Siraj’s second step of Slow Pedagogy highlights
the importance of children knowing the educator is fully present and genuinely interested in
them.
Child Paths also encourages educators to move beyond narrow assessment practices by
selecting dispositions, skills, values, attitudes, and schemas. This holistic lens supports
appraisal of the “whole child,” recognising strengths, interests, and learning processes rather
than focusing solely on outcomes.
Importantly, the reflective questions embedded within the Learning Record support educators in
documenting children’s perspectives:
- How are my views and opinions represented in this record?
- How did I help make decisions during this activity?
- What will we do next to support my learning?
- How will you show me that I have influence on my learning?
These prompts align strongly with Lundy’s concepts of audience and influence (Lundy, 2007;
Lundy et al., 2024). They encourage educators to closely observe children’s decision-making,
interpret their perspectives thoughtfully, and demonstrate how children’s ideas shape future
planning.
From Documentation to Participation
A significant strength of the Child Paths Learning Record is the free-writing space available to
educators. This allows professionals to expand on children’s learning in a holistic way while
making meaningful connections to Aistear. Within this space, educators can explicitly describe
how children’s views informed activities, interactions, and next steps.
In this way, documentation becomes more than record-keeping. It becomes a participatory
process where children influence decisions about their own learning journeys. Parents can also
become part of this dialogue, sharing Learning Records with children and revisiting experiences
together.
As Hub na nÓg highlights, meaningful participation requires children to understand that their
views matter and that they can influence decisions. Child Paths provides practical opportunities
for this to happen every day in ECEC settings.
Conclusion
When used thoughtfully, Child Paths Learning Records can act as a powerful tool for embedding
rights-based practice within ECEC documentation. By creating time and space for observation,
dialogue, reflection, and shared decision-making, educators can move beyond documenting
learning to truly listening to children.
In doing so, Learning Records become not just evidence of learning, but evidence of
participation, belonging, and voice.
References
Hub na nÓg (2024) National Framework for Children and Young People’s Participation in
Decision-Making. Dublin: Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Lundy, L. (2007) ‘“Voice” is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child’, British Educational Research Journal, 33(6), pp.
927–942.
Lundy, L., Byrne, B. and Templeton, M. (2024) Children’s Participation and the Lundy Model:
Revisiting Space, Voice, Audience and Influence. Belfast: Queen’s University Belfast.
