Abstract:

Children's involvement in decision-making and expressing their opinions on issues that concern them ensures that the right to participate is applied in the family. The study, in which the screening model is used, aims to examine the opinions of the parents of the children attending preschool education about children’s participation rights. Selected by simple random sampling method, a total of 270 parents of 60-72 months old children attending kindergartens and nursery classes of elementary schools affiliated to the Directorate of National Education in Afyonkarahisar Province in the 2020-2021 academic year were included in the study. An opinion form was used as the data collection tool in the study, which included demographic information about parents and questions about parents' opinions on the right to participate at home and in school. Parents gave helping in household chores the most and social activity the least at home as well as taking part in activities the most in school as examples of participation. Parents stated that they mostly decided on social activities and meal selection with their children at home. Parents emphasized the most that the activities should be organized at schools and children should be supported socially in order to realize their right to participate in school. In addition, it was determined that parents had an awareness of children's right to participate, but they needed guidance on how to ensure this.

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