Te Whāriki, New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, views children as competent and confident learners and communicators. It is important for teachers to enact this through their pedagogy and through the environments they provide. A great example of how teachers can demonstrate their respect for children as competent and confident is to value children’s right to advocate for their own and others’ ideas.

Ra, a teacher at Country Kids, discusses an example where two children have the confidence to competently build their own trampoline, using and reappropriating resources already set out by another teacher as an obstacle course. They enthusiastically move the resources, work together, and support each other to achieve their goal.  Ra discusses how, by observing this interaction, the teachers were able to protect for the children’s right to explore their ideas and build their trampoline.