When boundaries are crossed: Children's voices on care, power and accountability

Abstract

Children's everyday accounts of life in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) reveal the moral complexity of their relationships with adults, where care and control are intertwined. Drawing on participatory, child-centred research with 86 children in six German ECEC centres, this study examines how children perceive and describe situations in which their boundaries are crossed by adults or peers and how they experience adults’ responses. Analysis of group discussions and observations identified four interrelated themes: asymmetry of power and voice; inaction, dismissal and quick fixes; discipline, punishment and the role of rules; and children's desire for kindness and connection. Children describe being silenced, ignored or punished, while simultaneously articulating expectations of fairness, understanding and care. Drawing on care ethics, children's rights and relational agency, the article argues that adult accountability – how adults acknowledge, respond to and repair harm – is a central yet often overlooked dimension of participatory practice in ECEC.