Realizing Children's Rights in a Global Context

A Compass for Navigating Children's RightsHow do people get from one place to another?Navigation.A compass is a tool for navigation that can provide ways for locating places and directions.Navigation endeavors could benefit from a tool, like a compass, to arrive at the chosen destination.Together with all of our contributors, we perceive this book, Realizing Children's Rights in a Global Context: Glocalization of the Reggio Emilia Experience, together with the other volume in this series: Reggio Emilia-Inspired Pedagogies of Listening and Inclusion: Advancing Children's Rights, as compasses for navigating a journey of exploration around the rights of babies, toddlers and young children to support readers in arriving at a chosen destination where the rights of all children are realized.Across the chapters, the rights-based philosophy guides early childhood education ideas for babies, toddlers, and young children as seen through the lens from Reggio Emilia, Italy to offer a framework within which children's rights can be realized in practice.Loris Malaguzzi, a pedagogist who led Reggio Emilia early childhood education efforts, referred to the context during which the approach was developed in the period following World War II as, "everything was still violently topsy-turvy" (Gandini, 2011, p. 27).This resonates with the current context globally whereby children may experience uncertainty, volatility, and complexity associated with childhoods affected by the erosion of rights, natural disasters, conflict, poverty, crisis, and the ongoing longitudinal impact of the worldwide health crisis related to COVID-19 (Ring et al., 2022; World Health Organization [WHO], 2020; O'Sullivan & Ring, 2026).Despite robust research evidence underscoring the benefits of high-quality early childhood experiences on children's immediate and long-term cognitive, health, sociability and education outcomes, underinvestment continues to undermine children's opportunities in this regard (Heckman 2008;2012;Doyle, 2025).The focus xxiii extends into a broader understanding of the child as an active participant within political, social, and natural environments, highlighting their role as an individual with rights in relation to the world around them.Building on this, the discussion turns to the child's right to access, participate in, and benefit from early childhood education, underscoring the importance of equitable and meaningful educational opportunities.The narrative further explores how a Reggio Emilia rights-based approach informs relationships among children, parents, families, teachers, and the wider community.It concludes by emphasizing that children's rights to highquality services are realized through the ongoing professional development of the early childhood workforce. CHAPTER OVERVIEWIntroduction~ "Mapping Possibility: True North for Early Childhood Systems" In the introductory chapter, Marisa Galliano Macy, Emer Ring, and Alessandra Landini question the concept of inclusion and its application to systems of early childhood education.Tracing the evolution of children's rights internationally, the authors identify the rights of young children to access, participate in, and be supported in early childhood education programs.The challenges and opportunities for realizing these rights within existing systems are considered.Based on the authors' experiences, the chapter shares "lessons" for inclusion and participation as viewed through the Reggio Emilia perspective on early childhood education.CH. 1~ "Two Wings of a Butterfly": Promoting the Right to Play Through a Playful Approach to Learning in Global Contexts" Lisa Goddard, Maria Barbara Donnici, and Elisa Ferrari remind us that from the outset, the United Nations declarations concerning childhood have referenced education and play as fundamental human rights.Drawing on the Reggio philosophy, the authors demonstrate how the right to play can become tangible in educational practice.Through detailing international projects and collaborations, the chapter explores how Reggio-inspired practices worldwide can translate the values of play as a form of knowledge-making into a fundamental support that cultivates and enables children's rights. CH. 2~ "Close and Beyond Reggio Emilia. San Miniato and Children's Protagonism in Education"Aldo Fortunati describes the experience of San Miniato and its idea of "children's education as a community project" in terms of a community-wide commitment that resonates strongly with Reggio Emilia's philosophy.Adopting a socio-constructivist perspective, the author observes how the pedagogy espoused by Malaguzzi embraces changes.The chapter, in a dialogue with an interpretation of Malaguzzi's thought, xxv was deeply influenced by her experience of studying and revisiting the municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools of Reggio Emilia over three decades.CH. 7~ "Moving beyond Reggio Emilia's 'Special Rights' to a Rights-Based Response for All Children in the Irish Context: Learning from the Reggio Emilia Experience"Emer Ring and Lisha O'Sullivan reflect on the impact of embedding the Reggio Emilia inspired principles of the image of the child, the hundred languages of children, the pedagogy of listening and the environment as the third teacher in a professional learning program for teachers in Ireland.The authors draw