The right to refuse: A critical literature review of refusal-as-participation in early childhood education

Abstract

This critical literature review examines how young children's right to refuse participation is conceptualized within early childhood education (ECE) research. Guided by childism, the review analyzes 26 peer-reviewed studies published between 2019 and 2025 to evaluate whether children's refusals are recognized as legitimate participation and how they are framed within curriculum, choice-making, play, and adult–child power relations. The analysis found that refusal-as-participation is largely absent across the literature: most studies made no mention of refusal or treated it as disengagement or misbehavior, while only a small subset explicitly recognized refusal as an expression of children's agency. Curriculum and choice contexts overwhelmingly positioned refusal as a problem to be resolved; play offered more space for refusals, but they remained inconsistently supported; and power dynamics often overshadowed or redirected refusals rather than acknowledging them. These findings reveal a persistent gap between theoretical commitments to participation rights and their enactment in ECE settings. Implications include the need for explicit conceptual recognition of refusal within participatory frameworks; structural conditions that enable children to decline participation without penalty; and rights-respecting pedagogies that honor refusal as an expression of children's dignity, boundaries, and humanity.