Elements of Adult-Centrism in the Educational Practice of Kindergartens

Educational work with children is complex and multi-layered, and its quality largely depends on the quality of relationships and mutual understanding of the subjects participating in the process.Compared to adults, children have different experiences, understandings, perceptions and ways of communicating, but also a different status and different rights.These rights are often minimized, which leads to greater or lesser disenfranchisement of children, which can be considered a consequence of ageist society.It does not recognize children as persons whose words should mean something or who should have an influence on their own lives because, given their age, they are usually at the bottom of the hierarchy (Abood, 2009).Such an approach is sometimes called adultism and adult-centrism and is described as the tendency of adults to look at children and their problems from the biased perspective of adults, thus creating obstacles to effective practice with children (Petr, 1992). Literature reviewThe essence of adult-centrism is insufficient respect for children, i.e. younger people, because they are considered less important and inferior to adults (Bell, 2003).For this reason, they are not taken seriously and are not included in decision-making in the community where they live.Something can be considered adult-centrism if it involves a consistent pattern of disrespecting children that can result in undermining their self-confidence and self-esteem, developing feelings of worthlessness, increasing feelings of powerlessness, experiencing not being taken seriously, growing negative selfconcept, increasing destructive and self-destructive behavior, and feeling unloved, or undesired (Bell, ibid).In a society that advocates freedom and democracy, Meredith (2009) points out, oppressive treatment of children is unacceptable and unforgivable.Such behavior during the educational process is recognizable by seeing children as passive objects that are subject to the authority and control of Abstract: The quality of educational work with children is determined by understanding children and the quality of communication and relationships with children.In kindergarten practice, there are often elements of adult-centric practice, focused on adults instead of children.These elements are noticeable at the level of planning and implementation of educational activities, shaping the spatial and material context of kindergartens, understanding the role of teachers in educational activities with children and analyzing educational activities.They reduce or prevent opportunities for the development of participatory practice, i.e. they prevent children from enjoying their participation rights in the selection of activities, the manner of participating in activities, the duration of activities, the selection of partners (teammates) and the like.Or in other words, they thwart their opportunity to co-construct the curriculum, which is characteristic of modern preschool curricula.Teachers are trained in different ways to recognize the elements of adult-centrism in educational work.However, their willingness to recognize these elements also depends on the kindergarten where they work, i.e. on the culture within the kindergarten.Kindergartens that carry out continuous, exploratory, reflective, discussion-oriented professional development of teachers are much less adult-centric than kindergartens that do not have such training.The paper presents qualitative research carried out in kindergartens where professional student practice is performed.