Capturing children's perspectives about decision-making in the Swedish preschool setting. : How children's rights can be understood by exploring children's voices.

This thesis aims to examine children's perceptions of decision-making at the Swedish preschool context by exploring children's voices. This qualitative work is motivated by the United Nations Rights of the Child that became law on the 1st of January 2020 in Sweden. Article 3 about the child's best interests and Article 12 about the voices of the children to be respected are important fundamentals in the preschool context. Therefore, it is crucial to eavesdrop children's perspectives on decision-making in relation to children's rights and what children's rights mean for them since the matter of children's rights concerns children more than anyone else. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four 5-year old children at a preschool located in Sweden. Also, the drawing method was used to collect data, making the process more child-friendly and engaging. By using thematic analysis, three main themes emerged: children as decision-makers in the preschool, children as nondecision-makers in the preschool and to be heard at the preschool. Moreover, from the first theme, two subthemes arose: children deciding in the play and children deciding when eating and resting that identified in which situations perceive children themselves as decision-makers. The three subthemes that arose from the second theme were "The teachers!", Daily routines and "Deciding in the play but…" that present children's perceptions on why they are not decision-makers in those particular situations. The findings showed that the children perceive that they can have more influence on play and planned activities than on the daily routines of lunch time, sleeping/resting time or fruit time