We aim to investigate teachers' ideas about children's right to participate in early childhood education (ECE), identifying complex profiles of teachers' ideas, and exploring associations between profiles and individual/contextual variables. Research highlights the relevance of promoting children's right to participate in ECE (Sheridan & Samuelsson, 2001), as an indicator of ECE quality (Sheridan, 2007), and emphasizes ECE teachers' role, namely their ideas to its promotion (Sandberg & Eriksson, 2010). Children's right to participate refers to children's right to exert influence in all matters affecting them, freely expressing opinions and having them considered (United Nations, 1989), through shared decision-making with adults (Venninen, Leinonen, Lipponen, & Ojala, 2014). Teachers' beliefs are crucial for understanding/improving educational practices (OECD, 2009), being influenced by individual characteristics (Faour, 2003). Participants were 59 ECE teachers (26-60 years old), from 59 randomly selected ECE settings (Lisbon area). Information on teachers' education, experience, pedagogical models, and institution/group was gathered. A qualitative interview was conducted, followed by content analysis, multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. Authorization obtained from National Commission for Data Protection, University Ethics Committee; teachers and parents' written consent, children's assent; all data protected with codes. Four profiles of teachers' ideas about participation were identified: 'Teachers' motivation'; 'Teachers' conditioned responsibility'; 'Children's' benefits'; 'Context dependent'. Teachers' profiles are significantly associated with years of professional experience and type of institution. Age is significantly different across profiles. We provide additional insights to a fuller understanding of teachers' positioning about this topic, useful to inform research addressing multiple levels of child participation.

--

children's right to participate,early childhood education,ECE teachers,ideas,teachers' profiles