Abstract

Human rights education (HRE) promotes a culture of peace, tolerance and respect, values that are essential in today's democracies. Teaching human rights is key in childhood to promote social inclusion, participation, empowerment and freedom of agency. The aim of this research is to analyse educators' perceptions of HRE and assess how they integrate it into the early childhood education curriculum. To achieve both objectives, a documentary analysis of the curriculum and a thematic analysis of interviews with four early childhood educators from the public system in southern Chile were carried out, using a qualitative approach and an interpretative perspective. The results show that the early childhood education curriculum in Chile explicitly recognises children as subjects of rights, which is a fundamental aspect of promoting HRE in the formal educational context practically since its inception. However, this approach is not always explicitly recognised by educators, as although they recognise various forms of child participation in the classroom and value play as a fundamental tool for promoting human rights, they need further training to consciously and effectively integrate the human rights approach into their teaching practice. © 2025, AUFOP. All rights reserved.