In the field of early childhood education self-determination and agency are discussed as important prerequisites for realizing constructive educational processes. Especially, in day-care centers is this knowledge essential for the educational arrangements. Professional concepts in day-care-centers for supporting children’s agency and participation are based on ideas of democratic education and civic education. They refer to two important discourses which are first the topic of educational processes in early childhood and second the discourses of children’s rights. This article develops a critical perspective on participation in early childhood to discuss their instrumentalization and establish a differentiated term of participation in institutional settings.