You Can Ask Me If You Really Want to Know What I Think

Abstract

Recent social policy discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand focus on vulnerable children’s well-being and the detrimental, long-term and costly impacts of child poverty. The discourse pervading much of the policy labels children and young people as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘at risk’ or ‘in crisis’, a view, which we argue, is both disempowering and marginalising. We propose a shift in focus which views children and young people as agentic, capable and competent. Drawing on several small-scale research projects and reports we demonstrate how, when asked, children and young people can participate effectively in discussions about policy matters that concern them (Article 12, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 [UNCROC]). We have much to learn from the insights children share with us when asked, but very often existing structures, at both government and community level, do not include adequate processes to hear their voices, let alone act on what has been communicated.     

Young children's enactments of human rights in early childhood education

This paper explores ways in which human rights become part of and affect young children's everyday practices in early childhood education and, more particularly, how very young children enact human rights in the preschool setting. The study is conducted in a Swedish preschool through observations of the everyday practices of a group of children aged between 1 and 3 years. With a child view based on human rights theory and childhood sociology, an action-based methodology for seeking children's perspective is used to analyse the observation data. Three rights areas are identified in which children frequently deal with human rights in their actions and where they enact a range of possible rights holder positions: ownership, influence and equal value. These rights areas, and the children's various enactments of the rights, are reflected against the preschool context as a co-constructor to the actions of the participants.     

Resilience: a study of risk and protective factors from the perspective of young people with experience of local authority care

As part of a review of services in one local authority, young people aged 13–19 with experience of local authority care were asked to provide their views of what makes a difference to them. As Jackie Dearden makes clear in this article, young people consistently reported on themes collated from previous research into resilience and identified factors which were most and least helpful. The compelling personal accounts draw attention to what services could do to increase protective factors which include interest of carers, access to facilities, taking bullying seriously, a clear sense of a positive future and adults who listen. Additionally, positive change occurred most often after significant changes in circumstances, especially transition phases, providing turning points for some young people. Such personal stories present a powerful perspective that would be hard for service providers to ignore. This raises the question of how local authorities are routinely consulting with vulnerable young people.     

Children and young people's inclusion in public decision‐making

In this article Alison Partridge considers two examples of developing the participation and inclusion of children and young people in public decision‐making in Oxfordshire. The projects are compared with research findings focusing on the impact of participation on children, young people, adults and organisations. The author highlights the value and the challenges of such activity and outlines the learning in relation to developing a culture of participation within organisations. She concludes positively in relation to the depth of the contribution and the creativity that children and young people bring to decision‐making, while emphasising that the commitment, skills and resources required to effectively embed such approaches are considerable. At root involving young people in public decision‐making demands a willingness to challenge deeply held assumptions about children's rights and the existing power relationships between adults, professionals, organisations and children and young people.     

Young children's perceptions of due process in schools’ disciplinary procedures

This study explored how children of lower primary school grades perceive due process in schools’ disciplinary procedures. While many studies have explored how adolescents perceive school discipline, only a few studies have examined the perceptions of primary school pupils, and no study has investigated lower primary school grades. The qualitative research design was based on semi‐structured interviews and focus groups with 70 children, aged 7 to 10, recruited from 19 public schools in Israel. In addition, we recruited a children's advisory group that participated in the research process. The findings revealed that while many of the study participants had internalised a formalistic approach to due process (i.e. meting out uniform punishments in similar cases, in accordance with a closed system of rules), others objected to this approach, providing various reasons for their concerns. Participants’ criticisms of a formalistic due process policy included lack of compassion and lack of understanding of pupils’ social, academic or other difficulties, disregard of pupils’ voice, the complex task of discerning the truth, apprehension over a uniform punitive system and low efficacy of punishments. We argue that the right to due process in schools lies at the intersection of legal and educational narratives. Even young children are able to recognise the inherent incongruity of these narratives, as they constitute a significant part of their daily routine in school. We also argue that this incongruity engenders a distorted due process, thus imparting faulty lessons about the right to due process and its justifications.     

‘I can't read it; I don't know’: young children's participation in the pedagogical documentation of English early childhood education and care settings

This article discusses the findings about pedagogical documentation which were drawn from a study which the author co-directed in a range of English early childhood education and care settings and which focused on children's views of the early years curriculum. The article poses questions provoked by the study and uses the work of Rinaldi and Carr to interrogate the English context for documenting early learning. The article analyses documentation in theoretical terms such as deciding, decentralising, disciplining, didactic and dialogue and also considers accounts by practitioners and researchers of practical strategies. The argument is illustrated with a selection of the data from the original study by Garrick et al. and contends that the purpose of pedagogical documentation should be to enable adult and child communicative cooperation, rather than to provide statements about children's progress which feed into the ‘discourses of quality in early childhood’.     

Sexuality education in India: examining the rhetoric,rethinking the future

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) has been recognised globally as key to helping young people assert their sexual and reproductive rights. In India too, there is growing awareness of the importance of providing CSE not only to reduce sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies and abortions but also to teach important life skills. Simultaneously, lack of political will and conflicting interests among certain religious and political factions have ensured that no uniform CSE curriculum has been implemented throughout the country. This paper analyses the Adolescent Education Programme teacher curriculum as revised in 2009–2010 by the National Council of Educational Research and Training and the United Nations Population Fund. It highlights some of the opportunities presented by the curriculum and argues that despite its intent of providing relevant sexuality education for young people, the language of the curriculum is vague, thus potentially exacerbating confusion, and excluding people who do not conform to societal stereotypes of sex, gender, and ability. In order to be holistic, any CSE programme must be inclusive, cater to diverse needs and present content in a rights-based language without adding to the socio-cultural context of mystery and shame attached to sexuality.     

Unleashing student potential through democratic participation in decision making: controversies and prospects

The idea of students participating in decisions that affect them as individuals, organisations and/or communities is recent and urgent. The participation of students in decision making has gained global support, yet it does not seem to be regarded as a main vehicle for promoting democracy in educational institutions. This conceptual paper aims at demonstrating the difficulties perceived to hinder student participation in educational institutions. It further proposes strategies that may favour the increased and improved involvement of students in decision making processes. The reviewed literature on student participation informing this article highlights positive outcomes from engaging students as decision makers in education.     

Realizing children's right to participation in early childhood settings: some critical issues in a Norwegian context

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has during recent decades influenced professionals and policy‐makers in Norway as well as in other countries, resulting in changes in documents regulating early childhood institutions. Little is known, however, about the way this right is understood and realized in everyday practice. How is the concept of participation understood by professionals in the field? What issues emerge as problematic in everyday practice? Combining findings from an evaluation study and research from early childhood institutions, it is possible to unravel three problem areas. They are described under these headings: (a) Interpreting participation with a bias towards individualism? (b) Play and playful interaction – an integral part of children's right to participation? (c) Are the youngest children ‘mature’ enough? The article is rounded off by pointing to the need to pay critical attention both to what is happening on policy levels, and to theoretical perspectives influencing the professionals in the field.     

Gathering the views of children and young people to inform practice in a psychological service

This paper describes the process employed by a psychological service to gather the views of children and young people using guided discussion groups and questionnaires. Pupils in the guided discussion groups were asked to identify issues that affect them and how adults could help. This information was analysed using thematic analysis. Seven themes were identified as issues: managing feelings; friendships; behaviour; specific difficulties that can affect learning; not being accepted; bullying; and ‘other important issues’, including bereavement and family difficulties. In relation to each of these themed issues, several sub‐themes regarding how adults could help were collated. Questionnaire data was analysed using inferential statistics. The questionnaire rated the importance of help from adults in the areas of learning, friendships and feelings. Results suggested that these were equally important to primary‐aged pupils. Findings were used to contribute to the development plan and shape future practice.     

Exclusion from school and recognition of difference

ABSTRACT

There has been an overall decrease in exclusion rates and numbers in recent years across the UK. This change has often been heralded as evidence that national inclusion policies are ‘working’ and that schools themselves are becoming increasingly inclusive. This article examines findings from a recent study on school exclusion in Wales, noting that exclusion is falling here in line with UK wide trends. However, exclusion rates of children with special needs and others who face multiple disadvantages remain stubbornly high. Given these findings, and the evidence that this is the case across the UK, an important question arises about the broader relationship between school exclusion and inequality. This article seeks to address this question, and asks whether and to what extent the politics of recognition of difference, in Nancy Fraser's terms, can help explain the continuing over-representation of some groups of marginalised and vulnerable children in exclusion figures, despite this overall downward trend.     

Children's rights,school exclusion and alternative educational provision

This paper examines findings from a recent study in Wales of school exclusion and alternative educational provision. Many, but not all, children in alternative provision have been excluded from school. The most recent statistics reveal that nearly 90% of pupils in alternative provision have special educational needs, nearly 70% are entitled to free school meals (free school meal entitlement is often used as a proxy indicator for poverty in the UK) and three quarters are boys (Welsh Government. 2012a. Pupils Educated Other than at School, 2011/12. Cardiff: Welsh Government). The paper focuses on analysis of findings about young people's experiences of exclusion and alternative provision, and how these experiences may be contextualised within a discussion of children's rights. This analysis suggests that young people's experience is highly variable; that inappropriate curricula are still common, pastoral support uneven and that few opportunities exist for success or re-integration. In the most disturbing examples, young people were found to have experienced physical restraint and the use of isolation as punishment. The paper concludes, therefore, with a proposal for change aimed at ensuring that children's rights are placed at the heart of educational experience in practice as well as policy.     

Inclusion,exclusion and children's rights

Abstract

This case study examines the experiences of a student who was excluded twice from a mainstream school while preparing for GCSE examinations. The authors are the student and his aunt. The exclusions were for an indefinite period and were triggered as a result of the school's inability to respond adequately to recurring epileptic seizures. The student, who has Asperger syndrome and a statement of special educational needs, had not broken any disciplinary code. Teachers' understanding of the label ‘special educational needs’ is questioned. The SEN and Disability Act 2001 has far-reaching implications for school ethos and culture. Schools' failure to anticipate the needs of students with disabilities or SEN may well lead to unlawful discrimination. Inclusive schools will need to recognize that in meeting students' individual needs the institution itself may need to change. Barriers to genuine parent partnership in education must be overcome, and children's participation rights, as confirmed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, must be respected.     

Evaluating a method for eliciting children's voice about educational support with children with speech,language and communication needs

This article reports the development and evaluation of a toolkit‐based approach to eliciting children's experiences of educational support, where the children in question experience speech and communication needs. The ‘Your Voice Your Choice’ approach was evaluated using a cross‐case analysis methodology, which represents a novel approach to critical examination of the effectiveness of such resources. We explored seven case studies within a critical realist framework. We found that the toolkit was effective at supporting most (although not all) of the children with speech and communication needs to explore their school learning and support experiences through a scaffolded emotion‐based ‘dialogue’, which was corroborated by observations and other data sources. The toolkit facilitated access to children's voice as they revealed how they felt across a number of relational, learning and support areas, which could be used by services to focus provision and consider how to better support children's social and emotional needs.     

Young people's comparisons of cross-gender and same-gender bullying in British secondary schools

Background: Data-based decision-making in education often focuses on the use of summative assessment data in order to bring about improvements in student achievement. However, many other sources of evidence are available across a wide range of indicators. There is potential for school leaders, teachers and students to use these diverse sources more fully to support their work on a range of school improvement goals.

Purpose and sources of evidence: To explore data-based decision-making for school improvement, this theoretical paper discusses recent research and literature from different areas of data use in education. These areas include the use of formative assessment data, educational research study findings and ‘big data’. In particular, the discussion focuses on how school leaders and teachers can use different sources of data to improve the quality of education.

Main argument: Based on the literature reviewed, an iterative model of data use for school improvement is described, consisting of defining goals for data use, collecting different types of data or evidence (e.g. formal data, informal data, research evidence and ‘big data’), sense-making, taking improvement actions and evaluation. Drawing on the literature, research insights are discussed for each of these components, as well as identification of the research gaps that still exist. It is noted that the process of data use does not happen in isolation: data use is influenced by system, organisation and team/individual level factors.

Conclusions: When it comes to using data to improve the quality of teaching and learning, it is evident that some of the most important enablers and barriers include data literacy and leadership. However, what is less well understood is how we can promote the enablers and remove the barriers to unlock, more fully, the potential of data use. Only then can data use lead to sustainable school improvement.     

Adult discrimination against children: the case of abstinence-only education in twenty-first-century USA

This paper analyses abstinence-only education programmes and discourses within the frame of theories of adult discrimination against children. To begin with, a definition of abstinence-only programmes and of the political context in which they were created will be provided. These programmes will then be analysed through the lens of children's rights, as these have been defined by the United Nations. Finally, the concept of ‘childism’ as defined will be used to underline how abstinence-only education programmes can be seen to fit within the larger frame of discrimination against children.     

Promoting children's public participation in policy-making through achievement-oriented education

Abstract

This theoretical paper looked at the possibility of incorporating the social learning concept of achievement-oriented behaviour in promoting children's public participation in policy-making in the educational system. The paper highlighted how the concepts of public participation and achievement-oriented education could be used in the governance of the educational system in South Africa. The paper explored concepts such as goal-directed behaviour, achievement standards, achievement beliefs, and how the educational system could use the concepts in the promotion of children's public participation. Future studies could focus on the empirical relationship between achievement-oriented behaviour and child involvement in participatory democracy in the governance of the educational system in South Africa.     

Children's Experience in the Playground

This paper reports on an investigation carried out in a ‘key’ secondary school in Shanghai. This investigation is set in the broader context of current developments in Chinese Education. Perhaps the first surprising discovery is that the affective aspects of education are seen as highly significant in these developments. Given the vast numbers involved and great regional differences, what is described here is likely to be only representative of the best practice. The particular focus of this paper is on the multifaceted role of the class teacher. The second surprise is that though there are great differences, not least in the politicization of education, there are striking parallels with English education and there are some instances where the class teacher’s practice as described here is in advance of many of their English counterparts.