Session Information
Contribution
Paper to be considered for a joint paper session between networks Histories of Education and Research on Children's Rights. Papers P367, 350, 142 and 949 to be scheduled in this session, with Bruno Vanobbergen (R875) to be session Chair. Since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989, scholars from various disciplines and backgrounds have been studying the impact of this convention on both daily practice and science. Nowadays, the CRC seems to be considered as a common theoretical framework and language. However, this raises several important questionso is there indeed one universal framework for children's rights or are there different (historical) discourses? o if so, what are potential implications for researchers and practitioners? o what is the place of educational research within this development ?Therefore, this contribution aims at summarizing contemporary ideas on children's (human) rights, and its consequences for educational research. The results of a systematic historical literature review, based on scientific articles published from 1989 until present in journals indexed in the Web of Science (ISI) will be presented.A first preliminary analysis seems to reveal discursive results: there is a great variety with regard to primary subject, theoretical point of view, discipline, concepts, methodology, etc.Yet, some common themes and trends can be distinguished. First, there is a shift from more "ideological" towards more "scientific" theories on children's rights. Secondly, the juxtaposition of children's rights and parents' rights, advocacy, participation and the responsibilities-rights debate seem to be important themes. Thirdly, variation exists between disciplines and fourthly, as a consequence of the previous conclusion, theoretical frameworks are very divers. The only feature this literature seems to have in common is the language in which it describes dealing with children: relationships with children are translated in terms of rights. This literature however does not analyze the meaning nor the consequences of this "rights-talk", not even in educational settings.From an educational point of view, some potential problems may arise. First, educational theory on children's rights is decontextualized. Social, economical and historical contexts in which children's rights are 'created' are not taken into account. On the contrary, the focus is directed towards the rights children have and how these can be translated into practice. This "implementation discourse" is characterized by narrowing the children's rights debate into a debate on the juridical position of children. In this sense, educational practice is "legalized": both educational practices and solutions for educational problems are prescribed in juridical terms. This implementation discourse reduces educational practices into an instrumentalist practice aimed at implementing rights of children in educational settings. Such an approach grasps educational relations in terms of rights and duties, instead of relationships of care and commitment. Secondly, the implementation discourse is a-historic in the sense that it avoids analyzing the historical backgrounds of the origins of children's rights. Children's rights are legitimized on the basis of philosophical grounds which suggests the discovery of a final truth. As a consequence, the necessity for historic educational research on children's rights could easily be denied.historical literature review, based on scientific articles published from 1989 until present in journals indexed in the Web of Science (ISI) see "description of the paper" The paper will be submitted as an article to an international peer reviewed journal
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