Session Information
25 SES 06, Participation and Self-Expression
Paper Session
Contribution
This research investigates the views of adults regarding 8 to 12 year old children (“tweens”). The project seeks to complement other research (Sargeant, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010) that established tween’s competence in articulating their views, and their ability to report on their lived experiences of childhood. The studies also established a possible disjunction between the way tweens experience childhood, and how adults perceive it to be experienced. A central philosophy underpinning this work seeks an acknowledgment of the presence of children and their accounts of life. Whilst there is a growing body of work that explores children’s view of their own worlds, there is limited work the reveals adult views of tween children.
Parallel to this philosophical position, is a genuine attempt to respond to the mandates of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). By ratifying the UNCRC, a country undertakes a legal obligation to accord children their rights. The notion that a community can provide the structure and procedures that enable children’s participation , shapes the ideas the community has about children should it view the child as a competent and capable contributor. However, before further progress can be made in promoting the authentic inclusion of children’s voices in education, it is important for educational researchers to gain a broader sense of how adults actually view children’s capacities.
Australia ratified the CRC in December 1990, but it has not yet been incorporated into Australian law. As such, children do not have an official or defined role in mainstream politics and policy making. While children in Australia are afforded many of the protections of the UNCRC they are more a consequence of the Australian cultural and political systems than any formal application of the UNCRC since ratification. It remains apparent that many in the Australian community, both adult and child, maintain a poor understanding of the convention and its core principles. Such ignorance reflects a limited application of Article 42 in the Australian context.
The notion of children having “rights’ often draws reactions by many in the community that child rights encourages an overly permissive approach to discipline and education that undermines the rights of the adult (e.g. parent, teacher, authority figure). Most professions that deal with children (i.e. education, law, health, etc.) are “accustomed to making assumptions about the needs of children and what is best for them” (Smith, 2007, p. 3).
Education professionals are in a position to play a proactive role towards the recognition of rights for all children, and respond by attempting to change the status quo through policy and practice. Child advocacy, by reason then, involves raising the status of children, increasing their position as social agents and highlighting the accountability of any institution, agency or profession affecting them. However, there is little research that investigates adult conceptualisations of children and childhood from a capacities perspective.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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