Pascal C., Bertram T. Listening to young citizens: the struggle to make real a participatory paradigm in research with young children
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Pascal C., Bertram T. Listening to young citizens: the struggle to make real a participatory paradigm in research with young children // Preschool Education Today. 2015, Issue 1. P.68–78
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Abstract
Since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified in 1991, children’s right to have a voice, and to have their opinions heard, has led many providers and practitioners in the field of early years to seek ways to involve children’s perspectives in the evaluation and development of practice. Those who value democracy understand that encouraging young children to actively participate has long term implications for participatory citizenship. Researchers in early childhood have also been sensitised to the challenge of inclusive research, in which our youngest children are viewed as active subjects, rather than objects, in a research process that is set in the context of a democratic encounter. The Centre for Research in Early Childhood in Birmingham, England has a strong ethical commitment to including the voices of children as an integral part of all its research and development work. We operate through an ethos of empowerment of all participants, and aim for participatory research practice which has at its heart an active involvement in promoting the rights of children as citizens with voice and power. This paper will trace a brief history of the children’s participatory position in England and explore the struggles and challenges we, as researchers, have faced in making our personal commitment to children’s participation a reality. It will draw upon the work of a series of research and development projects we have undertaken over the last fifteen years in which we tried to work alongside children to explore and document their realities of life in early childhood settings. These projects include the Effective Early Learning (EEL) Programme, the Accounting Early for Life Long Learning (AcE) Programme, the Children Crossing Borders Project (Bertram and Pascal 2007) and the Opening Windows (OW) Programme. Through the work of these projects, and with an especial focus on the Children Crossing Borders research, which was the precursor to the OW programme, we explain how we have attempted to provide space for multiple voices in the research process. We share our learning about how better to support and listen to the voices of young children, who are the most often silenced in the production of knowledge and understandings about their lives. From this experience, methodological and epistemological lessons for researchers and practitioners will be identified and further explored.
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2. Bertram, T., and C. Pascal. 2006. Effective early learning programme: Evaluating and improving quality in early childhood settings. Birmingham, UK: Amber Publications.
3. Bertram, T., and C. Pascal. 2007. Children Crossing Borders: Enhancing the inclusion of children in pre-school settings. Children in Europe 12: 23–5.
4. Bertram, T., and C. Pascal. 2008a. Children Crossing Borders. http://www.childrencrossingborders.org/index.html.
5. Bertram, T., and C. Pascal. 2008b. Opening Windows: A handbook for enhancing equity and diversity in early childhood settings. Birmingham, UK: Amber Publications.
6. Bertram, T., C. Pascal, and M. Saunders. 2009. Accounting Early for Life Long Learning Programme. Birmingham, UK: Amber Publications.
7. Biesta, G.J.J., R. Lawy, and N. Kelly. 2008. Understanding young people’s citizenship learning in everyday life: The role of contexts, relationships and dispositions. Education Citizenship and Social Justice 4, no. 1: 5–24.
8. Bruce, T. 2005. Early childhood education. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
9. Burgess, R. 2000. Foreward. In Researching children’s perspectives, ed. A. Lewis and G, xiv. Lindsay. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
10. Clark, A. and P. Moss. 2001. Listening to children: The Mosaic approach. London: National Children’s Bureau and Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
11. Clark, A., S. McQuail, and P. Moss. 2003. Exploring the field of listening to and consulting with young children. Research Report 445. London: Department for Education and Skills.
12. Clark, A., A.T. Kjorholt, and P. Moss, eds. 2005. Beyond listening: Children’s perspectives on early childhood services. Bristol: Policy Press.
13. Dahlberg, G., P. Moss, and A. Pence. 2006. Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
14. Dupree, E., T. Bertram, and C. Pascal. 2001. Listening to children’s perspectives of their early childhood settings. Paper presented at the 11th European Early Childhood Education Research Association Conference, Alkmaar, The Netherlands, September 1.
15. Formosinho, J., and A.S. Barros. 2004. Children’s perspectives about pedagogical interactions. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 12, no. 1: 103–14.
16. Freire, P. 1972. Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin Books.
17. Gardner, H. 1983. Frames of mind: A theory of multiple intelligences. London: Fontana.
18. Lancaster, P. 2006. RAMPS: A framework for listening to children. London: Daycare Trust.
19. Langsted, O. 1994. Looking at quality from the child’s perspective. In Valuing quality in early childhood services: New approaches to defining quality, ed. P. Moss and A. Pence, 28–42. London: Paul Chapman.
20. Lewis, A., and G. Lindsay, eds. 2000. Researching children’s perspectives. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
21. Lloyd-Smith, M., and J. Tarr. 2000. Researching children’s perspectives: A sociological perspective. In Researching children’s perspectives, ed. A. Lewis and G. Lindsay, 59–69. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
22. Mahatma Ghandi. 1945. Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, ed. Jag Parvesh. Chander, India: DJVU.
23. Malaguzzi, L. 1998. The hundred languages of children. Stanford, CT: Ablex Publishing.
24. Maybin, J., and M. Woodhead. 2003. Childhoods in context. Buckingham, UK: Wiley and OU Press.
25. Miller, J. 1997. Never too young. London: National Early Years Network.
26. Roberts, R. 2002. Self esteem and early learning. London: Paul Chapman Educational Publishers.
27. Tobin, J.J., D.Y.H. Wu, and D.H. Davidson. 1989. Preschool in three cultures, Japan, China,and the United States. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
28. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 1991. Articles 12 and 13. http://www.unchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm.
29. Woodhead, M. 1999. Towards a global paradigm for research into early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 7, no. 1: 5–22.