Children's education for participation in public, formal and structured decision-making processes. Moving between policy and practice

The research explores children’s education for participation in public, formal and structured decision-making processes. The relationship between education and politics has been at the heart of various pedagogical traditions (Bertolini, 2003; Dewey, 1916; Freire, 1968) which have placed the concept of participation at its centre. In the history of politics, as intended in the European tradition, participation is far from being an inherent practice; instead, it requires specific training. Childhood studies’ (Ariès, 1968; Becchi, 1994) analyse children’s participation in common spaces as a defining feature of the profile of childhood in the course of history. To date, child participation is a transversal but not explicit dimension of the exercise of rights, the formation of which is placed at the basis of the sustainable development of humanity (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). Moreover, the phenomenon underlies a crucial pedagogical question: what can a child learn to do and be in a given society (Biffi, 2018)? The meanings of the phenomenon have been explored through a content analysis (Berelson, 1952; Mayring, 2004) of policies addressed to children from 2010 to 2018 at an international and European level (Montà, 2021). Subsequently, an empirical phase explored its lived meanings. The project is part of a qualitative research approach (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018), built on the basis of the phenomenological-hermeneutic method (Mortari, 2016; Van Manen, 1990, 2016), according to the case study strategy (Yin, 2014). The case was identified in the exemplary experience offered by the work carried out by the Scottish Children's Parliament (CP) in collaboration with Manor Park Primary School in Aberdeen. It is a context able to translate into educational practices the sense of children’s participation in public, formal and structured decision-making processes as described by policies. Data collection and documentation of the research process took place through ethnographic observations (Anderson-Levitt, 2006; Angrosino & Rosenberg, 2011; Van Manen, 1990), semi-structured interviews (Hesse-Biber, 2017; Merriam, 2009; Sità, 2012) and focus groups that were held also online (Moore, McKee, & McCoughlin, 2015; Salmons, 2014; Stancanelli, 2010; Wilson, 1997). A central role was also played by the researcher's reflective thinking, which was kept track of through the research journal. Data analysis was conducted following the phenomenological-hermeneutic approach (Van Manen, 1990) with the support of NVivo software. Reflections and indications emerge from the work that are crucial for rethinking the construct of 'child participation' and the underlying educational practices.