On participation. Zooming out and zooming in a central educational construct

The paper explores the construct of «participation», critically discussing various theoretical perspectives to approach it. Specifically, the article considers two different yet interrelated levels of analysis: the macro-level of international policies and the micro-level of everyday social interaction. First, the study considers international policies on children’s participatory rights and presents a milieu of studies that variously discussed and assessed them. Second, it illustrates how macro-level policies are re-negotiated at the micro-level of participants’ social interactions. Specifically, a review of previous literature shows that children’s participation is also constructed in practice. This appraisal is instrumental to underline the construct’s pedagogical relevance and discuss the analyst’s positioning. Regarding the latter, in the discussion, it is argued that analysts need to be aware of the multifaceted character of the construct of participation to avoid a restricted analytical gaze on this phenomenon.