This article explores the consequences of the view that the identifications of children and adults and the spaces they inhabit are undergoing a continuous co-specification.Firstly, the article describes and critiques the rationales provided that suggest we should consult with children and young people and encourage their participation. In response, the author suggests that policy and practice and research on children's participation are better framed being fundamentally about child-adult relations and that the emerging field would benefit from becoming more sensitive to socio-spatial aspects. Examples of research projects in three different contexts (school grounds, an arts centre, and the 'childfree zone') are reviewed for evidence to show that they how they were centrally about the emergence of spaces for new child-adult relations. The goal for a reframed 'children's participation' project could be to understand better how child-adult relations and spaces get constructed and how they can be improved. Keywords: Pupil voice, participation, child-adult relations.1 Institute of Education, University of Stirling, Scotland, FK9 4LA, UK. Email: gbgm1@stir.ac.uk IntroductionIn this article I suggest that the current discourse around listening to children and children's participation has grave deficiencies and needs reframing. The article explores the emerging policy and social practices (including research practices) that involve 'listening to children' / consultation (where children's views are sought) and participation wherein children may have involvement in decision making (see Hill et al., 2004). International reviewers have already noted the need for a reframing of this field:It is clear that, given powerful adult agendas at play, "having a say" is insufficient to achieve effective and meaningful participation for young people.Instead, there is a need to more fully consider the complexity and interplay of values and interests in local decision-making and everyday social processes.(Clarke and Percy-Smith, 2006, p. 2) By bringing together the critiques of this emerging field of study alongside emerging theoretical frameworks, the article goes some way towards providing starting points for what this reframing might look like. Firstly, I describe the rationales provided that suggest we should consult with children and young people and encourage their participation. While doing this, I explore the critiques that suggest there are problems with these rationales. One main critique, for example, is that the context for children's self-advocacy, 'hearing their voices' and their participation in the broadest sense, is as much about outcomes for adults as much as children. As a result, I first suggest policy and practice and research on children's participation is better framed as being about child-adult relations.The second suggestion concerns the role of the overarching socio-spatial contexts for children's participation. In order to bring these two aspects into view, I will argue that we need to take an approach that...
Encouraged by transnational organisations, curriculum policy makers in the UK have called for curricula in schools and higher education to include a global dimension and education for global citizenship that will prepare students for life in a global society and work in a global economy. We argue that this call is rhetorically operating as a 'nodal point' in policy discourse -a floating signifier that different discourses attempt to cover with meaning. This rhetoric attempts to bring three educational traditions together: environmental education, development education and citizenship education. We explore this new point of arrival and departure and some of the consequences and critiques.
Citizen science is a growing field of research and practice, generating new knowledge and understanding through the collaboration of citizens in scientific research. As the field expands, it is becoming increasingly important to consider its potential to foster education and learning opportunities. Although progress has been made to support learning in citizen science projects, as well as to facilitate citizen science in formal and informal learning environments, challenges still arise. This paper identifies a number of dilemmas facing the field—from competing scientific goals and learning outcomes, differing underlying ontologies and epistemologies, diverging communication strategies, to clashing values around advocacy and activism. Although such challenges can become barriers to the successful integration of citizen science into mainstream education systems, they also serve as signposts for possible synergies and opportunities. One of the key emerging recommendations is to align educational learning outcomes with citizen science project goals at the planning stage of the project using co-creation approaches to ensure issues of accessibility and inclusivity are paramount throughout the design and implementation of every project. Only then can citizen science realise its true potential to empower citizens to take ownership of their own science education and learning.
The nature-based excursion has been a significant teaching strategy in environmental education for decades. This article draws upon empirical data from a collaborative research project where teachers were encouraged to visit natural areas to provide an understanding of their roles and experiences of planning and enacting excursions. The analysis indicates that teachers' sensitisation towards place was aided by collaboration, advance planning visits, and the very practice of making place-responsive excursions with pupils. The authors build on the analysis to propose a theory of place-responsive pedagogy. At its core, place-responsive pedagogy involves the explicit efforts to teach by-means-of-an-environment with the aim of understanding and improving humanenvironment relations. Some implications for teacher professional development are offered.
Background A recent dialogue in the field of play, learn, and teach outdoors (referred to as “PLaTO” hereafter) demonstrated the need for developing harmonized and consensus-based terminology, taxonomy, and ontology for PLaTO. This is important as the field evolves and diversifies in its approaches, contents, and contexts over time and in different countries, cultures, and settings. Within this paper, we report the systematic and iterative processes undertaken to achieve this objective, which has built on the creation of the global PLaTO-Network (PLaTO-Net). Methods This project comprised of four major methodological phases. First, a systematic scoping review was conducted to identify common terms and definitions used pertaining to PLaTO. Second, based on the results of the scoping review, a draft set of key terms, taxonomy, and ontology were developed, and shared with PLaTO members, who provided feedback via four rounds of consultation. Third, PLaTO terminology, taxonomy, and ontology were then finalized based on the feedback received from 50 international PLaTO member participants who responded to ≥ 3 rounds of the consultation survey and dialogue. Finally, efforts to share and disseminate project outcomes were made through different online platforms. Results This paper presents the final definitions and taxonomy of 31 PLaTO terms along with the PLaTO-Net ontology model. The model incorporates other relevant concepts in recognition that all the aspects of the model are interrelated and interconnected. The final terminology, taxonomy, and ontology are intended to be applicable to, and relevant for, all people encompassing various identities (e.g., age, gender, culture, ethnicity, ability). Conclusions This project contributes to advancing PLaTO-based research and facilitating intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration, with the long-term goal of fostering and strengthening PLaTO’s synergistic linkages with healthy living, environmental stewardship, climate action, and planetary health agendas. Notably, PLaTO terminology, taxonomy and ontology will continue to evolve, and PLaTO-Net is committed to advancing and periodically updating harmonized knowledge and understanding in the vast and interrelated areas of PLaTO.
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