The right to participate and express a view is an intrinsic right afforded to all human beings, regardless of age (Lundy, 2007). Explicitly, Articles 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) grant participatory rights to children and young people in decision-making. One of the forms of participation academics and practitioners have studied over the past decades, the engagement of children and young people in participatory processes, is moving away from the understanding of children as passive recipients of research to active participants. However, literature has paid scant attention to research led directly by children and young people (Thomas, 2015). Child-led research is understood, as starting definition from literature, as an approach in which children and young people are involved in all stages - from planning, fieldwork and analysis to dissemination. The aim of this research is to critically explore how the process and outcomes of children and young people's participation in their own child-led research contributes, positively or negatively, to decision-making processes in the context of international development programmes. The research questions are: Question 1: What are children and young people's motivations for, expectations of and experiences with engaging in their own child-led research as a way to influence decision-making? Question 2: What are the processes of child-led research that positively or negatively influence decision-making? Question 3: In what ways does child-led research influence decision-making? (And why and how do they do so?) This research project used a case study approach to examine two cases where children and young people claimed they conducted child-led research. The first, Bekaa and Irbid, investigated the research conducted by a group of children and young people on issues relevant to their situations as refugees in the host countries of Lebanon and Jordan. The second, Dhaka, reviewed child-led research focused on the lack of birth certificates issued for Bangladeshi children and the possible effects of not having this legal registration. A group of children and young people who are members of a Children's Parliament in Dhaka led this project. The research participants for this project are defined as (1) the children and young people, aged 12 to 18 (when I interviewed them), who are associated with World Vision programmes and engaged in the child-led research projects within their constituencies in the Irbid and Bekaa and Dhaka case studies and (2) the adult professionals who acted as facilitators of child-led research projects and those who worked in the design of these projects or dissemination of their findings. These participants were those who were best suited to provide the information needed as they were fully involved in the child-led research projects and had in-depth knowledge to contribute answers to the research questions. This project adopted several methods for data collection, including focus groups, semi-structured interviews, observations and documentary review. The study followed ethical research guidelines to ensure the safety, rights, dignity and well-being of both the children and young people and adult participants (Morrow, 2009). The research took into account the special considerations required to gain informed consent, ensure confidentiality and anonymity, acknowledge the cultures of the research sites, and refrain from presenting information that may potentially harm participants (Marshall and Rossman, 2006). The findings of the study show that the child-led research approach is considered an adequate participatory approach that creates spaces for children and young people to engage in their own research and influence change based on their findings. Thus, this approach enabled participants to gather together and pursue collectively a research project in which they were able to explore issues about their lives using research methodologies that were appropriate to their experiences, abilities and expertise. This conversion, however, highlights a variety of tensions around the understanding and legitimacy of child-led research. Findings from this study supports the view that child-led research generates empirically grounded knowledge, which produced through data collection and personal experiences of the young researches and its analysis as a whole. Findings also reveal that the young researchers' motivations and expectations were to make an impact on their own lives, as well as the lives of their peers and change a situation that they perceived as unfair. Findings show that the adult facilitators played an important role in facilitating the young researchers but not managing them. However, this study evidenced some tensions between participation and protection rights. The study found manifestations of power amongst the children and young people during the child-led research projects, which were based on age, gender, religion, language and ethnicity. This confirms children and young people can replicate power relations within their participatory projects, which are deeply embedded in their traditions and cultures. Findings show that child-led research has different levels of impact; on decision-making and in the individual lives of the young researchers. This is connected to the contexts where children and young people conducted their research, which was conducive in one case study and more challenging in the other case. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the body of literature that challenges the dominant conceptualisation that children and young people are unable to conduct their own research. Instead, the findings of this research project contribute to the study of children and young people's participation by providing different perspectives on the debate around the children and young people's abilities and motivations to engage in their own child-led research projects. The findings contribute to knowledge about the nature of child-led research as an approach that supports children and young people in their struggle to participate in society. These findings contribute to the substantial gap of understanding about what is knowledge and expertise by exploring the ways in which children and young people conduct their own research and create knowledge with the aim of making a change in society. Specifically, the findings provide empirical evidence of the impact that their work has had on policy and practice and their personal lives.

Facilitating opportunities for children and young people to be involved in the decisions made about them fits with current legislation (United Nations, 1989), and has been found to improve motivation and self-esteem (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008; Griebler and Nowak 2012). The researcher asserts that, due to the nature of their difficulties, people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be prone to lack such opportunities. Examination access arrangements decisions are the focus of the study described in the second paper. The first paper describes a systematic literature review of methods used to elicit the views of students with ASD. The second paper reports a case-based action research project which involves students in organising their examination access arrangements. Participants include three year 7 students and two members of staff across two secondary schools. There is a lack of research which includes the views of those with ASD. Semi-structured interviews seemed to be the most popular data gathering method, but focus groups and electronic diaries have also been used with this group. There was a positive impact of involving students with ASD in organising their access arrangements. Advice was given regarding coping with resource limitations in this area, and provision commonly useful for students with ASD before and during examinations. More research is needed which involves participants with ASD and reflection on the suitability of their methods for this group. Findings from the action research project indicate that involving young people with ASD in deciding on their examination access arrangements can support more comprehensive identification of assessment needs. In order to increase the impact of this research, the findings were disseminated using the strategies outlined to those who may have a role in putting the findings into practice.

A cidade constitui-se hoje como um local de conflitos e disputas, sejam eles em níveis sociais, econômicos, políticos e culturais, como também de interesses distintos de usos e apropriações etárias, restringindo, cada vez mais, a participação infantil nos espaços públicos. A partir dessa constatação, a presente pesquisa desenvolve-se colocando as crianças como sujeitos e atores sociais para refletir, junto aos diferentes profissionais, sobre a construção dos espaços livres urbanos. Nesse sentido, as leituras infantis são trabalhadas como ponto de partida para a identificação das temáticas existentes nesses cenários. Por meio de uma série de oficinas realizadas com meninos e meninas moradores do distrito do Jaraguá, na região Noroeste do Município de São Paulo, trabalhou-se com as interpretações e os projetos urbanos elaborados por eles, abordando assuntos que envolvem, sobretudo, questões observadas em seus espaços cotidianos. Essa experiência institui-se como ponto central da pesquisa, que, através de interlocuções constantes com os diferentes campos teóricos abordados, estabelece uma oportunidade para analisar, não apenas os olhares infantis no e do espaço urbano, mas também a produção da cidade que estamos promovendo e vivenciando, colocando-nos para refletir sobre quais interesses estamos atendendo e privilegiando. / Nowadays the city is a place of conflicts and disputes, be they at social, economic, political and cultural levels, as well as different interests of age appropriations and uses wich increasingly restricts children\'s participation in public spaces. Based on this assumption, the present research is developed considering children as social actors to reflect, together with different professionals, on the construction of urban spaces. In this sense, children\'s perseptions are worked as a starting point for the identification of themes in these scenarios. Through a series of workshops developed with boys and girls to live in the district of Jaraguá, in the Northwest Region of the Municipality of São Paulo, we worked on the interpretations and urban projects elaborated by them, addressing issues that mainly involve subjects observed in their routine spaces. This experience was as a central point of the research, which, through constant dialogues with different theoretical approaches, establishes an opportunity to reflect not only on children\'s views in and of urban space, but also on the production of the city that we are promoting and experiencing, putting ourselves to think about what interests we are attending and privileging.

A cidade constitui-se hoje como um local de conflitos e disputas, sejam eles em níveis sociais, econômicos, políticos e culturais, como também de interesses distintos de usos e apropriações etárias, restringindo, cada vez mais, a participação infantil nos espaços públicos. A partir dessa constatação, a presente pesquisa desenvolve-se colocando as crianças como sujeitos e atores sociais para refletir, junto aos diferentes profissionais, sobre a construção dos espaços livres urbanos. Nesse sentido, as leituras infantis são trabalhadas como ponto de partida para a identificação das temáticas existentes nesses cenários. Por meio de uma série de oficinas realizadas com meninos e meninas moradores do distrito do Jaraguá, na região Noroeste do Município de São Paulo, trabalhou-se com as interpretações e os projetos urbanos elaborados por eles, abordando assuntos que envolvem, sobretudo, questões observadas em seus espaços cotidianos. Essa experiência institui-se como ponto central da pesquisa, que, através de interlocuções constantes com os diferentes campos teóricos abordados, estabelece uma oportunidade para analisar, não apenas os olhares infantis no e do espaço urbano, mas também a produção da cidade que estamos promovendo e vivenciando, colocando-nos para refletir sobre quais interesses estamos atendendo e privilegiando. / Nowadays the city is a place of conflicts and disputes, be they at social, economic, political and cultural levels, as well as different interests of age appropriations and uses wich increasingly restricts children\'s participation in public spaces. Based on this assumption, the present research is developed considering children as social actors to reflect, together with different professionals, on the construction of urban spaces. In this sense, children\'s perseptions are worked as a starting point for the identification of themes in these scenarios. Through a series of workshops developed with boys and girls to live in the district of Jaraguá, in the Northwest Region of the Municipality of São Paulo, we worked on the interpretations and urban projects elaborated by them, addressing issues that mainly involve subjects observed in their routine spaces. This experience was as a central point of the research, which, through constant dialogues with different theoretical approaches, establishes an opportunity to reflect not only on children\'s views in and of urban space, but also on the production of the city that we are promoting and experiencing, putting ourselves to think about what interests we are attending and privileging.

This thesis explores the participation of children within legal discourse by looking at how laws and policies engage or disengage children. The basic premise is that to understand children’s participation is to confront the discourse of children and childhood where we uncover underlying assumptions, interests and agendas that inform our conception of who the child is and what the experience of childhood entails. Specifically, the thesis examines child participation within the Philippine legal framework by looking at the status, conditions and circumstances of children in four contexts: family, educational system, work environment and youth justice system. It argues that our conceptions of children and childhood are not only produced from a particular discourse but in turn are productive of a particular construction and practices reflected in the legal system. In its examination, the thesis reveals a complex Philippine legal framework shaped by competing paradigms of children and childhood that both give meaning to and respond to children’s engagements. On the one hand, there is a dominant discourse based on universal patterns of development and socialization that views children as objects of adult control and influence. But at the same time, there is some concrete attraction to an emerging paradigm influenced by childhood studies and the child rights movement that opens up opportunities for children’s participation. In advocating for broader acceptance of the emerging paradigm, the thesis identifies distinctive understandings of this paradigm in the Philippine context. A central argument is that in reconstructing the legal discourse of children and childhood, children’s participation grounded on the emerging paradigm does not necessarily introduce “new” understandings of children and childhood in the Philippines but, in fact, confirms existing beliefs and practices that articulate deeply held indigenous relational values. Within this contextualized understanding of the emerging paradigm, the thesis articulates children’s participation as: recognition of children as rights-bearers; acknowledgment of children’s realities as lived and experienced by them; and respect for the meaningful and constitutive relationships that children establish. Consequently, the intrinsic quality and meaning of actions of the child and towards the child take on a significant legal, social and moral value.

This thesis explores the participation of children within legal discourse by looking at how laws and policies engage or disengage children. The basic premise is that to understand children’s participation is to confront the discourse of children and childhood where we uncover underlying assumptions, interests and agendas that inform our conception of who the child is and what the experience of childhood entails. Specifically, the thesis examines child participation within the Philippine legal framework by looking at the status, conditions and circumstances of children in four contexts: family, educational system, work environment and youth justice system. It argues that our conceptions of children and childhood are not only produced from a particular discourse but in turn are productive of a particular construction and practices reflected in the legal system. In its examination, the thesis reveals a complex Philippine legal framework shaped by competing paradigms of children and childhood that both give meaning to and respond to children’s engagements. On the one hand, there is a dominant discourse based on universal patterns of development and socialization that views children as objects of adult control and influence. But at the same time, there is some concrete attraction to an emerging paradigm influenced by childhood studies and the child rights movement that opens up opportunities for children’s participation. In advocating for broader acceptance of the emerging paradigm, the thesis identifies distinctive understandings of this paradigm in the Philippine context. A central argument is that in reconstructing the legal discourse of children and childhood, children’s participation grounded on the emerging paradigm does not necessarily introduce “new” understandings of children and childhood in the Philippines but, in fact, confirms existing beliefs and practices that articulate deeply held indigenous relational values. Within this contextualized understanding of the emerging paradigm, the thesis articulates children’s participation as: recognition of children as rights-bearers; acknowledgment of children’s realities as lived and experienced by them; and respect for the meaningful and constitutive relationships that children establish. Consequently, the intrinsic quality and meaning of actions of the child and towards the child take on a significant legal, social and moral value.

Essa investigação busca evidenciar as ações e os interesses de aprendizagem das crianças bem pequenas, articulando-os à possibilidade de promover a participação infantil no planejamento e organização do cotidiano escolar. O suporte teórico que fundamenta esse trabalho é o conceito de aprendizagem pela vida cotidiana (BROUGÈRE; ULMANN, 2012) e as discussões sobre participação infantil pautadas nas interlocuções dos Estudos da Criança, especialmente no campo da Sociologia da Infância (FERNANDES, 2009). As estratégias metodológicas foram construídas principalmente a partir do referencial sobre investigações qualitativas (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1994) e sobre pesquisa com crianças (GRAUE; WALSH, 2003). Participaram da pesquisa treze crianças entre 17 e 27 meses de uma escola pública de Educação Infantil de Porto Alegre e sete adultos. As crianças são consideradas protagonistas desse estudo, porém as professoras e o estagiário responsáveis pela turma, através de suas práticas, constituíram-se como importantes interlocutores ao longo da pesquisa. Os interesses de aprendizagem das crianças foram organizados em três categorias de análise que sustentam a ideia de aprender na vida em comum, aprender pela vida cotidiana e, por fim, aprender fora da “sala de aula”. Esses grupos de interesse indicam que a participação infantil na organização do cotidiano da escola está atravessada pela concepção das ações das crianças, em busca de compreender, estar junto e fazer parte do mundo, como aprendizagens fundamentais na primeira infância. / This investigation aims to put in evidence the activities and learning interests of young childrenarticulating them to the possibility of promoting child participation in the planning and organization of the school daily life. The theoretical support on which this work is based is the concept of learning through daily life (BROUGÈRE e ULMANN, 2012) and the discussions about child participation based on the interlocutions of Child Studies, especially in the field of sociology of children (FERNANDES, 2009). The methodological strategies were developed mainly from the reference of qualitative investigation (BOGDAN e BIKLEN, 1994) and child research (GRAUE E WALSH, 2003). Thirteen children aged 17 to 27 months from a public day care in Porto Alegre and seven adults participated in this research. The children are considered protagonist of this study, but the teachers and trainee in charge of the group became important interlocutors along the research due to their work. The learning interests of children were divided into three categories of analysis that support the idea of learning in the shared childhood, daily life and,finally, “outside” the classroom. These groups of interests indicate that the child participation in the school life organization is related to the children’s activities seeking to understand, get together and be part of the world, which constituteessential learning in the early childhood.

Essa investigação busca evidenciar as ações e os interesses de aprendizagem das crianças bem pequenas, articulando-os à possibilidade de promover a participação infantil no planejamento e organização do cotidiano escolar. O suporte teórico que fundamenta esse trabalho é o conceito de aprendizagem pela vida cotidiana (BROUGÈRE; ULMANN, 2012) e as discussões sobre participação infantil pautadas nas interlocuções dos Estudos da Criança, especialmente no campo da Sociologia da Infância (FERNANDES, 2009). As estratégias metodológicas foram construídas principalmente a partir do referencial sobre investigações qualitativas (BOGDAN; BIKLEN, 1994) e sobre pesquisa com crianças (GRAUE; WALSH, 2003). Participaram da pesquisa treze crianças entre 17 e 27 meses de uma escola pública de Educação Infantil de Porto Alegre e sete adultos. As crianças são consideradas protagonistas desse estudo, porém as professoras e o estagiário responsáveis pela turma, através de suas práticas, constituíram-se como importantes interlocutores ao longo da pesquisa. Os interesses de aprendizagem das crianças foram organizados em três categorias de análise que sustentam a ideia de aprender na vida em comum, aprender pela vida cotidiana e, por fim, aprender fora da “sala de aula”. Esses grupos de interesse indicam que a participação infantil na organização do cotidiano da escola está atravessada pela concepção das ações das crianças, em busca de compreender, estar junto e fazer parte do mundo, como aprendizagens fundamentais na primeira infância. / This investigation aims to put in evidence the activities and learning interests of young childrenarticulating them to the possibility of promoting child participation in the planning and organization of the school daily life. The theoretical support on which this work is based is the concept of learning through daily life (BROUGÈRE e ULMANN, 2012) and the discussions about child participation based on the interlocutions of Child Studies, especially in the field of sociology of children (FERNANDES, 2009). The methodological strategies were developed mainly from the reference of qualitative investigation (BOGDAN e BIKLEN, 1994) and child research (GRAUE E WALSH, 2003). Thirteen children aged 17 to 27 months from a public day care in Porto Alegre and seven adults participated in this research. The children are considered protagonist of this study, but the teachers and trainee in charge of the group became important interlocutors along the research due to their work. The learning interests of children were divided into three categories of analysis that support the idea of learning in the shared childhood, daily life and,finally, “outside” the classroom. These groups of interests indicate that the child participation in the school life organization is related to the children’s activities seeking to understand, get together and be part of the world, which constituteessential learning in the early childhood.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-08-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:30:29Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ferreira_mf_me_bauru.pdf: 7226808 bytes, checksum: b8e9b41eed7798cb5e3f2ffa825d07e0 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Tendo em vista a presença das tecnologias da informação e comunicação no cotidiano das crianças, o presente trabalho investiga as produções midiáticas para esse público na Internet, a fim de elaborar um webjornal infantil. Considerando as crianças como usuárias interativas das novas mídias, em especial da Internet, torna-se fundamental que tais produções correspondam aos seus interesses e necessidades. Para conhecer essa nova geração da infância, que já nasce com as tecnologias, realizamos uma pesquisa com crianças de 10 a 12 anos, em uma escola pública em Bauru (SP), com a finalidade de verificar a relação que estabeleceram com a Internet, com os sites infantis e com o webjornalismo. Diante das opiniões e questionamentos delas, direcionamos nossa análise para sites infantis, de forma a identificar sua adequação ao público alvo. Frente às análises, definimos os elementos do webjornal, visando a sua usabilidade e interação com as crianças. Os resultados obtidos visam à promoção e valorização da infância enquanto público-alvo de mídia, além de pontuar a importância da participação infantil em relação a assuntos de seu interesse que, direta ou indiretamente, atuam em sua formação como cidadã e leitora crítica da realidade. Ao mesmo tempo, discutimos a produção jornalística para crianças na Internet, com a intenção de demonstrar sua viabilidade e contribuição social / Taking for granted technologies of information have been present in our day-by-day lives more and more frequently, mainly in our children's activities, this work traces an investigative study on media products developed toward a particular teenage gap (10-12 years old) using internet tools, in order to elaborate a childlike web-news site. Considering children as interactive users of new media, specially the Internet, it is essential that such products fulfill all their interests and necessities. To learn more about this generation, which was born literature for the technologies, we developed a research based on children aged 10 to 12 from a public school in Bauru, country side of São Paulo state. Our goal is to verify what kind of relationship those children set up concerning to the Internet, designed sites for children an the web-news sities. Taking the children's opinions and questionings into account, we will guide our research to the analysis of infant sites in order to identify their suitability to their targeted users. According to data obtained from ghe analyses, we define the elements of a web-news site, aiming its larger usability and interaction with the children. The results obatined take into consideration both better promotion and value of childrood whereas media targeted clients besides pointing out the importance of infant's participation as both citizens and critical readers of the reality they are inserted. We also discuss the web-news production for children on the internet aiming to demonstrate its viability and social contribution

There is a consensus in Sweden that children are right-bearers and shall participate in matters that affect them among legislators, the government’s instructions by Barns Behov I Centrum (BBIC) (Child’s needs in focus) and among social workers. Despite this, previous research shows that children’s participation in social investigations is limited. The aim of this study is to analyse and interpret how social worker’s describe and understand children’s participation in their daily work at a social welfare unit. It is their perception of child participation that is studied. The data consists of interviews with nine social workers investigating children of 0-12 years of age at three social welfare units in municipalities’ in the outskirts of Stockholm. The theoretical perspective of this study is childhood sociology. The social workers in this study regard children as competent enough to receive information as well as capable contributors to the investigations. Participation was viewed as a cornerstone in their work with children. Children were described as capable of communicating information and their perspective on their situation through speech, behaviour or play indicating that all children can contribute despite age. But oral communication dominates and has a higher value, showing that age and maturity has an impact on children’s participation. Restrictions by guardians, time-restraint and heavy workloads also limited children’s participation during the investigation.