I am delighted to host this fascinating guest post written by Barbara Lill Rastern in which she reflects on training adults on children's participation in protecting themselves and others from abuse. Barbara is a consultant who has conducted several training workshops in which she has been training practitioners and training trainers to take forward the ideas of children's participation in child protection in their organisations. She can be contacted at the following email address: [email protected]
When I was a young girl growing up in a sleepy Austrian hamlet, I remember being given the rule to 'be wary of strangers, not to talk to them and not by any means enter their cars' because they can be dangerous. I had question marks in my head. After inquiring with my parents and other children. I dealt with the information that they (men, of course) 'can do bad things to your body'. The question marks in my head were only marginally smaller and still I stuck to the rule; although being encumbered by a kind of 'nebulous anxiety' along with it.
I was not given accompanying information or education in regard to sexual development, possible forms of abuse by adults or peers, child rights, child protection, let alone participation.
Some of the children I have worked with as a trainer and consultant for child participation and protection unfortunately do know exactly what this means because they have either experienced abuse themselves or know of peers having suffered from it.
A recurring question in training events is how to deal with the sensitive topic of child abuse with children themselves. Trainers and practitioners may work with children who are or were exposed to abusive behaviour by adults (parents, relatives, care persons, teachers, neighbours, etc.) or peers and children who have heard of abusive behaviour towards their peers and children who have no knowledge and experience of it.
Regardless of the amount of knowledge and experience children have in regard to child abuse you start to get acquainted with the aim of building trust and getting to know each other. You may work on enhancing/ strengthening skills of children that help increase children's positive perceptions of themselves, their value and capabilities. This may take several sessions you have with a group of children before you start to discuss what children know about child abuse, their feelings and perceptions about it, and what they can do to protect themselves and their peers from abusive behaviour done by adults or children.
The delicate task in this respect is to not rush in with the topic without knowing the children and their situation; and not to overburden children with a 'threatening topic' some of them are not familiar with at all and at the same time to acknowledge the experience of some children who have experienced abuse themselves.
Clearly, when you work with children aiming at supporting their participation in protecting themselves and others from abuse this should be embedded in encouraging children to act on their rights and responsibilities. This, however has to go along with an environment, i.e. families, care persons; schools, teachers, communities, which is prepared to receive children's 'new' attitude and actions properly. (In regard to child protection issues a structure has to be in place, e.g. where children know whom to address in case of an incident, feel secure enough with the person they refer to, what will happen when they report, etc.)
As mentioned above a 'prepared and safe environment' is crucial for children to live and act in a participatory way. This is not an easy task. Although the awareness of children as competent and active partners in their own development and topics affecting their lives has risen quite tremendously in the last decade, it is still not daily practice in families, schools, communities or even INGO's set up to serve the needs and interests of children. Thinking of co-workers from NGO's, be it trainers or practitioners - what I have sometimes seen is a gap between the so called 'individual values' and 'professional values' on children's participation: Most NGO's in the child care sector have adopted a view of children as competent partners who are capable of participating actively in their own development. The co-workers are expected to share these values and stance accordingly. The ideal would be that these 'company values' are truly incorporated into the co-workers 'belief system' and acted upon - not only as 'a method' but an attitude entailing a certain way of working with children.
Based on my experience supporting adults in working in a participatory way with children needs a strong element of addressing trainers' and practitioners' values first: Reflecting on their experiences as children, their perception of children as adults and discussing the implications of a possible 'mind shift' when perceiving and treating children as competent partners.
A further question is to consider the co-workers' professional situation: Is the personal working situation conducive to developing a child participatory approach? I want to share one example of obstacles for co-workers of an NGO acting in a child participatory way with children: Co-workers find it hard to appreciate and support a child participatory approach when they themselves don't feel appreciated as co-workers and are not able to participate in decisions affecting their work life.
We know from research and personal experience how long it may take to change an attitude or belief; it is also common knowledge that attitudes and behaviour/ actions are not always aligned, that means that we not always act according to what we believe. For further reading on beliefs, attitudes and behaviour change see:
- Zauna, M.P., Rempel, J.K. (1988). Attitudes: A new look at an old concept. This article is in: Bartal, B., Kruglanski A.W. (Eds.). The social psychology of knowledge. 315-334. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading: Madison Wesley.
In training adults in this context I see more necessity to spend time on a change of attitude; and address it on the level of cognition (with information), of emotion (with examples) and past experiences (with messages connected to past behaviour); respecting of course that attitude change is a process not being completed during a week of training, but takes time, practice, reflection and (ideally) mentoring.
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