Today and in relation to quite a large scale government programme that I'm involved with, I was pondering some more on how we go about institutionalising children's participation. The education sector and 'the school' is the most obvious focus for our attention as schools often form an hub for families and the community that can not only reflect what society wants for its children but also challenge and develop this.
I like many aspects of the UNICEF Child Friendly School initiative and I was reminded of this checklist they have developed (see below). What I also like is that their definition of 'child friendly school' includes the ideas of being 'child centred' and 'child seeking' ( i.e. actively identifying excluded children to get them enrolled in school and included in learning, treating children as subjects with rights and State as duty-bearers with obligations to fulfill these rights, and demonstrating, promoting, and helping to monitor the rights and well-being of all children in the community.) I have not come across the term 'child seeking' before, and I like it.
For schools to really be child friendly they will need to 'unpack' a lot of the ideas listed below but the list is a good start. If any of you would like to unpack the list with me then let me know! I am having a go and with the help of the Oak Foundation's M&E framework for children's participation which is already becoming threadbare with overuse!
13 CHARACTERISTICS OF A RIGHTS-BASED, CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOL
1. Reflects and realises the rights of every child -- cooperates with other partners to promote and monitor the well-being and rights of all children; defends and protects all children from abuse and harm (as a sanctuary), both inside and outside the school
2. Sees and understands the whole child, in a broad context -- is concerned with what happens to children before they enter the system (e.g., their readiness for school in terms of health and nutritional status, social and linguistic skills), and once they have left the classroom -- back in their homes, the community, and the workplace
3. Is child-centred -- encourages participation, creativity, self-esteem, and psycho-social well-being; promotes a structured, child-centred curriculum and teaching-learning methods appropriate to the child’s
4. Is gender-sensitive and girl-friendly – promotes parity in the enrolment and achievement of girls and boys; reduces constraints to constraints to gender equity and eliminates gender stereotypes; provides facilities, curricula, and learning processes welcoming to girls
5. Promotes quality learning outcomes -- encourages children to think critically, ask questions, express their opinions -- and learn how to learn; helps children master the essential enabling skills of writing, reading, speaking, listening, and mathematics and the general knowledge and skills required for living in the new century -- including useful traditional knowledge and the values of peace, democracy, and the acceptance of diversity
6. Provides education based on the reality of children’s lives -- ensures that curricular content responds to the learning needs of individual children as well as to the general objectives of the education system and the local context and traditional knowledge of families and the community
7. Is flexible and responds to diversity -- meets differing circumstances and needs of children (e.g., as determined by gender, culture, social class, ability level)
8. Acts to ensure inclusion, respect, and equality of opportunity for all children -- does not stereotype, exclude, or discriminate on the basis of difference
9. Promotes mental and physical health – provides emotional support , encourages healthy behaviours and practices, and guarantees a hygienic, safe, secure, and joyful environment
10. Provides education that is affordable and accessible -- especially to children and families most at-risk
11. Enhances teacher capacity, morale, commitment, and status -- ensures that its teachers have sufficient pre-service training, in-service support and professional development, status, and income
12. Is family focused -- attempts to work with and strengthen families and helps children, parents and teachers establish harmonious, collaborative partnerships
13. Is community-based -- strengthens school governance through a decentralised, community-based approach; encourages parents, local government, community organisations, and other institutions of civil society to participate in the management as well as the financing of education; promotes community partnerships and networks focused on the rights and well-being of children
Hi Clare! I wrote an article almost identical to this on The Freechild Project website. You can see it at http://www.freechild.org/YouthVoice/institution.htm
I'm also going to post the contents here:
Institutionalizing Youth Voice
By Adam Fletcher
Becoming part of a system, integrating throughout a culture and tying together broad resources can ensure that Youth Voice is sustainable. That process is called institutionalization, and it represents the process of making a concept, social role, values, norms or behaviors part of an organization, social system or society. We need nothing less than to see that effort as essential to Youth Voice.
The following are steps that groups, organizations, and communities can use as a guide to institutionalize Youth Voice.
* There are ways to carry out the policies that support the objectives of goals of Youth Voice
* Policies supporting Youth Voice activities have been published in a document available to youth, adult allies, youth workers, government officials, politicians and families.
* Data related to Youth Voice as it affects the young people involved, their peers, adult allies, and the larger community is regularly collected.
* Budgets include line items that support the implementation of Youth Voice activities.
* Regular training orients new youth participants and adults and strengthens existing youth and adult allies' skills, knowledge and commitment to Youth Voice.
* The Youth Voice coordinator reports to a high-level administrator and the position is incorporated into the organizational chart.
* The Youth Voice program has survived a significant change of leadership among youth, adult allies and within the group, organization and/or community.
* Other groups, organizations and/or communities are assisted in designing, implementing, sustaining and/or evaluating their Youth Voice activities through conferences, workshops and/or local outreach.
These are initial steps that ongoing research has shown are the most effective ways to institutionalize Youth Voice.
Tell me what you think?
Posted by: Adam Fletcher | March 19, 2012 at 06:11 PM