The monthly post that distills the notes from our Children's Participation Group meeting. This post focuses on training in children's participation. (This post was written and edited by two other members of the CP group)
Welcome!
The April meeting saw us with a new member. Welcome Lisa! You’ve already enriched the group and it is great to have you on board. The group is now what we think is a maximum size for the format which is a monthly meeting and sharing over skype. The decision to limit discussion to one topic per session and to extend the session to an hour and 15 minutes was wise as was the decision to spend the last 15 minutes sharing what we were all up to, relating to children’s participation or not. We also all endorsed the putting up of our discussion on a blog because we think it is great to capture key points and to share - it furthers reflection, sharing and learning. So those of you who may be reading this but were not a part of the skype discussion please feel free to add/comment/challenge the ideas and notions here. We’ll be happy to hear from you and to widen the sharing pool.
THE DISCUSSION
The focus of the meeting was the question...When we are conducting a training in children's participation what are we training our participants to- know, be able to do and to feel? (Are there core components?)
That this is a burning issue that all those involved in CP are grappling with is evidenced by the fact that we talked about this to some extent last month but yet felt that much remained to be explored.
On training:
The issues that CP training raises are diverse and include:
Barriers, both with respect to individual attitudes (don’t believe in CP) and organisational constraints (who sometimes insist on it as a core element in the programmes run, but do not embed it within their own organisational practices and /or think they do it already). The barriers need to be:
- Anticipated and pre-empted where possible
- Dealt with at the outset of any training programme (see ‘training strategies’ and ‘tools’ for suggestions on how)
- Shifted a little through ‘evidence’ of good CP in practice, often through a video (the group offered a rich range of links which are grouped at the end of this note for ease of access). The attitudinal ones are the most difficult to shift when perspectives are entrenched. A leaf from coaching work might help here. Acute and attentive listening, a ‘listening with all your senses’ is key. We need to ascertain where participants are ‘coming from’ and, in particular, what strengths they already bring that might be built on may help them and us, see this as a ‘journey’ rather than a ‘training’ scenario.
What those of us engaged in CP need to get across, and it is debatable whether the training alone can do this, is the value in practice of CP. And it is crucial to link CP with action in the community: action on health or education or another social aspect of childhood and life in the community. However, there is a wider social agenda as well, as we discussed later.
The organisational barriers are equally challenging. The participants need to be equipped with strong advocacy and communication skills to get their organisations to see either that they need to practice what they preach or, indeed to review their own policies and practices and not assume that they automatically child inclusive. We really need to support opportunities to apply CP in practice, to reflect on practice, and to learn based on experience. We also need to equip ‘returning’ participants with the skills to persuade or shift their organisations’ work, policies and attitude regarding the practice of CP within the organisation itself.
So the training needs to:
- Be mindful of where the participants are going back to, in what roles and how that can be supported through the training; and
- Create an enabling environment that allows the articulation of scepticism with respect to CP. Where reservations about, for example, children being able to contribute to strategic planning may be voiced and dealt with if not allayed through proven examples of CP in the strategic development of an organisation can be debated.
A particular issue is that of including disabled young people and, again, the group had resources to share on this aspect of the work as well as others. Access and equity are huge issues.
(PLAN and Save the Children and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have resources on this including: a film made by Save the Children on the Child Club Movement in Nepal which includes positive examples of children with disabilities actively participating in Child Clubs; and being advisors to Child Clubs. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have developed a training video called the ‘Two Way Street’ which shows how children and young people (aged 3-19 years) communicating with each other and with adults through different means, including signs, symbols, specific behaviours, facial expressions, gestures, play, art etc. It is a great resource.)
Some of these resources demonstrate how adults manage to step back and let children take the power. And often this is possible even when there are sensitive and difficult issues such as violence, child protection and the like. We need to focus on people’s values and beliefs about children and childhood, and encourage people to explore the diversity of childhood experiences, and to recognise children as social actors and agents of change. Ultimately CP is also about social change, about both empowering children to strengthen their presences, their voices, their input into what touches and concerns them, as well as effecting a shift in the adults’ perspective on children and childhood, where children need to be seen as capable, as able to be self-directing, as agents of action and, in some communities, of change as well. The notions of children and childhood vary greatly across cultures and we need to be cognisant of that both in terms of understanding the contexts we and others in CP work in, but also as comparators that enable other cultures to see the capacities of children.
Getting back to the training, we need to focus on what we need to ‘feel, think and do’ as CP advocates and trainers. The ‘feeling’ aspect is the one where we need to create a strong attitude which leads and links to action so that it is not a passive ‘feel good’ perspective. It is helpful to have participants reflect on their childhood and where they would have liked to have a say in their affairs and what happened in the times that they did.
On training design:
In practice, then, this might translate into an exercise on attitudes since attitudinal change is foundational to the work. We might also focus on explicitly on a session on barriers to CP within organisations and on recognising and accessing networks of support to move the work forward. We also need to emphasize that attitudinal change is on a continuum and needs continuous reflection to move it further towards the ideal.
The training space and site is crucial too. If it is near where young people could be brought in to speak for themselves that, together with videos where actual participation is not possible, can help, if not to shift, then at least to encourage sceptics to keep an open mind. It is also important to keep in mind training spaces that are formal and/or informal. The latter might lead us to think of different audiences for the training. Where the training actually is with young people themselves then that is the most positive and self – evident ambassador for CP. Should we insist, then, that CP training always involve young people? It is not always possible, however to convince an entire group about the value of CP and there will always be the odd one or two people whom we cannot win over. A ‘will you think about this later’ appeal might at least keep a chink of the door open perhaps.
The central question is ‘How do we teach child led participation? Whilst also ensuring people understand different levels of participation? This took the discussion towards training strategies which led us to think about some important aspects of CP training. We could:
- Start the training by getting participants to create a profile of children - what are they like and what are they able to do. Revisit the profile at the end of the training to see if they want to revise it and look at the shifts in their understanding of what children can do. Also get them to go back to their own childhoods (via childhood photos).
- Look at who is considered a child and why? We can also look at diversity of childhood experiences which opens up realisation of how much different socio-cultural concepts influence what we expect of girls and boys of different backgrounds and ages. Even those differences can show up the capabilities of children which are recognised in some aspects in some cultures and not in others. So ten year olds can be delegated responsibility for looking after younger siblings in the East but not in the West. The same ten year olds are expected to make choices about what they want to wear, are allowed privacy in their rooms in the West but not in the East. The strong link between belief in children’s abilities and action is important to establish so that rhetoric is translated into - as well as demonstrated in – practice.
- Mentor good communication and non-discriminatory values and appreciation of people's own knowledge and skills. We need to listen actively and closely and ‘focusing on the person in front of me - that includes giving that person the stage - I listen with ALL my senses and I ask open questions relying on the fact that this person has the knowledge and I try to bring this out.’
- The audiences for CP vary: we have children – and hence need to think about how to engage and reach different age groups and, especially younger children who are often (mistakenly) considered less ‘able’ to participate – and adults. The adult audience may also vary: they could be managers or strategy planners or field work staff who will work directly with children. If it is the latter, then we need to ensure that the skill sets they acquire not only cover how to communicate and engage with children of all ages but also how to be a champion for CP within an organisation or in other settings. The training might require them, for example to prepare a spiel on how to demonstrate the benefits of CP so that they become advocates themselves (not just implementers) as they expect children to be too in certain settings. A third audience might be parents of very young children. The core components and skills then would be tailored accordingly.
- Think about how 'we' the people supporting participation have to be clear about the context of our training and/or what we are asking of our participants. We need to be cognisant of the multi-layered nature of this work. We have different levels - child led, child informed, children consulted, and how we engage with each level ourselves as well as training others to recognise and engage with them.
- Also think about how we empower young people. Do we have strategies/tools to do this? Is there a quick –start guide we can look at?
- Given that the participants might find themselves in multiple roles i.e. in the field and within their organisations, we also need to work with them to build a profile of the ideal CP facilitator. What knowledge, skills, attitudes and practical tools/experience is needed? What are the core components and core competencies necessary to be a CP champion?
- Flexibility is crucial core skill: participants could be put through scenarios to bring out and strengthen this aspect of their competencies.
- The skill to break down content so as to make it accessible when working with and for younger children is important. They are too often left out of the picture because we don’t always know how to reach them on their terms, using their language. Training needs to also consider how to build rapport with children, how to engage with their...how do you make things 'child friendly' - language and body language and practical skills.
- Other skills such as risk assessment, just having a sense of humour to allow for a release of tension as well as to make things fun for children, good energisers and how to sue them with children – these are all practical and necessary skills for a successful programme or intervention.
An important emergent issue for discussion in more detail perhaps at another meeting is CP being a force for social change in how we see children in general. To date, CP has been largely, though not exclusively, linked to programmes in the development field: to improving health or education or the protection of children. Should we also not see CP as a generic social change phenomenon which is an end in itself enabling children in general to be better recognised as active participants in their own development? This is about wider social change, about the way children are valued and what their role is as active citizens in society... but we do need to start somewhere and at present CP rests where it does because that is the start of what must become – and be - a wider movement. To that end we need to delve further into how to engage them at a younger, even toddler and under, stage in their lives. How this can be done might be the subject of a future discussion.
On tools and tool kits
The group also talked about very practical activities that might be used in training. A discussion on tools and tool kits led us to think that tools are tools and have their uses and functions, but we also were aware that they could become props generating too much of a reliance on their efficacy. They are said to carry about 20% of the training, but they could turn into a crutch restricting the practioners’/trainers’ own creativity around the issues of CP. They can result in training becoming a host of activities; without proper active learning taking place, because the skills of how to draw out learning’s from the tool kit have not been addressed in the training. In that sense, tools are tools - but we need to ensure the process is participatory and meaningful: that the attitude, values and intent are meaningful. However, put in their proper perspective, tool kits could be very useful. One thought was to work on the tool kit itself as a part of the training, with participants feeding back on its usefulness as they use it during the course.
Other ideas for activities included getting adults to bring in photos of themselves as children. Can they find the adult in the child? This helps to loosen up adult stereotypes of what children are when they recall what they would have liked to be and were themselves as children. Going back to their childhoods and diverse concepts of childhood is effective in establishing the capabilities of children.
An exercise on attitudes could be built into the training too including how they might overcome other people’s attitudes. Case studies, SWOT analysis might be helpful here. People often needed to try CP or witness it to really appreciate its efficacy and value.
We need people to put into practice their learning, to learn through their experience as most people do not believe in children's participation until they try or witness how capable children are and how much they can contribute.
On younger children
The group also felt that CP needed to go further than it currently has. We need to encourage attention on younger children and ways to value their communication and expression, as well as listening to and engaging older children. We need to think through a focus on how to engage caregivers to actively communicate and listen to babies and toddlers to lay the foundations for active communication and participation. How as practitioners, parents, pre-school teachers, and community leaders can we engage with younger children? How can we make the material accessible to them? How can we break down concepts without diluting them, for them to make sense to young children so that they can act on them? We do know, from personal experiences that the youngest babies communicate and express themselves. There are some great videos that can be shown in training to show this active communication between a baby and an adult. We also know that toddlers under the age of two can make choices, and can take decisions at their level.
We simply forget that sometimes we burden them with communications and vocabulary that leaves them confused and obscures what it is that we want of them. And more attention is needed on, for example, family communication - how to engage and 'coach' children at different ages and stages. CP practitioners and the communities in general need to realise that younger children can be 'coached' too. And that CP is a community approach as well as an ‘NGO’ perspective on development.
On resources:
The discussion ranged over a broad canvas of CP and these resource suggestions captures the suggestions that the group thought of. Perhaps we can begin to compile a list of resources, preferably annotated but at least a list of what we’ve all found useful…
- A great SC film from Nepal about the Child Club movement in Nepal
- Unicef.org and Plan have a media site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k5rarldxwc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZpU5mc9fGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgBDUXhQdos
- Children’s participation in UN forums (governance): Severn Suzuki's famous speech at the Earth Summit in 1992:
- Gerison Lansdown has a wonderful video on a mother responding to a baby's communication in Turkey and the baby imitating the mother - a great illustration of the point of children’s ability
- Never too young is a great resource book Judy Miller (1997) ‘Never too Young’: How young children can take responsibility and make decisions. Save the Children and the Early Years Network.
In conclusion or ‘till the next time’:
And of course, the newest member of the group would throw the biggest challenge to the group with a casual ‘I have one more Q will there be any outputs from this group - are we planning to do/produce anything or is it for us to share ideas/thinking?’
We can ponder this as the group evolves our one, procrastinating response! See everyone next month.
“Let your own knowledge go…overcoming the hierarchy… and losing power”
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