1. Children’s Citizenship: Implications for Policy & Practice
Anne Graham, Robyn Fitzgerald and Brad Shipway
Southern Cross University, Australia
May 2008

2. So far…
Key elements of citizenship: membership, rights, responsibilities and equality of status, respect and recognition
Children’s understanding of their citizenship, rights and responsibilities through the lens of children’s experience
May 2008

3. This presentation will…
Synthesise what we have learned about ‘citizenship’ based on the children’s perspectives
Explore some implications of the findings for theory, policy and practice
May 2008

4. Unpacking ‘citizenship’
The concept of citizenship is:
Complex
Contested
Contextualised
May 2008

5. Re-thinking citizenship from a child’s perspective
Key findings…
Children are competent
Children mainly understand identity and belonging in relational terms (sophisticated and nuanced)
Children participate most authentically when childhood is seen as a site of “citizenship practice”
May 2008

6. Children are competent1.
Children are competent
Children spoke as social agents - able to engage in dialogue and reflection about citizenship and related concepts.
Children expressed/conveyed their competence across a wide spectrum of activities - from understanding of issues such as voting age etc. to cultural and familial expectations such as contributing to keeping the house tidy or to household income.
The children strongly challenged traditional adult notions of citizenship: far from approaching competence as a pre-requisite of citizenship, the children in this study understood competence as implicit in notions of citizenship.
At the same time, their agency and status did not mean that they were any less dependant on adults for support and nurturance.
May 2008

7. Children understand identity and belonging in relational terms2.
Children understand identity and belonging in relational terms
The children placed a strong value on the relational - others would need to negotiate, cooperate and contribute in order to belong to their imaginary countries.
Being and becoming a citizen involves the acquisition of identity, through a reciprocal process of coming to share meanings, interests, values and a way of life.
Opportunities to be socially involved and invitations to discuss and create new ideas about the meaning of democratic concepts are important for children to make sense of theirs and others’ citizenship.
Regardless of the country, a strong theme running through the children’s narratives was that citizenship is about belonging - to a family, to a community, to a nation and to the world community.
May 2008

8. Children understand identity and belonging in relational terms (cont.)2.
Children understand identity and belonging in relational terms (cont.)
The children interpreted events in their lives and historical events according to their relationships and interactions with others, and thus “weaved these events and interpretations into personal identities and life stories that are meaningful and significant” (Meacham, 2004, p. 77). This shared sense of identity is reflected deeply in children’s attempts to explain what it means to be a citizen.
For the children in this study, their sense of identity resonated with insights from sociocultural theory, which suggests identity is an important aspect of learning which links individuals to their communities and a vehicle that carries experiences from context to context (Bruner, 2003; Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner & Cain, 1998).
May 2008

9. 3.
Children participate most authentically when childhood is seen as a site of “citizenship practice”
Across all countries, children were looking for authentic opportunities to engage, participate and contribute as citizens, and they envisaged childhood as a site of citizenship practice.
Children were looking for opportunities to participate, but such opportunities were limited in scope and few in number.
Our findings suggest that children are not asking for the equal exercise of rights and responsibilities of adulthood - indeed, they expect that adults will support them in their role as citizen child. They do, however, want to be listened to and taken seriously.
May 2008

10. 3.
Children participate most authentically when childhood is seen as a site of “citizenship practice” (cont)
Bordenave (1995) - participation increases when people know their reality and can reflect on and negotiate real or apparent contradictions - anticipate consequences, distinguish cause from effect, facts from judgements etc - children in our study did not describe such a rich, scaffolded model of participation.
For the children in this study, their status as citizens is assumed, and the idea of childhood as a site of citizenship unquestioned. The issue then becomes whether or not it is possible to accommodate the aspirations of the citizen child within authentic and meaningful citizenship practices, and whether we think it is important to do so.
Findings consistent with James (2007) observation that although the view of children as causally efficacious social agents is now well accepted, problems still remain.
May 2008

11. So what?? Where to from here…?
Re-thinking adult conceptions of children as citizens
Implications for policy and practice e.g. pedagogy
May 2008

12. Re-thinking adult conceptions of children as citizens1.
Re-thinking adult conceptions of children as citizens
The study prompts questions about the ways in which underlying notions of competence are formulated.
Both the nature of adult constructions, expectations and support for children as citizens, and how children are positioned by adults in their everyday social interactions, are likely to influence how children view themselves in relation to citizenship.
May 2008

13. Re-thinking adult conceptions of children as citizens1.
Re-thinking adult conceptions of children as citizens
We suggest that this means closer attention must be paid to the ways in which those who work with and for children are equipped and encouraged to:
identify key opportunities to facilitate the authentic participation of children
scaffold those opportunities so young people can participate at an appropriate and meaningful level
approach those opportunities in an intentional and reflective way in terms of the ‘citizen child’
be open to being surprised by what young people and children have to offer
be explicit about the nature of the concepts associated with children and citizenship
May 2008

14. 2.
In other words…
Are we examining critically enough our conceptions of children, the ways we engage with them and the opportunities we afford them for authentic and meaningful participation such that their understanding and status as ‘citizens’ fully reflects their potential to shape their social worlds?
Such a question isn’t radical, and may even appear self-evident to some, but some fundamental challenges remain…
May 2008

15. For example….Re-thinking pedagogy2.
For example….Re-thinking pedagogy
Do our current approaches and methods include scope for children’s involvement in decision making? Do they foster genuine inquiry, critique and reflection?
Is learning experienced as a co-constructed activity?
How is children’s failure managed?
What do classroom conversations between teacher and child, as well as child-to-child, sound like?
May 2008

16. For example….Re-thinking pedagogy2.
For example….Re-thinking pedagogy
What would teacher professional development (or parent education!) look like if it were facilitating a different understanding of children and childhood?
What would the emphasis in educational policy be on?
How might a different emphasis shift current conceptions of the child as citizen within dominant education discourse?
May 2008

17. Childhood as a site of citizenship practice: more work to do!
In former days, citizenship used to be a static given and the final destination of childhood. Nowadays, within late modernity, citizenship presents itself as a dynamic and continuous learning process….(T)his learning process is embedded in the biography and practice of each individual. Because humans are in essence social creatures, their biographical work and their practices are social activities.
—Jans, 2004, p. 40
May 2008

18. Thank you.
May 2008