Knowledge to Action: Recentering Children in Educational Research, Policy, and Practice

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-12 - Recentering Children, Multiracial Preservice Teachers, Race, and Small Schools in Educational Research

Abstract

Much of educational research excludes the voices of the most important people related to this work - children themselves. Educators face significant challenges to including children’s voices due to dominant beliefs about younger people being “inexperienced or inferior” (MacNaughton & Smith, 2008). In efforts to re-center children, this mixed-methods study, seeks to consider how, if at all, children’s voices are included in research, what is needed, and what is possible. The goal is to expand on research, enrich pedagogy, and inform policy. Drawing on the framework of children’s rights, particularly as they relate to their rights to participation, this interactive presentation reviews relevant research, highlights suggestions for providing a space for children’s voices, and explores possible trajectories for future work.

Authors

• Lacey Elizabeth Peters, Hunter College - CUNY

• Beth Powers, Millersville University of Pennsylvania