Look Who's Talking: Factors for Considering the Facilitation of Very Young Children's Voices

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 3

Abstract

If we are to foster children and young people’s democratic skills, dispositions and understanding, then we need to develop practices that support this from the earliest age. This paper offers a series of factors for consideration when working democratically with very young children – those under seven – in facilitating their voices. Grounded in the work around children’s rights, the factors are explored more widely to propose a series of questions designed to support practitioners in advancing children’s voices. This unique paper has drawn on an international seminar series and the expertise of practitioners to propose that power, inclusivity, time, listening, approaches, processes and purposes all demand attention if young children’s voices are to be heard and taken seriously.

Authors

• Kate Wall, University of Strathclyde

• Claire Cassidy, University of Strathclyde

• Lorna Jane Arnott, University of Strathclyde

• Mhairi Beaton, Leeds Beckett University (nee Leeds Metropolitan University)

• Caralyn Blaisdell, University of Strathclyde

• Elaine Hall, Legal Education and Professional Skills

• Gerard McKernan, Glasgow City Council

• Dana L. Mitra, The Pennsylvania State University

• Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, Goteborg University

• Carol Robinson, University of Sussex