"This book outlines the key findings from the ADVOST project and other international projects that examine how educational practitioners have utilised theoretical notions of voice and agency to enhance the social inclusion and wellbeing of children within their settings. Bringing together findings from three project case studies that are each placed in a different national context, chapters explore theoretical principles of space, audience and influence to facilitate and enhance the voices of very young children. Focusing on diversity as an opportunity rather than a challenge, the book provides collaboratively written and regionally diverse chapters that ultimately contribute to a growing field on literature examining how young people might be included in culturally sensitive and responsive ways within education, recognising the diversity that young people, their families and communities bring to educational processes to provide an inclusive education for all. Offering multiple perspectives and insights into our growing understanding of children's voice and agency in diverse settings, this book will be of relevance to scholars, researchers and academics in the fields of primary education, multicultural education, early years and educational research, and child development studies"--

"This book outlines the key findings from the ADVOST project and other international projects that examine how educational practitioners have utilised theoretical notions of voice and agency to enhance the social inclusion and wellbeing of children within their settings. Bringing together findings from three project case studies that are each placed in a different national context, chapters explore theoretical principles of space, audience and influence to facilitate and enhance the voices of very young children. Focusing on diversity as an opportunity rather than a challenge, the book provides collaboratively written and regionally diverse chapters that ultimately contribute to a growing field on literature examining how young people might be included in culturally sensitive and responsive ways within education, recognising the diversity that young people, their families and communities bring to educational processes to provide an inclusive education for all. Offering multiple perspectives and insights into our growing understanding of children's voice and agency in diverse settings, this book will be of relevance to scholars, researchers and academics in the fields of primary education, multicultural education, early years and educational research, and child development studies"--

This book outlines the key findings from the ADVOST project and other international projects that examine how educational practitioners have utilised theoretical notions of voice and agency to enhance the social inclusion and wellbeing of children within their settings. Bringing together findings from three project case studies that are each placed in a different national context, chapters explore theoretical principles of space, audience and influence to facilitate and enhance the voices of very young children. Focusing on diversity as an opportunity rather than a challenge, the book provides collaboratively written and regionally diverse chapters that ultimately contribute to a growing field on literature examining how young people might be included in culturally sensitive and responsive ways within education, recognising the diversity that young people, their families and communities bring to educational processes to provide an inclusive education for all. Offering multiple perspectives and insights into our growing understanding of children’s voice and agency in diverse settings, this book will be of relevance to scholars, researchers and academics in the fields of primary education, multicultural education, early years and educational research, and child development studies.

This volume of the Research in Global Child Advocacy Series explores participatory methodologies and tools that involve children in research. Perspectives on the role of children have transitioned from viewing children as objects of research, to children as subjects of research, to acknowledgement of children as competent contributors and agents throughout the inquiry process. Researchers continue to explore approaches that honor the capacity of children, drawing on diverse methodologies to elevate children’s voices and actively engage them in the production of knowledge. Nonetheless, despite these developments, questions over the extent to which children can be free of adult filters and influence merits sustained scholarly attention. The book includes chapters that critically examine methodological approaches that empower children in the research process. Contributions include empirical or practitioner pieces that operate from an empowerment paradigm and demonstrate the agenic capacity of children to contribute their perspectives and voices to our understanding of childhood and children’s lives. The text also features conceptual pieces that challenge existing theoretical frameworks, critique research paradigms, and analyze dilemmas or tensions related to ethics, policy and power relations in the research process.

This book discusses how consultations with young children could signal a change of thinking about how children might influence policy and shape the development of a child-friendly state. While the consultations in this study were germane to political decisions, they took place as multi-modal dialogue with children in their educational settings. Framed by Australia’s national early years learning framework which focuses on children’s belonging and identity, the consultations saw unique partnerships formed among children, educators, families and policy officers, providing ways in which children’s voices may be engaged in educational spaces throughout the world. Using a qualitative case study approach, these consultations were documented through observations, interviews, artefact collection and document analyses, allowing the authors to construct a framework for engaging children as citizens that is transferable to a variety of settings. Chapters provide: • an insight into the various aspects involved in children’s consultations from conceptualizing and planning consultations with young children, to implementation and documentation, through to the uptake and consequence of children’s messages; • factors that contribute to the effectiveness of consultations, challenges that arise, and areas for improvement when engaging with children’s voices; • implications for children’s participation as valued citizens and a framework for considering young children’s voices in decision-making processes. This book offers fresh ideas for working with young children in the decision making process and will appeal to early childhood researchers, educators, policymakers and practitioners across various sectors, agencies and disciplines.

Child Agency and Voice in Therapy offers innovatory ways of thinking about, and working with, children in therapy. The book: considers different practices such as respecting the rights of the child in therapy and recognising and listening to children as ‘active agents’ and ‘experts’; features approaches that: access children’s views of their therapy; engage with them as researchers or co-researchers; and that use play and arts-based methods; draws on arts therapies research in ways that enable insight and learning for all those engaged with children’s therapy and wellbeing; considers how the contexts of the therapy, such as a school or counselling centre, relate to the ways children experience themselves and their therapy in relation to rights, agency and voice. Child Agency and Voice in Therapy will be beneficial for all child therapists and is a good resource for courses concerning childhood welfare, therapy, education, wellbeing and mental health.

Examines systemic issues contributing to inequities in early childhood, with ways faculty, teachers, administrators, and policymakers can work to disrupt them.