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Care leavers are young people who have grown up in the care system, either in foster care or in residential care homes in transition from care to adulthood. They are a vulnerable group, with a high risk of negative outcomes such as poor mental health. The development of agency and the promotion of well-being are two of the most important aspects of the psychological and educational intervention with care leavers. The purpose of this quantitative study is to investigate the relationship between agency and well-being in a group of care leavers (N = 48) recruited from the alternative care services offered by the cities of Florence and Prato and involved in the Caring project. The study employed the World Health Organization's Well-Being Index (WHO-5), Participation in Decision Making Scale and Schneider's Agency Scale as quantitative sources of data. The data were analyzed using structural equation modelling controlled for demographic data. The findings show that participation in decision making fully mediated the positive association between dispositional agency and well-being. The conclusions are discussed in terms of integrated practical recommendations for professionals concerned with care leaver protection and the development of psychological and educational interventions.

The paper explores the construct of «participation», critically discussing various theoretical perspectives to approach it. Specifically, the article considers two different yet interrelated levels of analysis: the macro-level of international policies and the micro-level of everyday social interaction. First, the study considers international policies on children’s participatory rights and presents a milieu of studies that variously discussed and assessed them. Second, it illustrates how macro-level policies are re-negotiated at the micro-level of participants’ social interactions. Specifically, a review of previous literature shows that children’s participation is also constructed in practice. This appraisal is instrumental to underline the construct’s pedagogical relevance and discuss the analyst’s positioning. Regarding the latter, in the discussion, it is argued that analysts need to be aware of the multifaceted character of the construct of participation to avoid a restricted analytical gaze on this phenomenon.

Hermeneutic phenomenology provides a framework to understand shared, interrelated, and embodied human existence since it is concerned with meaning-making and revealing what the experience is like. Metaphors, part of poetic language, offer an effective method for presenting complex, rich understandings, giving room for play and ambiguity, and uncovering novel and unexpected ways of conceptualizing experiences. Drawing on a broader case study on the collaboration between the Children’s Parliament Scotland and an Aberdeen primary school, this article presents how metaphor was used to gather material on the “meanings of children's participation in decision-making processes”. This choice was guided by the epistemological conviction that image-related representations can be significant sources of knowledge about the human world, revealing new meanings that can illuminate both theory and practice.

Come ribadito dal Consiglio d'Europa nella sua Raccomandazione sulle competenze chiave per l'apprendimento permanente (2018) e dalle Linee guida ministeriali italiane (2019) e dal Piano nazionale di ripresa e resilienza dell’Unione europea (2021), l’orientamento emerge come dimensione chiave per lo sviluppo di competenze trasversali e l’apprendimento permanente. L'istruzione, la formazione e l'apprendimento sono anche uno dei punti focali dell’Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile delle Nazioni Unite. Infatti, le competenze – necessarie per l'inserimento sociale e lavorativo nella società odierna in rapida evoluzione – si combinano con i diritti sociali, i valori della democrazia e dell'inclusione e la coesione sociale, invitando alla costruzione di traiettorie formative sostenibili (Riva, 2022). In questo quadro, le esperienze di orientamento, inteso come pratica esistenziale (Montesarchio,2022), pongono al centro i percorsi di vita dei soggetti in formazione, promuovendo approcci in grado di stimolare una continua riflessione e significazione del proprio progetto di vita, favorendo la costruzione della propria identità, la scoperta dei propri talenti e delle vocazioni personali, ache in ambito univeristario (Bonelli & Da Re, 2022). In questa cornice, il riconoscimento del ruolo dei giovani nei processi decisionali pubblici, insieme agli adulti, assume una specifica valenza pedagogica, esistenziale, etica e politica. La loro partecipazione contribuisce, infatti, a orientare i saperi e le pratiche per lo sviluppo di un mondo sostenibile, giusto ed equo. All’interno di questo complesso quadro, nasce la proposta formativa Just YOUth, Prendere parola è un’azione sostenibile. La settimana, promossa dal programma di orientamento dell'Università di Milano Bicocca, si è rivolta agli studenti delle scuole secondarie. Nasce con l’obiettivo di promuovere un processo di apprendimento intorno ai significati e alle possibilità di 'prendere parola', il primo passo per

Il modello culturale ed economico egemonico delle nostre società – il neoliberismo – si basa sull’autovalorizzazione e sulla competizione sfrenata anche nel sistema educativo, erodendo l’ethos democratico e favorendo lo sviluppo di spinte regressive e distruttive. Il contributo propone il Capability Approach, con specifico riferimento alla declinazione di Nussbaum, come una prospettiva alternativa, in un contesto peculiare come il sistema di tutela minorile, dove la partecipazione è mediata da attori istituzionali come il servizio sociale e il tribunale. A partire dai temi emersi durante le consultazioni con i care leavers, condotte nell’ambito del progetto europeo REC Empowering Child Care Systems and Supporting Leaving Care from Inside, si argomenterà che interrogativi su chi, come e a quali condizioni debbano essere posti per decostruire gli impliciti alla base della partecipazione, compreso il conflitto, promuovendo un modello di partecipazione democratica intesa come processo dialogico e costruttivo., The hegemonic cultural and economic model of our societies – neoliberalism– is premised upon self-valorization and unbridled competition at all levels, including the education system. This erodes the democratic ethos and fosters the development of regressive and destructive drives. The contribution looks at how the Capability Approach, with specific reference to Nussbaum’s version, can offer an alternative perspective in a context as peculiar as the protection system, where participation is mediated by institutional actors such as the social service and the court. By drawing on the results of consultations with care leavers, conducted within the European REC project Empowering Child Care Systems and Supporting Leaving Care from Inside, it will be argued how questions about who, how and on whose terms need to be asked for the patterns underlying participation, including conflict, to be deconstructed, developing a model of democratic participation understood as a dialogical and constructive process.

In this paper I argue that there is a need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education, particularly in the light of a recent tendency to focus discussions about education almost exclusively on the measurement and comparison of educational outcomes. I first discuss why the question of pur-pose should always have a place in our educational discussion. I then explore some reasons why this question seems to have disappeared from the educational agenda. The central part of the paper is a proposal for addressing the question of purpose in education—the question as to what constitutes good education—in a systematic manner. I argue that the question of purpose is a composite question and that in deliberating about the purpose of education we should make a distinction between three functions of education to which I refer as qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In the final section of the paper I provide examples of how this proposal can help in asking more precise questions about the purpose and direction of educational processes and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the meanings of ‘child participation’ in international and European policy agendas on children(’s rights). The premise here is that policy agendas informed by children’s rights principles have the power to shape what a child can (learn) to do and be in a given society. Furthermore, the policy agendas analysed in this study are underpinned by pedagogical assumptions concerning the socio-cultural construction of childhood as a category and the spaces of participation that are dedicated and/or conceded to flesh-and-blood children. It is crucially important to explore the meanings of the ‘child-participation’ duo of terms as they are used in policy documents, because the values and principles thus conveyed constitute the political framework within which micro-pedagogical learning experiences, involving both children and adults, are constructed.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the role and meanings of the concept and practice of Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC). Taking stock of the political and educational crisis we are living through, this paper presents the international policy agendas of EDC, building a framework that is currently in evolution, moving from a national or European perspective to a global and sustainable one. Moreover, studies register a profound gap between the declared and the experienced, especially when thinking of children as democratic citizens. In fact, the dominant culture of childhood perceives children as apolitical and has the tendency to expel politics from educational institutions. At the same time, the young are reclaiming their political role and acting as public educators, reconfiguring the notion of democratic citizenship. The paper calls for a systematic and deep reflection by pedagogy and pedagogical research on the new meanings EDC can acquire by promoting intergenerational political thought and action.

The research explores children’s education for participation in public, formal and structured decision-making processes. The relationship between education and politics has been at the heart of various pedagogical traditions (Bertolini, 2003; Dewey, 1916; Freire, 1968) which have placed the concept of participation at its centre. In the history of politics, as intended in the European tradition, participation is far from being an inherent practice; instead, it requires specific training. Childhood studies’ (Ariès, 1968; Becchi, 1994) analyse children’s participation in common spaces as a defining feature of the profile of childhood in the course of history. To date, child participation is a transversal but not explicit dimension of the exercise of rights, the formation of which is placed at the basis of the sustainable development of humanity (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). Moreover, the phenomenon underlies a crucial pedagogical question: what can a child learn to do and be in a given society (Biffi, 2018)? The meanings of the phenomenon have been explored through a content analysis (Berelson, 1952; Mayring, 2004) of policies addressed to children from 2010 to 2018 at an international and European level (Montà, 2021). Subsequently, an empirical phase explored its lived meanings. The project is part of a qualitative research approach (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018), built on the basis of the phenomenological-hermeneutic method (Mortari, 2016; Van Manen, 1990, 2016), according to the case study strategy (Yin, 2014). The case was identified in the exemplary experience offered by the work carried out by the Scottish Children's Parliament (CP) in collaboration with Manor Park Primary School in Aberdeen. It is a context able to translate into educational practices the sense of children’s participation in public, formal and structured decision-making processes as described by policies. Data collection and documentation of the research process took place through ethn

This contribution offers a pedagogical reflection on the methodology adopted within the training experience "Just YOUth. Having a say is a sustainable action' [Just YOUth. Prendere parola è un’azione sostenibile]. It was promoted within the orientation program of the University of Milan Bicocca (Italy) addressed to secondary school students. The aim was to promote a learning process around the meanings and possibilities of ‘having a say’, the first step for participation in decision-making processes. In fact, learning to ‘have a say’ is a crucial ability to orient one’s own decisions in relation to the self and the community one is part of. These decisions include choosing how to build one’s own life project, also in relation to the choice of an educational path. Moreover, acknowledging the role of young people in public decision-making processes, together with adults, assumes a specific pedagogical, ethical and political value (Bertolini, 2003). In fact, learning to have a say is a crucial starting point for the development of a sustainable, just, equitable world (Riva, 2018; UN, 2018). Within this framework, Just YOUth gave the young people the opportunity to meet local but also international youth realities, including, for example, collectives, representative bodies, and peer tutoring realities working in the field of children’s and young people’s rights, activism, social and political participation. They orientate decisions in collaboration with adults, showing how participation is an intergenerational process. The proposal included classes, workshops, discussions and meetings, where university lecturers and professionals from the public and third sectors and young people showcased their work and allowed the participants themselves to actively experience different ways of taking the floor. Another crucial aspect is related to the variety of languages that can be used for having a say. The participants were able to experiment with the use of different languages

The paper aims to present a pedagogical reflection on the spaces for youth participation in decision-making, drawing on a content analysis of the most recent European and international youth strategies Youth participation is at the centre of international and European policies and strategies. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development considers youth rights essential to the development of a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world (UN General Assembly, 2015). The Committee on the Rights of the Child (2009) identified participation as one of the four principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and thus it has been recognized not only as a right, but also as a cross-cutting interpretation and implementation of all other rights. A content analysis (Berelson, 1952) of the most recent youth strategies of the European Union (2018), the Council of Europe (2020) and the United Nations (2018) was conducted to explore how youth participation is described and what meanings it assumes in policies. In particular, this contribution will focus on the spaces of participation dedicated to young people. The youth strategies, and especially that of the European Union, gives prominence to the theme of spaces of participation, defining them in terms of both physical and virtual spaces, and understanding youth spaces as autonomous, open, safe, and accessible to all. This is of particular interest because it dovetails with an emerging reflection in the literature, which points out that recent years are witnessing a shift in the spaces of participation (Willems, Heinen & Meyers, 2012). In fact, alongside the decrease in traditional forms of youth participation - associated with political, formal and public contexts accessed "by invitation" (Cornwall, 2008) there is a rise in innovative or alternative forms of participation-characterized by the combination of physical and virtual spaces (Willems, 2012), as well as more "popular" spaces, often clai

L’articolo 29 della Convenzione sui diritti dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza (UNCRC) è una pietra miliare per i vari programmi finalizzati all’educazione ai diritti umani (HRE). Tuttavia, ai diritti dell’infanzia non è sempre stata accordata la considerazione che meritano nel contesto di tali attività. Spesso, infatti, manca un’approvazione formale nella legislazione o nelle politiche educative nazionali. Il Comitato ONU sui diritti dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza (2001) sottolinea che servono quattro azioni chiave per una promozione efficace di tale articolo: 1) la rielaborazione dei curricula e dei materiali didattici; 2) l’aggiornamento delle politiche scolastiche; 3) la formazione degli insegnanti, dirigenti scolastici e di tutti coloro che sono coinvolti nell’educazione dell’infanzia; 4) i metodi e gli approcci d’insegnamento-apprendimento devono rispettare lo spirito e la filosofia educativa della UNCRC, nonché le finalità dell’educazione stabilite dall’articolo 29. Inoltre, il Comitato afferma che lo scopo generale di tali attività è la piena realizzazione dei diritti umani per tutti, attraverso la costruzione di una cultura comune sul tema. È proprio in relazione a quest’ultimo punto, ovvero la costruzione di una cultura rispettosa dei diritti (umani) dell’infanzia –in cui la formazione degli adulti, che lavorano con bambine/i, ragazze/i, svolge un ruolo centrale – che il presente contributo intende muovere delle riflessioni sul tema della formazione degli inseganti a partire da un caso studio (Yin, 2014), parte di una più ampia ricerca di dottorato, sulla collaborazione tra il Parlamento dell’Infanzia Scozzese e una scuola primaria di Aberdeen. Il 1° settembre 2020 il governo scozzese ha adottato la United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation)(Scotland)Bill, ovvero un decreto che sancisce l’incorporazione della UNCRC nella legge nazionale. Questa misura riconosce, tramite atto formale, l’istituzione di una cultura rispettos

This contribution presents pedagogical reflections on the construction of a ‘care leavers-led’ policy as a strategy to promote the right to participate in decision-making processes in the child-protection system. Specifically, the paper bears witness to the CarINg project (Empowering Child Care Systems and Supporting Leaving Care from Inside), co-funded by the Rights Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Union (REC-RCHI-PROF-AG-2018). The project consortium is made up of two Universities (Polo Universitario City of Prato and the University of Milano-Bicocca); a non-governmental organisation (SOS Children's Villages International), and two local partners (Municipality of Florence and the Health Society of the Area of Prato). It started in April 2021 and, based on the Capability Approach (Sen, 2009; Sen & Nussbaum, 1993; Nussbaum, 2006), it aims at creating opportunities for care leavers–– by working with social services and local stakeholders–– to participate in decisions concerning their life project. We will be looking at a specific phase of the project characterised by a participatory action-research (approved by the ethical committee of the Milano-Bicocca University prot. N. 647)) articulated in four consultation activities (two for each group of participants, with two groups involved) with the care leavers (N=18) part of the protection system of the Municipality of Florence and of the Health Society of the Area of Prato, Italy (areas in which the project is based) that led to the definition of the first draft of a policy concerning participation in decision-making processes. Ensuring participation in the child protection system is challenging because it requires balancing the institutional mandate to protect the child (0-18) with the need to foster participation as a critical form of intervention against violence, and as a form of prevention of, and a strategy for coping with, adverse childhood experiences (Montà & Biffi, 2019). Moreover, p

L’articolo 29 della Convenzione sui diritti dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza (UNCRC) è una pietra miliare per i vari programmi finalizzati all’educazione ai diritti umani (HRE). Tuttavia, ai diritti dell’infanzia non è sempre stata accordata la considerazione che meritano nel contesto di tali attività. Spesso, infatti, manca un’approvazione formale nella legislazione o nelle politiche educative nazionali. Il Comitato ONU sui diritti dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza (2001) sottolinea che servono quattro azioni chiave per una promozione efficace di tale articolo: 1) la rielaborazione dei curricula e dei materiali didattici; 2) l’aggiornamento delle politiche scolastiche; 3) la formazione degli insegnanti, dirigenti scolastici e di tutti coloro che sono coinvolti nell’educazione dell’infanzia; 4) i metodi e gli approcci d’insegnamento-apprendimento devono rispettare lo spirito e la filosofia educativa della UNCRC, nonché le finalità dell’educazione stabilite dall’articolo 29. Inoltre, il Comitato afferma che lo scopo generale di tali attività è la piena realizzazione dei diritti umani per tutti, attraverso la costruzione di una cultura comune sul tema. È proprio in relazione a quest’ultimo punto, ovvero la costruzione di una cultura rispettosa dei diritti (umani) dell’infanzia –in cui la formazione degli adulti, che lavorano con bambine/i, ragazze/i, svolge un ruolo centrale – che il presente contributo intende muovere delle riflessioni sul tema della formazione degli inseganti a partire da un caso studio (Yin, 2014), parte di una più ampia ricerca di dottorato, sulla collaborazione tra il Parlamento dell’Infanzia Scozzese e una scuola primaria di Aberdeen. Il 1° settembre 2020 il governo scozzese ha adottato la United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation)(Scotland)Bill, ovvero un decreto che sancisce l’incorporazione della UNCRC nella legge nazionale. Questa misura riconosce, tramite atto formale, l’istituzione di una cultura rispettos

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a 15-year plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity, adopted in 2015 by all UN Member States. It aims at improving the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. Although the 2030 Agenda was not developed specifically for children there are many connections between it and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), as UNICEF has demonstrated by mapping the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) onto the UNCRC (Wernham, 2017). This mapping adopts a broad interpretation of the Global Goals and of the Convention but reinforces connections between the two and their potential for mutual advocacy and implementation. A crucial connection –let’s think of article 19 of the UNCRC– is the responsibility placed on institutions, to End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children (SDG 16.2). Particularly educational institutions (SDG 4) such as school, it is argued, carry an imperative role to stimulate sustainable development, by working on social relations and conditions to promote a violence free community. However, despite international legislations on child protection, it is always a question of interpretation and negotiation as concerns how these rights are materialized in various countries’ educational policy, as well as why they are described as important to consider (Ball et al., 2012; Know Violence in Childhood,2017). With this as a background it becomes of interest to analyze and compare how the need to protect children from violence is interpreted and enacted in national contexts and in relation to research about violence (Ball et. Alt, 2012; Francia and Edling, 2017; Biffi, 2017). Sweden and Italy are two countries interesting to look at from a European perspective, due to their specific culture and approaches to child violence. Sweden is described as a highly secular (previously protestant) and individualistic country. Contrary to this, It

As stated in Article 29 of the UNCRC, the goal of education is to prepare children for a responsible life in a free society. However, recent international agendas and strategy documents (such as the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) have emphasised the need to develop a more equal and just – more so than a freer – society, while continuing to identify education as a key pillar of human development. In light of this background, the present chapter offers a theoretical analysis of the role of education in human social development, exploring possible connections between children’s rights studies and the capabilities approach. It refers to the terms of the UNCRC to suggest that children’s capabilities need to be conceptualised on their own terms.

Children’s rights and needs are at the center of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, where education is viewed as crucial for providing the opportunities for sustainable, peaceful and equitable coexistence in a changing world. Alternative care settings are educational contexts (Tibollo, 2015) that deal with children in vulnerable conditions (UN General Assembly, 2010). For this reason, they can be considered as a sort of “field test” or “magnifying glass” on how the progress in striving to the implementation of the goals is proceeding – no one must be left behind. The 2020 global pandemic provoked an external shock to current socio-economic dimensions of sustainability. Education has been one of the most struck systems – let’s think of the 1,6 billion learners that have been affected by school closures (UNESCO, 2020)With this global framework in mind, the contribution aims at offering a pedagogical reflection on the impact the Covid-19 pandemic is having on children living in residential care centers (RCC). Worldwide, many RCCs, following the ongoing global pandemic, have been closed with the consequent return of children to their families of origin (CRIN, 2020). This process of deinstitutionalization, however, has not been overseen by rigorous monitoring, leading to increased risks of violence for children. This urges authorities to take carefully planned measures with respect to deinstitutionalisation in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (Goldman, et al., 2020). But Covid-19 is not only a health risk for children in RCCs. Because of the complex impact that the pandemic has had on the lives of children, on one side care responses are required, and on the other psycho-social and educational ones are also crucial (SOS Villaggi dei Bambini Onlus Italy; Save The Children, 2020). In Italy, for example, special guidelines have been drawn up to mitigate the spread of the virus within residential structures, that sometimes are overcrowded (Istituto sup

Since the 1990s children’s participation has become mainstream among child rights and child development agencies (Jans, 2004). Despite its expansion and diversity, children’s participation has not turned into a broad-based practice in the wider development community. “More generally, the concept of participation has failed to provide a sufficiently strong theoretical basis to forge an agenda for children’s participation” (Theis, 2010, p.343). Although Sen does not address the foundations of participation as such, he states that: “The people need to be seen, in this perspective, as being actively involved –given the opportunity– in shaping their own destiny, and not just passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development programs” (Sen, 1999, p.53). Building on this, David Alexander Clark, Mario Biggeri and Alexandre Apsan Frediani (2019) recently argued that the Capability Approach to development offers a theoretical framework to understand and practice (child) participation, addressing the gap in terms of lacking its own distinctive framework. The aim of our paper is to further elaborate on this idea by addressing two interlinked problems that emerge within the CA when children’s participation is at stake. The first one is related to the concept of participation. As has been pointed out, similarly to what happens in policy documents and the models of interpretation (Hussey, 2019), participation is not well defined in the CA (Hammock, 2019), thus requiring further elaboration. This is arguably due to what seems to be a constitutive feature of the concept: as a concept, participation is ‘empty’ (Theis, 2010, p.344), it can be filled with almost anything, which is one of the reasons for its popularity. The other one is that the CA itself needs a refined concept of agency which can account for the specific agency of children. In our view, one of the issues of thinking children’s participation within the CA is that its notion of agency seems to be still largely tai

Objectives This contribution is the result of a narrative literature review (Bouhris, 2017) investigating how children living in residential care homes (RCH) perceive their environment and how the sense of“feeling at home” contributes to well-being. Care policies, framed within the UNCRC, emphasise the importance of ensuring that each child is ‘given a voice’ in creating a safe environment, organised around the rights and needs of children, in setting as close as possible to a family or a small group situation (UN General Assembly, 2009). Method Given the complex historical and political nature of RHC, the review will be cross-disciplinary, also interrogating literature regarding different services such as nursing homes for elderly people (Flemiet al., 2017), and official policies at a European level. Using EBSCO research database, the key terms are: home, homely-like environment in residential care, sense of home in children, children in alternative care, children in residential care homes. Results The literature points out that living in a "homely-like" environment in institutional contexts is linked well-being. It is expected, at the end of the review, to have a greater and more systematic understanding of theEuropean context of residential care homes for children and on the sense of ‘homeliness’ according children. Conclusions RCH should have the characteristics of a civilian home, with a welcoming and homely environment suitable for the different age groups of children (Istituto Degli Innocenti, 2017) to avoid the risk of institutionalisation. At the same time, RCH represents a place with multiple connotations in its being simultaneously home, workplace and institution (Dorrer et al., 2010). This complexity makes it a fertile ground for pedagogical reflection. List of 3-4 recommendations or takeaway points for the audience RHCs are often considered as the last resort (Holmes et al., 2018). This caused a reflexive vacuum (Tibollo, 2015) in the pedagogical debate

OBJECTIVES All over the world children experience violence in school (Know Violence in Childhood, 2017). In this contribution we refer to those forms of school violence at the boarder of the visible (Bi & Mont ,2020), included in the definition of corporal punishment –e.g. belittling, humiliating, denigrating, threatening, scaring or ridiculing (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). The presentation discusses the pedagogical role of child-led school policy, a key dimension of a rights-respecting school culture, in preventing violence against children. METHOD The contribution is part of a qualitative case-study (Yin, 2014) on the phenomenon of child participation in the collaboration between Children’s Parliament Scotland and Manor Park PrimarySchool (Aberdeen). The analyzed data is composed of: ethnographic observations, interviews, a focus-group and documents, amongst them the policy itself. RESULTS The creation of the policy revealed itself as a learning experience for the children on their rights:through a participatory process they were able to learn, amongst other things, that they have the right to be and feel safe in school. Not only, they were also able to express their right and formalize it in policy in order for adults (duty-bearers) to be held accountable. Moreover, the policy is a ‘living’ document that frames the school as an ‘agora’, a place in which every member can learn about and experience human rights and democratic principles, that are key to preventing and eradicating violence (Council of Europe, 2020). CONCLUSIONS Child-led school policy can meaningfully empower children as active agents of their own protection(they are able to identify and express rights-breaching), while creating a rights-respecting and democratic school culture that can prevent and combat violence. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. When creating school policy it should function in these ways (Mont & Jeans, 2020, p.4340): 2. Clearly outline to adults what children need fr

Il contributo intende esplorare il rischio della violenza sotteso alle micro-pratiche educative (fatte di piccoli e silenziosi gesti e parole) dalla prospettiva del corporal punishment (UN Commitee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). L’attenzione è rivolta a quelle pratiche quotidiane – connesse con le routines, quali il pranzo, il gioco e l’igiene personale – che hanno uno specifico valore educativo nei termini del riconoscimento della dignità e del rispetto delle bambine e dei bambini. L’articolo guarda alle micro-pratiche pedagogiche dalla più ampia finestra della violenza all’infanzia (Hamby, Grych, 2013), per discutere le connessioni esistenti tra violenza e educazione (Biffi, Macinai, 2020), dove l’umiliazione e la denigrazione del bambino e della bambina sono viste come componenti di una modalità punitiva inaccettabile, che dimostra quanto possa essere sottile il confine tra violenza e educazione (Schermi, 2016). Infine, il contributo analizza il percorso verso l’abolizione delle punizioni corporali, dedicando specifica attenzione alla formazione degli insegnanti per prevenire e combattere la violenza all’infanzia, che inizia condividendo uno stile educativo coerente e rispettoso tra scuola e famiglia., The paper aims at exploring the risk of violence underneath some small and silent practices (made by gestures, and words) within educational contexts, which can reasonably be considered as part of the general framework for corporal punishments (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2006). The attention is, indeed, focused on those daily practices – connected with the main routines, such as lunchtime, playtime, and the practices related to personal hygiene – which have a specific educational value in terms of respect and recognition of the dignity of the child. The essay therefore reconsiders these typologies of smallest gestures from the wider perspective of violence against children (Hamby, Grych, 2013), in order to discuss the connections that exist between violence and education (Biffi, Macinai, 2020), where humiliation and denigration of the child is considered as part of an unacceptable punishment that demonstrates how thin the border between violence and education can be (Schermi, 2016). Finally, the paper will take stock of the path towards the elimination of all corporal punishment, with a specific focus on the role of teachers training in preventing and fighting violence against children, beginning from the sharing of a coherent and respectful educational style, between family and school.

The contribution offers a pedagogical reflection on some of the challenges the Italian school had to address in the forced transition from face-to-face learning to distance learning. The challenges have been identified by using a rights-based lens, specifically by focusing on those rights that the document “Didattica a distanza e diritti degli studenti. Mini-guida per docenti” (Distance learning and rights of the learners. Mini-guide for teachers) of the Ministry of Education and of the Autorità Garante (child ombudsman) highlight [1]. The contribution is framed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, art.28), the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 4) and by the UNESCO initiative Futures of Education: Learning to become [2] which see education, in a changing world, as the foundation for the construction of a just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive society. In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic started challenging this political and pedagogical project by igniting unprecedented events, amongst which the gradual global closure of schools. In Italy 10,876,792 learners have been affected by school closures until the end of the academic year [3]. Classes continued through distance learning. In order to support distance education, a methodological and practical guide for teachers based on children’s rights was created. It focuses on the rights to: non-discrimination (art.2), participation (art.12), freedom of expression (art.13), adequate standards of living (art.27) and the right to education itself (art.28). Despite the formal recognition of rights, CISMAI denounced their substantial violation [4] during the pandemic. Furthermore children, families, educators and teachers expressed feeling abandoned, left behind [5] and researchers are bringing attention to a ‘new’ way of conceiving the digital divide, that manifested itself only with the absence of an in-person relationship: the relational digital divide [6]. It doesn’t o

The contribution pedagogically reflects on the role child-led policy plays in the construction of a rights based school culture. It is grounded in the experience of collaboration between Children’s Parliament in Scotland and Manor Park Primary School in Aberdeen, Scotland (UK). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (art.12) and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognize child participation as a core principle both for understanding the meanings of childhood and for creating an inclusive, equitable and just society. School is an ideal context for promoting child participation as it is the basic context of growing up and learning in our society. However, a school culture in which children’s right to participation is ensured is rarely observed across the world. This for many reasons: children may not be considered as capable to participate in decisionmaking [1]; teachers may not have an adequate knowledge of children’s rights [2] and/or may perceive them as a threat to their authority and control over the classroom [3]. In 2016, when Children’s Parliament began their partnership with Manor Park, the primary school was a place where children’s human rights were not being respected, which was reflected in their position as primary school with the highest level of exclusions across Scotland and as one of Aberdeen’s lowest attaining ones. A change in headteacher in 2017, and an attention from the senior leadership (SLT) team for the learner's well-being, led to the collaboration with Children’s Parliament to create a child-led vision for the school, which was underpinned by what children need to be happy, healthy and safe and the idea of human dignity. The collaboration with Manor Park intensifies because of a shared understanding of the importance of integrating children’s human rights and democratic practices into the school. The expedient to do so is embodied by a specific form of pedagogical documentation: policies made by the children

In early childhood education and care services, documentation is seen as an instrument for ‘giving children voice’ and for engaging children in their educational process (Formosinho and Pascal 2016; Kroll and Meier 2018; Robertson et al. 2017). At the same time, documentation plays a key role within the decision-making process in which children should be allowed to participate: it is the space where the adults’ decisions are made and shared, whereas within the child protection system, it remains more likely to reflect the adults’ voice (Caldwell et al. 2019). Thus, documentation, especially when in written alphabetic form, illustrates the power of writing and written text (Biffi 2019b). Given that alternative care services are institutional contexts in which the exercise of power and control is inevitable and determined by a given ‘dispositif’ as defined by Michael Foucault (1975), documentation can represent a strategy for giving voice to children or-on the contrary-a strategy for objectivating them, and thus preventing them from authentically engaging with their own care plans. This paper, by drawing on the different meanings held by documentation in ECEC contexts, in terms of viewing it as ‘equipped with agentic power’ (Alasuutari and Kelle 2015) reflects on the meanings of (pedagogical) documentation in alternative care settings, as a transitional space between ‘being spoken for’ and ‘speaking for oneself’, in light of a rights-based and pedagogical framework. A further aim of the paper is to explore possible approaches enabling children to participate in the documentation process, focusing on the practices able to involve children in the writing and reading of documentation concerning themselves.

This paper aims at highlighting the role of arts, referring specifically to graphics, in creating participatory learning experiences for young children and as a mean for professional development of teachers, focusing in particular on the use of arts in pedagogical documentation. Graphics are viewed as a reflective practice that can generate significant learning and development experiences for both children and teachers. These reflections are contextualized by presenting the first experiences and considerations from an ongoing cross-national research, that involves young children (3–6) and their teachers in their educational services called “Inside Outside Children’s perspective in ECECC”. To this end, the Italian pilot case study is particularly meaningful: children have been involved in a participatory learning experience, thanks to the use of drawing, aimed at exploring the meanings of the concept of ‘Inside/Outside’ in its various dimensions – spatial, social and referring to the self. Furthermore, teachers have also explored the theme thanks to the use of collage and started reflecting on the potentialities of this methodology as a professional development tool. The objective is to widen the reflection to the use of artistic languages in pedagogical documentation, to enhance learning in children and teachers.

O presente artigo objetiva realizar uma reflexão pedagógica sobre os significados de infância e democracria ao longo dos tempos, considerando a Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos da Criança (CNUDC) como um marco no pensamento destes conceitos, pensando-os, especificamente, como ponto culminante, ponto de virada e ponto de partida. A infância é uma construção sociocultural que se origina de um movimento duplo: a construção adulta da infância por meio de educação e política e a maneira como as crianças de carne e osso participam do cotidiano de suas famílias e comunidades, contribuindo para definir o que uma criança pode fazer. A primeira seção do artigo explora o movimento duplo mencionado da Idade Média ao século XX, preparando as bases para o desenvolvimento da Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos da Criança em 1989, que liderou uma mudança no modo como a infância é concebida, uma mudança que tem suas raízes no reconhecimento do que as crianças de carne e osso estavam fazendo e sendo ‘silenciosamente’ por eras, por isso é um ponto culminante nesse sentido. O artigo, então, aprofunda a análise da CNUDC, concentrando-se especificamente em como os direitos de participação oferecem uma perspectiva específica sobre democracia, compreendida como um modo de vida que precisa ser aprendido também pelas crianças. O artigo finaliza com uma reflexão sobre o futuro da democracia visto na Agenda 2030 da Organização das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável, a qual se baseia na própria CNUDC., The present contribution offers a pedagogical reflection on the meanings of childhood and democracy through the ages, taking the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a culmination point, a turning point and a starting point for considering these concepts. Childhood is a socio-cultural construct originating from a twofold movement: the adult construction of childhood through education and politics and the way children in flesh and bone participate in the everyday life of their families and communities, contributing to defining what a child can do and be in a certain society. The first section of the paper explores the mentioned twofold movement from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, preparing the foundations for the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. The UNCRC led to a shift in the way childhood is conceived whose roots lie in recognizing what children in flesh and bone had “quietly” been doing and being for ages, so in this sense it is a culmination point. The paper then deepens the analysis of the UNCRC, specifically focusing on how the participation rights offer a particular perspective on democracy, understood as a way of life that needs to be learnt. The paper ends with a reflection on the future of democracy as can be seen in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which is based on the UNCRC itself.

The object of the present contribution is the experienced pedagogical meanings of public, formal and institutional forms of child participation. The premise of the study is that policy on children and their rights frames and contributes to the construction of childhood as a socio-cultural category, impacting onto what a child, in flesh and bones, can learn to do and be in a certain society (Alessandrini, 2014), and vice versa. Since the adult discovery (Ariès, 1968), or construction (Becchi, 1994) of childhood, it has progressively been put at the centre of policy, where the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) represents a milestone in this path of recognition. Today, as never before, in a fragmented world, institutions have been, through policy on children and their rights, investing on childhood as a source for human flourishing (Biffi, 2019). To this end, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – that draws on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) that states that children’s views are relevant and should be considered in all matters concerning them (art.12) – aims at providing the grounds and a nurturing environment for full participation of children in the construction of the peaceful, equitable, just 2030 society (SDG’s Declaration, para.25). Within the contemporary panorama, childhood, on paper, seem to be in an ambivalent situation: vulnerable on one side so subject/object of protection, a full co-agent in the construction of our society, on the other side (Biffi, 2019; Montà & Biffi, 2019) Following the indications of these milestones, the latest International, specifically referring to United Nations’, and European, specifically referring to the Council of Europe’s and European Commission’s, policy documents on children and their rights (Van Vooren, 2019) have been addressing the issue of child participation, but the meanings of the concept tend to be ambiguous, reflecting the complexity of the panorama. Gener

Il lavoro propone una riflessione sull'uso della grafica all'interno di un progetto di ricerca internazionale. Si tratta di una grafica riflessiva utilizzata da bambini della scuola dell'infanzia, adulti educatori e ricercatori. I disegni sono stati poi analizzati esplorando il concetto di dentro e fuori, in un confronto con le esperienze realizzate in Inghilterra, Giappone e Grecia.

This paper aims at offering a theoretical reflection on child participation’s meanings and strategies in Residential Care Centers (hereafter RCC). The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development intends on investing in children, viewing them as contributors to the construction of a more just, equitable, tolerant, open and socially inclusive world. The UN manifesto also emphasizes the need to strive for a nurturing environment in which children can fully realize their rights and capabilities [1]. Hence, it is vital to reflect on the meanings and strategies of child participation in alternative care settings [2] where children are more vulnerable by definition and often precluded from contributing to the decisions concerning their lives [3] [4], although mechanisms to ensure their participation have been implemented [5]. Ensuring children’s participation, especially younger children’s participation, in the child protection system is challenging for practitioners, as it requires balancing their institutional mandate as adults in charge of protecting the child (which entails dynamics of power and authority) with the need to competently foster the child’s own participation as a key form of intervention against violence, also institutional violence [6] Goffman [7], and as a form of prevention of, and a strategy for coping with, adverse childhood experiences. Hence, RCC practitioners require specific professional competence if they are to understand the meanings and value of child participation and encourage its practice, especially when dealing with younger children, in their educational relationship with the child. Thus, there is a need to identify forms and strategies of participation, sustainable both for practitioners (taking into account their institutional mandate and the associated constraints) and for children (in light of their particular stage of development and their specific life stories). The paper will present a reflection on the international pol

This paper will present some pedagogical reflections on the training needs of professionals involved in childhood protection system, with regard to the leaving care phase of children and young people placed in residential care facilities. The considerations here illustrated are related to the qualitative analysis of the first results collected from the training course developed by SOS Children’s Villages Italy (within a wider partnership lead by SOS Children’s Villages International) as part of the two-year project Prepare for Leaving Care (co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship –REC-Programme of the European Commission, 2017-2018). This paper will present the results of the evaluation of Italian training courses realised during the past year in order to teach how to embed a child rights based approach into their daily work with focus on the leaving care phases. Finally, the paper will underlined how the training of professionals involved in childhood protection system is a pedagogical challenge [1] in terms of developing a multi-professional équipe and high level of competences –included emotional ones [2]– in order to sustain young people in developing their own project of life.