Ask Them : Child Participation in the Development of Educational Services

In accordance with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC), we conducted a consultation process with 113 children between four and seven years of age from five different schools in Italy. We asked children to imagine their ideal school in guided conversations, drawings, and drawing descriptions. Their responses were organised into three thematic areas: (a) school quality, (b) purposes of early childhood education, and (c) activities to include in the school curriculum. Consistent with literature on participatory research, this six-month consultation process demonstrates that even young children’s views can be useful to policy-making. Particular attention is given to the methodology.


Introduction
Until a few years ago, asking children for their opinion in studies concerning city bylaws and regulations was rare.When children were consulted, they were asked to report on matters that concerned them personally, such as self-identity (Winstone et al, 2014), paediatric oncology (Johnson et al. 2011) or care services (Hill, 1995).It was only after the 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights General Comment (No. 7) released by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that the views of children, even those of a very young age, started to be taken into account.According to the UNCRC, child participation is a legally binding duty that signatory countries must respect and promote.Acknowledging that children have rights means recognizing them as citizens, social actors and members of society who can contribute to its development (IAWGCP, 2008).Article 12 of the UNCRC states, "all girls and boys have the right to express their views and opinions on matters that affect them, and to have those views and opinions taken into account" (page number?) Since the UNCRC declaration, researchers have taken up the task of attending to children's participation in the research process by consulting children on issues ranging from education (Fielding, 2001;Kellet et al., 2004;Jaeger et al., 2004;Dhakal, 2010), race and gender equity (MacNaughton, 2001 a, b, c), violence (Lansdown, 2005) and children's rights (Allan and L'anson, 2004).Many of these studies, including those that have involved very young children, have demonstrated that children are capable of offering valuable insights.
Recently, MacNaughton, Hughes and Smith (2007) presented two case studies showing how consulting very young children can contribute to policy-making and the wider community.This was the first time in Australia that the voices of young children were formally included at the level of governmental decision making (territorial and state government).In their research, MacNaughton, Hughes and Smith (2007) asked children to report on wellbeing and how gender affects learning and relationships through drawings.
Drawing is considered one of the most appropriate methods when working with children, especially when they are very young (James et al. 1998:189).
The goal of our study was to understand children's perceptions of the characteristics and purposes of their schools.We asked young children to imagine their ideal school through guided conversations, drawings, and drawing descriptions.Their opinions were included in a process of policy-making consultation that took place in Italy.Below we describe the process and results.

Methods
In 2013, the City of Bologna, Italy, developed a set of guidelines (the "Service Charter") to create educational programs and policies for the early years.Consistent with its tradition in using participatory processes, the City of Bologna included at the working table the input of several representatives of the community and its stakeholders: teachers, parents and, for the first time, children.To conduct the consultations with the children, the City hired 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights a facilitator consultant who was hired by the municipality of Bologna as an expert in using participatory methods with children.
In total, five teachers and 113 children between the age of four and seven participated in the consultation.The facilitator, assisted by the teachers, organized a series of consultations with pre-school and elementary school children.The consultation protocol was approved by the schools and integrated into the school curriculum.The consultation was considered by the schools to be consistent with the curriculum and for this reason, applied the parental consent obtained at the beginning of the school year.Children were asked for their assent to participate before starting the activities.
The study took place in five schools in the City of Bologna -two pre-schools and three elementary schools.The participating schools were identified based on the availability of the teachers and their previous experience in child-participatory studies.

The "introd-action" meeting
Prior to beginning the consultation, the facilitator held a meeting with the teachers.
The meeting served to help refine the methodology to best suit the unique context of each classroom and to support the teachers as they prepared for the consultation.
The meeting with the teachers was divided into two sections.During the first section, the facilitator discussed children's participation as a human right.The second section focused on discussing the following themes: human rights versus 'social nobody-ness' of children; The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; diversity and participation; and specific requirements to effectively support children's participation as well as the methodology described below.

School quality
Analysis of the audio-recordings and drawings for school quality provided three different sub-areas: Spatial dimensions, colours and nature (Illustration 5).
Illustration 5 -Quality: spatial dimension, colours and nature

Spatial dimensions
Children linked school quality to the size of its premises.They suggested that a desirable school should have multiple floors, big windows and large spaces to move around and play.One student, for example, suggested that, "Pretty schools are those having more floors because there is more space for us."Another student said, "A classroom is pretty when it is big enough for us to play in it." The size of the school appeared to be essential to guarantee space for everyone.
Representative comments included the following: "In a big school there is room for children running together," "…There is space to play all together" and "It is nice to have a space indoor to play together.""The school must be big enough to welcome all children of the world and "the school must be big, because the more we are, the more friends we can make" are two quotes indicating how large spaces are not only important to define the quality of the school but also make it possible to accommodate many children.Children emphasized the importance of spending time with other children.
Additionally, the layout of the classroom was considered to be important.Most children favoured U-shaped arrangement of the desks to the more conventional classroom layout made up of rows of desks facing the teacher's desk: "I would like my classroom with 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights desks all nearby, so that we all can see better.""I like the way we have it: with big desks put in a circle.""I like a classroom in which the desks are assembled in groups: it is nice to be sitting in small circles." Younger children went a step further by proposing castle-like buildings, with knights, dragons and fairies.As one child stated,"the school I want is a bit strange, but sometimes we all need fantasy too!"According to these children, a school should be large enough to accommodate magic and imagination: "I make a drawing of a classroom, yet it is not the one I stay in.This is the classroom I would like, the classroom of my imagination."

Colours
Colourful classrooms were also central aspect of school quality, especially for the younger children (age 4 to 5)."Plenty of colours make the school prettier." Colours glimmering out of flags, as well as painted walls, doors and windows all filled with drawings and glowingly whitewashed.Children commented on the relevance of colours and drawings as important aspects of a school.

Nature
Most children made drawings of a school surrounded by green spaces, trees and flowers.They described schoolyards covered with grass and big enough to play soccer in.
This is what some of the children said: "There is a lot of nature in the premises.""There is a lawn and children can stay outdoor.""There are plenty of trees, including palms!" "There are trees and nearby mountains.""(In school) I love greenery!""In the school I like there are children playing soccer, and I like to play outside.""There is a big garden.""There is a forest close by.""There are plenty of flowers and plants.""I love grass and trees!"Overall, children identified the following elements as contributing to the quality of a school: ample dimensions, large spaces to share with, colourful classrooms, large outdoors spaces and room for fantasy and imagination.

Purposes of early childhood education
This category was characterized by three sub-themes: happiness, supportive learning environment and friendship (Illustration 6).
2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights Another child said: "I like studying English so that I can have more friends.If children from other countries come to our school (in Italy) and we know how to speak English, we can talk with them and they can understand us right away."More comments followed: "It is nice in the morning, because children walk in together and become friends!" "At school children have fun and so they can know each other well.""I am fine in any school where I can make friends.""We must make friends at school: it is an easier thing to do there.""If you do not know anybody, going to school helps you to make friends.""The children make friends at school because they are all learning.""There must be grown-up children together with the little ones, so that when the bad guys come to beat the younger, the grown-up protect them.""The school helps children to get together at first; after that, we know and love each other."reflected in the richness of the accounts that this consultation generated.Furthermore, the drawing activity paired with descriptions of the drawings and guided conversations resulted in a plethora of information that likely could not have been obtained using drawings alone (Kress, 1997).Our consultation process distinguishes itself for its ecological validity as all activities took place in the classroom and in the presence of the teacher, respecting an environment familiar to the children.

Activities to include in the school curriculum
Although we maintained children's attention with the use of puppets, photos and conversations, we need to acknowledge that presenting the activities all in one day might be too ambitious.Considering the young age of the children, it might have been more suitable to divide their activities into two or three shorter sessions to be conducted on different days.
At the time of writing of this article, the results of this consultation had not yet been integrated into the city planning.We believe, however, that consulting children about their everyday life in school, should become part of every process in matters concerning them.In recent years, the participation of children in consultation processes has shown that children Because children have the right to participate in decisions concerning their well being, it is important to use methodologies appropriate for their participation.We believe the methodology reported here fulfills this important function.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The City of Bologna, in particular in the person of Marilena Pillati, Deputy Mayor in charge of School and Education, should be credited for a considerable openness in supporting this project, which had to face the challenges implied by time-limitations and technical constraints.Such institutional attention would not have been raised without the internal advocacy efforts of Dino Cocchianella, Elena Iacucci and Gabriele Ventura (Municipal Administration).Sincere gratitude also goes to Professor Roberta Paltrinieri (CESCOCOM Director) to bear with the encumbering presence of the facilitator (first author) within the Group 0-6, to Marica Prandini for her invaluable aid in developing the consultation methodology, as well as to the teachers Anna Grotto, Fabiana Giuli, Letizia Tampieri, Lya Brintazzoli e Tiziana Russignan who made the consultations possible.Finally, utmost gratefulness goes to

Four
activities comprise the study: The Circle of Children, The Circles of Worlds, The School I Like, and The Circle of Ideas.The Circle of Children activity was meant to familiarize children with the presence of the facilitator.To achieve this goal, the facilitator used an African rag doll which he introduced as his friend.The activity required children to say their name by passing the doll to the next child in the circle.The African rag doll was used in four schools.In the fifth 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights school the teacher suggested the use of a "magic wooden stick" that the children passed around (see Illustration 1).Illustration 1 -The Circle of Children… getting to know each other The Circle of Worlds activity was meant to understand the perception children have of schools in general.To this end, the facilitator showed four sets of photos portraying children and school buildings from around the world.The photos were printed on A4 coloured paper and laminated (see Illustration 2).Illustration 2 -The Circle of Worlds… understanding children's perception of schools 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights The first set of photos titled "Children around the world" portrayed children at play in different parts of the world.The second set, "Schools of the World," portrayed photos of school buildings from different parts of the world.The different sets of photos served to gradually engage the children from talking about playing to talking about school.The third set of photos titled "Buildings around the world" was accompanied by the following questions: "Which of these buildings is a school"?and "what images struck you the most about this photo and why"?To complement the activity, the facilitator showed a fourth and last set of photos portraying different classroom settings.The photos also showed teachers and students and served as prompts to further engage children in conversations about peers and educators.The School I Like activity involved collecting children's perceptions through the use of drawings and their descriptions.The facilitator asked the children to make two drawings: one to illustrate an ideal school and the other to illustrate the type of activities children would like to do in school.The questions were as follows: 1) "How would you like your school to be"? and 2) "What activities would you like to do in your school"?Children six years and older were also asked to respond to the questions in writing with a short sentence (see Illustration 3).Illustration 3 -The school I like… individual drawing session The circle of ideas activity involved asking children to describe their drawings.Once the drawings were completed, the facilitator asked children to place them on a panel he had previously placed on the floor.Once the drawings had been placed on the panel, the children were asked to stand in a semi-circle around it.The facilitator taped and glued the drawings on the panel giving children the choice to decide where on the panel they wanted to position 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights their drawings.Each child then described his or her drawing to the facilitator and classmates (Illustration 4).Illustration 4 -The circle of ideas… describing the drawings content Results Exploratory content analysis was undertaken on transcripts of the children's responses and observations of the drawings.The facilitator conducted the analysis by reading each response and recording themes as they emerged.These themes were then consolidated into three general categories: school quality; purpose of early childhood education; and activities to include in the school curriculum.The first category, school quality, consisted of responses children gave about the physical features of a school.The second category, purposes of early childhood education, consisted of responses related to teachers' characteristics and peer relationships.And the final category, activities to include in the school curriculum, consisted of responses children gave relating to activities to include in the school curriculum.The comments of students reported below are translated from Italian.224 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights When asked which activities they would include in the school curriculum, children talked extensively about outdoors activities, arts & crafts, playing, and sciences.Illustration 7 -School curriculum: Outdoors activities, Arts & crafts, Playing, and Sciences 2014 Canadian Journal of Children's Rights have much of relevance to say.The children who participated in this consultation demonstrated a realistic view of what a school is and how it should look in order to function well.