This paper aims to present some partial and preliminary findings of an empirical research undertaken with a group of children in Lisbon. The focus of this empirical process is «children´s perspectives about their own educational processes», being a section of the author’s doctoral thesis on «children´s educating networks in contemporary cities». The paper includes three main sections, as follows. Guidelines of the theoretical framework will be briefly presented in the first section. These focus on the place of children in the theoretical and empirical developments of the formal, non-formal and informal dimensions of education within the paradigm of Lifelong learning. This discussion will be enriched with some glimpses of the role of cities – as context, agent and content of education. Furthermore, these theoretical contributions raise questions that deal with the reshaping process of children as subjects of education in our contemporaneousness. The second section will discuss the main features of the empirical research, from the point of view of the research in the educational sciences and especially from the point of view of the research with children. The empirical research is being developed in the respect of the interpretative paradigm, which is being implemented in a case study with a participatory approach. The main options were about choosing a particular empirical context which would be illustrative of the research problem that guides the whole – dealing with the emerging diversity of contexts of education for children within and by institutions other than schools, developing their work with, and without, schools, parents and municipalities. The main hypothesis is about children’s reflexivity in the construction of meaning for their diverse educational experiences. The methodological challenge is developing and putting together diversified instruments and techniques to gather valid information and to promote reflexive moments through the empirical process. Finally, the preliminary empirical findings will be presented. The first phase of the field work started in January of the current year with the development of child-friendly language to share with the case-study subjects the goals and characteristics of the research process; in this context, I will present some of the materials conceived especially for the children engaged in the research, and for their parents. Simultaneously, the first formal contacts with some of the significant adults took place – the class teacher and some of the responsible educational actors of out of school contexts attended by children; I will introduce some of the main ideas emerging from these contacts. From March, the researcher will, hopefully, engage in a day-to-day process of participatory observation in the school context. The first impressions and interpretations of these stay will be presented for discussion with the audience.

Since this is the beginning of a case study of a complex educational phenomenon, this phase of the research is about figuring out the most valid strategies to achieve knowledge about the characteristics of the educational processes in which a small group of children of 8 to 10 years old is engaged. With this in mind, the author has developed a plan of participatory observation, within the classroom and also in accompanying the class children in some exterior visits in the surroundings of the school. This observation process is participatory, hence the researcher develops some intended contacts with the children, using diverse techniques: debates and brainstorming with the group of participants about the process of research and knowledge construction in social sciences, direct occasional questions to some of them about specific situations occurring during the observation, and some first interviews with the children. There is another aspect of the case that will have its first empirical approach: the significant adults of the formal and non-formal situations that children engage in during the period of the observation. Both exploratory and deepening interviews will be conducted with these professionals. The first contacts with parents, will happen both as a consequence of the meetings with the children and through some formal letters. The researcher hopes to have some of the parents informal reactions, and will also develop some inquiries for these subjects of the case study.

Thus, we expect to be able to produce some provisory knowledge about the educational potentialities and realities of our present-day society. We intend to do that with the contribution of the children’s perspective about the ways of their own learning lives (Biesta at all, 2004; Mayall, 2005). With this main expectation, the outcomes of the early phase of the case study will be introduced in this paper. So we expect the discussion with the audience about the preliminary findings will help readjust the empirical research plan. These findings will concern: - the teacher’s perspective about the educational options that she makes in the context of the characteristics of the city of Lisbon; - the children’s understanding of their day-to-day educational experiences - in the school classroom, in the school yard, in the out of school visits with the teacher and the class, in some other possible emerging contexts; - the reliability of the empirical operations implemented so far.