Children’s Rights: History as a Rear View Mirror

Author(s):

Didier ReynaertRudi RooseStijn Vandevelde Maria Bouverne-De Bie

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

25. Research on Children's Rights in Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

25 SES 04, Researching Children's Rights: Aspects of Time and Place

Paper Session and Joint Session with network 17 and 25

Time:

2009-09-28

16:00-17:30

Room:

NIG, Seminarraum

Chair:

John I'Anson

Contribution

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an important frame of reference for pedagogical research and practice. Since the adoption scholars from various disciplines and backgrounds have been studying the implementation of this convention. In this presentation, we argue that research on children’s rights and education practices can depart from different interpretations of the CRC. We distinguished elsewhere the difference between a technical reading and a social political reading of the CRC. In a technical reading the focus is on the legal position of childen in society. This interpretation emphasises the autonomy of children; the focus is on the rights that children possess. Conversely, the social-political interpretation of the CRC addresses the question of how the rights of children can be realised. It is suggested that distinguishing between these interpretations is essential with regard to questions of education. These different interpretations have consequences for children, adults and educators, but also for researchers. A technical approach of children’s rights implies a position of the researcher as a designer. The focus lies on the development of implementation models for children’s rights and on the evaluation of these models. The meaning of children’s rights in itself is not questioned. The focus lies on the way these rights are or should be put into practice. This designer or engineering approach sees the historical evolution of education in the light of the recognition of the CRC as a move forwards. Educational research often refers to the CRC as an element of emancipation, focussing on the recognition of the participation rights as a ’new’ element in the CRC, compared to earlier children’s rights instruments – such as the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959 – which were focused on protection and privision rights.

Method

Literature review; discourse analysis

Expected Outcomes

A social political interpretation of children’s rights focuses on the meaning of these rights in concrete spatial and historical context. This demands a position of the researcher as an engaged outsider, and a movement towards the problem field. In this approach, history is not something from the past, but it can function as a rear view mirror to better understand the current meaning of children’s rights as a pedagogical frame of reference. From this point of view, the CRC as a frame of reference for pedagogical action is not necessarily to be seen as a move forward, but can also be seen as a return to old pedagogical ideas.

References

Dahlberg, G. and Moss, P. (2005) Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education (London, RoutledgeFalmer). Depaepe, M., van Crombrugge, H. and Vanobbergen, B. (2001) Children and Childhood—Histories and Rhetorics, in: E. Verhellen (ed.) Understanding Children’s Rights. Collected Papers Presented at the Fifth Internatonal Interdisciplinary Course on Children’s Rights. University of Ghent (Belgium)—December 2000 (Ghent, Children’s Rights Centre: University of Ghent). Farson, R. (1974) Birthrights (New York, Collier Macmillan). Goldstein, J., Freud, A. and Solnit, A. J. (1980) Before the Best Interests of the Child (London, Burnet Books). Holt, J. (1974) Escape from Childhood. The Needs and Rights of Children (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books). Jans, M. (2004) Children as Citizens. Towards a Contemporary Notion of Child Participation, Childhood, 11.1, pp. 27–44. Kiwan, D. (2005) Human Rights and Citizenship: An Unjustifiable Conflation?, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 39.1, pp. 37–50. Masschelein, J. and Quaghebeur, K. (2005) Participation for Better or for Worse, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 39.1, pp. 51–65. Moqvist, I. (2003) Constructing a Parent, in: M. Bloch, T. Holmlund, I. Moqvist and T. S. Popkewitz (eds) Governing Children, Families and Education. Restructuring the Welfare State (New York, Palgrave MacMillan). Prout, A. and James, A. (1990) A New Paradigm for the Sociology of Childhood? Provenance, Promise and Problems, in: A. James and A. Prout (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood. Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood (London/New York/Philadelphia, The Falmer Press). Pupavac, V. (2001) Misanthropy Without Borders: The International Children’s Rights Regime, Disasters, 25.2, pp. 95–112. Purdy, L. (1994) Why Children Shouldn’t Have Equal Rights, The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 2.3, pp. 223–241. Vandenbroeck, M. and Bouverne-De Bie, M. (2006) Children’s Agency and Educational Norms—A Tensed Negotiation, Childhood, 13.1, pp. 127–143. Verhellen, E. (2000) Convention on the Rights of the Child. Background, Motivation, Strategies, Main Themes (Leuven, Acco). Willems, J. C. M. (ed.) (2002) Developmental and Autonomy Rights of Children: Empowering Children, Caregivers and Communities (Antwerpen/Oxford/New York, Intersentia). Zelizer, V. A. (1994) Pricing the Priceless Child. The Changing Social Value of Children (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press).

Author Information

Didier Reynaert

University college Ghent

Faculty of Social Work and Welfare Studies

Ghent

Rudi Roose

Ghent University, Belgium

Stijn Vandevelde

Ghent University, Belgium; University College Ghent, Belgium

Maria Bouverne-De Bie