Children have a right to be heard, and for their views to be given due weight (UN, 1989). To be given due weight requires an adult decision-maker to listen to those views. We know from the vast student voice literature that issues of voice are located in structures and relations of power, and that who is speaking is just as important as what is said, and what is said changes according to who is speaking, and who is listening (see Cook-Sather, 2006; Rudduck and Fielding, 2006; Taylor and Robinson, 2009; Fielding, 2004;). What traditionally receives less attention in this literature is the administration of due weight: the listening. This is perhaps because due weight becomes drowned out by a fixation with children’s capacity, or alleged lack thereof (Tisdall, 2018; Daly, 2018). There is no accepted understanding of how to weigh children’s views, and it has become something of an obstacle to children’s rights, particularly in cases where children’s wishes are divergent from prevailing orthodoxy (Daly, 2018; Cairns et al, 2018). This paper opens up debate about listening, and what this means for attributing the ‘due’ in due weight. The questions we begin with is: what does it mean to listen?

A common assumption about listening is that it means the same for everyone, but children listening to adults is not understood in the same way as adults listening to children, or children listening to other children. Frequently interpreted as the decoding of verbalised language, children are viewed as either needing to learn to listen ‘better’, or as deserving to be listened to (Gallagher et al, 2017). However, conceiving of listening in this way assumes the verbalisation of children’s views, and overlooks the role of silence in participation. It therefore advances an impoverished understanding of ‘voice’ and children’s right to be heard. It also fails to take account of us living in-relation with one another, as ‘one among others’ (Splitter, 2022a, 2022b) and the role this has to play in ‘due weight’ and attributing credibility to children’s views.

Drawing upon Fricker’s (2007) epistemic injustice, we claim in this paper that acts of hearing are an exercise of power, but that the implications of this power for ‘due weight’ have not been thoroughly examined. The issue of the epistemic injustice that children encounter is problematic (Kennedy (2010); Murris, 2013; Mohr Lone & Burroughs, 2016; Cassidy & Mohr Lone, 2020), particularly when considering notions of the right to be heard. Indeed, Fricker (2007) argues that the sort of listening required is as much to what is not said as to what is said – a type of listening that requires a ‘responsible hearer’. So, how do we listen to silence? We suggest an ‘expanded listening’ can help us understand  the role of silence in participation and shed some light on the concept of ‘non-participation’.

This is a conceptual paper in which we explore how philosophical inquiry with children and young people, drawing on Philosophy with Children as a rights-based research method, may inform a framework of ‘expanded listening’ for the purposes of giving ‘due weight’. Philosophy with Children (PwC) grew from the work of Matthew Lipman in the 1970s (Lipman, Sharp & Oscanyan, 1980; Lipman, 2003) and a range of approaches have evolved from this, with CoPI being one such approach. The philosophical dialogue is structured in such a way that it requires participants to listen in order to engage with others’ contributions. It also relies on the facilitator listening carefully to the dialogue. In effect, participants and facilitator attend to what is not said as much as what is said within CoPI. This type of listening is unusual, particularly when children are involved, not least because it recognises that children have something to say, but it also acknowledges that silences may be pregnant. Beyond this, carrying the maieutic metaphor further, where we may see the facilitator of dialogue as midwife, the need for adults to be silent is likely to ensure that fruit is borne from these silences.

In exploring the ways in which silence is manifest in CoPI, and the manner in which it is variously addressed, we will conclude by proposing a framework for ‘expanded listening’ that may be extended beyond philosophical inquiry in classrooms. In doing so, we will address issues of epistemic injustice experienced by children and young people to suggest ways in which those who listen, the audience, the interlocutors, might position themselves to engage with silence. This, we argue, will require a shift in how children are encountered. Notions of community, of being ‘one among others’ (Splitter, 2022a, 2022b), will be vital in this endeavour. It is, as Hanna notes (2021), in failing to recognise silence that injustices may arise, thereby reinforcing traditional power dynamics, and it is this that acts as a barrier to children being heard. In recognising what is not said, seeing silence as laden with meaning, listening is expanded.

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