Children’s agency is increasingly recognised as a key necessary condition to respond to complex, uncertain and emergent challenges in today’s world (OECD, 2018).  UNICEF (2019) conceptualises these challenges within the rights of the child, necessitating a transformation in the culture of learning to strengthen the voices of children in curriculum making.  This symposium will explore research discussing the realisation of children’s agency in curriculum making through a focus on children’s rights in, to and through education (Verhellen, 1993). We draw on Howe & Covell’s (2010:296) children’s rights education as ‘[T]aught in a democratic classroom and school environment characterized by mutual respect among students and between teacher and students’.

Children’s agency is an important concept. In the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC: UN, 1989) there seems to be ambiguity regarding children’s agency (White, 2002).  Agency refers to the capacity of children to act independently and make their own choices, while voice represents their ability to express opinions and influence decisions affecting them. The research field in the area of children’s agency is arguably now much more vibrant, (for example Esser et al., 2016; Spyrou, 2018, Abebe, 2019) than in 2012 (Tisdall and Punch). However, there is still a need for more empirical work in different educational contexts to examine how this is realised. As Spyrou (2018: 122) posits: “the emerging critical concern should not be with whether children have or do not have agency, with whether they are passive or active, but rather with when, where and how children’s agency happens”.

Children’s experiences of school, their classroom interactions are all part of curriculum making. How children participate in schools influences their educational experiences (Thompson’s and Holdsworth, 2003). This is part of a democratic classroom, where children are not simply present but experience the conditions through which they have freedom of expression and opportunities to voice this. Children’s rights education where children’s voice is realised/actualised provides a space where children’s agency may be achieved. Lundy (2007) and Gillet-Swan (2022) provide useful frameworks for considering practices promoting voice. Despite global efforts to promote children’s participation rights there remain gaps in understanding how children exercise their agency and voice in different contexts. Moreover, lack of agency, choice and motivation puts quality educational outcomes for children at risk (Kutsar, Soo & Mandel, 2019). Rich educational experiences involving children’s life-worlds (children’s material world and the social surroundings in which they find themselves) in the educational process could support children’s agency and make learning more meaningful (Barab & Roth 2006). 

The research projects presented in this symposium focus on children’s negotiation of the curriculum, rights-infused pedagogical practices and high school students’ work experiences and their relationship to student agency in school.

The first paper by O’Reilly is based on current research in Ireland (NEEDS), which is a direct response to UNESCO’s call to “reimagine” education to address issues of democratic back-sliding, disinformation, intolerance through a new social contract to develop student active citizenship in formal education (O’Reilly, 2024).

The paper, by Johnston and Priestley, will consider rights-infused pedagogical approaches to curriculum making in Scotland. It will draw on inquiry-based approaches, such as Philosophy with Children (PwC) which can explore topics like justice, equality, and the environment, and connects philosophical inquiry to real-world contexts, encouraging children to see themselves as capable of influencing societal change.

The paper by Erss and Loogma will explore what high school students (aged 16-19) in Estonia learn while working outside of school and how it is among other student- and school-related factors related to their capacity for agentic behaviour in school.

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