Children’s Awareness about their Own Rights
Author(s):
Meltem Cengel (presenting / submitting) Selcen Aydogan (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2012
Network:
21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

ERG SES F 11, Child development

Parallel paper session

Time:
2012-09-18
09:00-10:30
Room:
FCEE - Aula 4.3
Chair:
John I'Anson

Contribution

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989 (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2007). Children’s right education is important not only for legal reasons but also for its potential in increasing rights-respecting attitudes and behaviors (Covell & Howe, 1999).

One key to provide children’s rights education is schools. In schools, children can learn and live those concepts by formal and hidden curriculum. Meanwhile, it can be difficult to implement children’s rights education when many in public misunderstand the nature of children’s rights. For many parents and teachers “right” connotes inappropriate entitlement that lead to promote chaos in our homes or schools (Covell &Howe, 2009). Children’s rights about education are categorized in three dimensions (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2007): The right of access to education, the right to quality education, the right to respect to in the learning environment.

In Turkey, there has been some projects, “Rights in Education I” and “Rights in Education II”, occurred by European Commission’s financial supports, but there is still very limited research about children’s rights (www.egitimdehaklar.org).

The aim of this research is to investigate children’s awareness about their own rights, and explore how they learned those rights.

Method

This study is designed as a qualitative study. The participants of the study are twelve students from three different schools in Aydin, Turkey. Schools are selected according to their socio-economic status. In all schools, two students are educated from preschool, and two are not. Maximum variation and convenient sampling techniques are used. The data for the study was gathered with “semi-structured interview form” developed by the researchers. While developing the form, the researches were focused on three subjects: the right of access to education, the right to quality education, the right to respect in learning environment. In the interview, it was also asked both their rights and their classmates’ rights to consider a broader view. As a third point, it was asked how they learned those rights they have. The first draft of the form was presented to academicians. After gathering two experts offers, two trial interviews were occurred. According to the interviews, interview form was reviewed and the last form was obtained.

Expected Outcomes

Data gathering process is still going on. However, according to the trial interviews, and the interviews occurred, we expect to find out a deeper understanding about which rights do students aware, and how they learned about them. We also would like to explore if there are some differences according to students’ schools socio-economic status or pre-school education experiences. This research will contribute the literature not only by announcing some findings about Turkey, but also giving some comparable data for other countries and European Union.

References

Covell, K. and Howe, R.B. (1999) ‘The impact of children’s rights education: A Canadian study.’ International Journal of Children’s Rights 7, 171–83. Covell, K. and Howe, R.B. (2009) Children, Families and Violence: Challenges for Children’s Rights. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Rights in Education I & Rights in Education II. retrieved from: www.egitimdehaklar.org, 02.02.2012 United Nations Children’s Fund (2007) Human Right Based Approach for All: A Framework for the Realization of Children’s Right to Education and Rights within Education. New York: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Author Information

Meltem Cengel (presenting / submitting)
Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Education, Turkey
Selcen Aydogan (presenting)
ADU Faculty of Educaiton
Primary Education
Aydin

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