Drawing primarily on Foucauldian ideas of disciplinary power and an ethnographic study I undertook with six and seven year olds at school in a market town in England, this paper aims to stimulate critical thinking about the notion of empowerment within participatory processes at school, despite benevolent intentions to ensure children have an opportunity ‘to express their views freely in all matters that affect them’ (UNCRC: Article 12). In particular I will explore aspects of the folktale ‘The Freedom Bird’ that resonate with the role institutional arrangements and social relations play in shaping the participatory process and children's experience of expressing their views freely. Consideration will be given to examining: • The role that teacher knowledge has in influencing which realities are and are not recognised, accepted, or celebrated (Foucault, 1977, James & Prout, 1997); • The disciplinary technologies that teachers employ to shape and position children with a particular identity and role in discourses of knowledge collection and production (Foucault, 1977, 1980); • The spaces of engagement and/or resistance that children carve out in response to the differing opportunities available to them and the constraints they experience within participatory processes (Foucault, 1977, 1980; Cooke & Kothari, 2001).