Abstract
Children’s participation is a universal right recognised by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This right corresponds to an image of children as social actors because of their relevant role in achieving inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development. Participation can take different forms and levels of involvement: consultative, collaborative, and child‐led. This study aimed to explore types and results of child‐led participatory practices. A scoping review was carried out to find out what evidence is available on child‐led participatory experiences. Based on 674 identified papers, a total of 33 studies met the inclusion criterion. The qualitative analysis employed in this review allowed us to explore the depth and themes of these experiences. The results obtained showed that the experiences analysed differed in (a) the research design and data collection methods of the studies, (b) the age of the participating children, (c) countries in which the experiences took place, (d) specific topics, and (e) outcomes. Moreover, they all shared a non‐adult‐centric view of children’s capacities for transformative action. The review has contributed to improving our understanding of children’s transformative capacities based on the possibilities offered by adults when they adopt a child‐rights approach and integrate co‐participatory approaches, encouraging us to rethink childhood from other cultural codes inspired by equality, recognition, and agency.
Highlights
Child‐led participatory practices are a clear example of the active role that children can assume as social actors, participating in social and political life in different ways, and in such a way that is different to adults’ participa‐ tion
Of the 33 documents included in the review, 24 were peer‐reviewed articles and nine were cases on child‐led participatory processes disseminated on the Participedia platform
The results of our research show that children can under‐ take transformative actions in their social environment, if the adult world provides them with the opportuni‐ ties to do so and if, in addition, the ways of thinking about children’s participation and putting it into prac‐ tice with children themselves are updated (McMellon & Tisdall, 2020; Nolas, 2015)
Summary
Child‐led participatory practices are a clear example of the active role that children can assume as social actors, participating in social and political life in different ways, and in such a way that is different to adults’ participa‐ tion. If we focus on the political sphere, child‐led partici‐ pation in modern democracies usually develops in a con‐ sultative manner, initiated, led, or managed by adults. This is a basic but no less important form of participa‐ tion in democratic societies, whereby children’s citizen‐ ship can influence decision‐making processes on issues that concern them. Even if not mentioned as such, this basic form of participation is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 1989) This international conven‐ tion positions children as subjects of rights and includes, among others, their right to freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion, association, leisure, play and enjoyment of cultural activities, as well as free and full participation in cultural and artistic life. We try to provide evidence of research and experience on child‐led partic‐ ipatory practices in collaboration with adults
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