Abstract
The perception of a teacher with regards to a child’s participation and their practices affect his/her participation in educational institutions. To provide effective participation, teacher’s awareness and attitudes towards participation must be examined. This research aims to determine the views of Turkish pre-school and elementary teachers on children’s participation in educational institutions. The participants of the study were comprised of 16 teachers employed in public preschools and elementary schools in a province in Turkey’s Inner Aegean Region. The teachers’ interview form is used as the data collection tool in this study. As a result of the research, it was determined that teachers had a positive perspective on children’s participation, they allow for certain conditions to enable participation coupled with decision-making processes in a limited fashion. Furthermore, it was concluded that teachers had methodical difficulties in decision-making and they thought that they needed to improve themselves in promoting participation. Teachers also thought that the teacher, peer relations, and family are effective on the participation.
Highlights
The current social and cultural changes influenced the perspectives on childhood to a large extent
One of the elementary teachers explained participation by giving an example of the practices carried out to ensure children‟s participation in Turkish educational institutions, and asserted that “Practices such as student council, class president and on-duty students are among the important practices that we provide for the participation of children.”
The data obtained from this study, which aimed to determine the views of Turkish pre-school and elementary teachers on child participation in educational institutions, were interpreted under four main themes: participation, decision making, expressing views, and classroom practices
Summary
The current social and cultural changes influenced the perspectives on childhood to a large extent. It is noted that the perspectives of societies about childhood affect the services to be provided for children (Mayall, 2000; Quennerstedt & Quennerstedt, 2014; Woodhead, 2006). According to new approaches in childhood studies, childhood does have a global feature and entails a cultural and social process. Childhood is socially structured and children should be seen as independent individuals in social life and social processes (James & Prout, 1997). According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children, children‟s right to participate is defined as the rights that enable children to be an active individual in society such as freely expressing their views, assembling, forming an association, and asking for their views to be Address of Corresponding Author
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