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Hearing children’s voices

Ralph Leighton, Senior Lecturer on the PGCE Secondary in the Faculty of Education, reflects on children’s voices in the run up to the Universal Children’s Day:

Children’s voice should be children’s voices. While school councils give some children the opportunity to express themselves, most are excluded from contributing. My research, with Laila Nielsen, Jönköping University, Sweden, shows that many young people feel excluded from full citizenship, in school and in society. Their circumstances are described by Yuval-Davis’ concept of intersectionality, that membership of various collectivities often leads to conflict between formal (official) and real (experienced) circumstances. The school students we interviewed identified gender, ethnicity, social class, income, sexuality and age as differently interrelated and interpreted so that what they are told will happen is not always what they experience. This leads to the concept of human capabilities proposed by Sen and by Nussbaum, that it is all very well saying people have equal rights but they do not have equal access to those rights. Students see teachers, parents, politicians treating some groups less favourably than others, and feel powerless to intervene as they are regarded as naïve children. The space between the FBVs of Prevent and children’s daily experiences of lack of tolerance, of unequal application of rules, of a lack of democratic accountability, and of limits on their expression of opinions is regularly remarked upon.

Read Ralph’s article on citizenship education:

Nielsen, L. and Leighton, R. (2017) What are the gender, class and ethnicity of citizenship? A study of upper secondary school students’ views on citizenship education in England and Sweden. Confero. ISSN 2001-4562.

Changing the lens, recalling the play of childhood

Continuing our Faculty of Education reflections on Universal Children’s Day, Clair Stevens, reflects on her childhood through the lens of play:

Although many of us may have few memories from our earliest years, it is these early experiences that often shape and influence many aspects of our adult lives. My own early memories relate to days spent with my brothers on a local beach with freedom seldom given to children today. Brought-up on the Kent coast, the beach, surrounding promenades, Victorian gardens and coastland became our playground. They offered rich opportunities throughout the year for physical challenge, sensory stimulation and adventure. Some thirty years later my own children used many of the same outdoor spaces to play and explore, but somehow, as a society, it seems that we have lost sight of the importance of these tactile physical experiences.

As a child growing up in the sixties very close to the coast, my abiding memories are predominantly outdoors and include an abundance of smells; of the damp, dark lookouts in the chalk face, rock pools full of treasures that changed as they filled with water as the tide rose. Victorian coastal gardens that included formal and wild areas, slopes, steps, sand, shingle, grass and flowering shrubs that would release scent for much of the year. These playgrounds without toys or areas designed and equipped with young children in mind, offered an abundance of play opportunities to the groups of local children who frequented these spaces, creating and recreating scenarios of play. The multitude of Nicholson’s ‘loose parts’ stones, shells, sticks, seaweed, glass, wood and rope to name just a few, were evident in these spaces. They become the supporting props that enriched and extended our narrative, adding dimension and supporting our creative and divergent thinking. Tim Gill author and a growing voice on childhood today, questions whether the outdoor child is doomed to extinction? He suggests that most adults, or certainly those over twenty five, spent much of their childhood playing outdoors in natural places.

These early experiences can set trajectories that affect cognition, relationships, health and well-being for individuals throughout their life. Furthermore, new concerns relating to health and well being resound today; with physical play and activity seen as an important prevention and reduction of childhood obesity. The level of obesity in the UK has been portrayed as an epidemic and its impact on children’s health and well being should be a concern for all in society. Many of these concerns focus on poor diets as a major cause but we need to recognise the huge impact that physical activity can play in reversing this trend. Within the early childhood context, play has long been recognized as the most valuable vehicle for children’s learning and development. Play for young children is motivational and demanding, reflecting both social and cultural contexts. High quality early years environments must be exciting and challenging, offering opportunities for physical risk; essential for children’s healthy growth and development. As a mother of six and an educator of young children for almost thirty years working with a range of families and settings, I have had countless opportunities of observing young children at play. These direct and extensive first hand experiences have helped me to recognise value and now question the opportunities that are on offer to young children relating to physical development, sensory stimulation and their interaction with the environment.

Surely, it is the job of each and every one of us working with young children and families to make it our highest priority to ‘give every child the best start in life.’

Making a difference in children’s lives : We can all be dream makers

We have planned a number of events to celebrate the United Nations Universal Children’s Day tomorrow.  We are kicking off a series of blog posts reflecting on childhood and children with this post by Kerry Jordan-Daus, our Head of School of Childhood and Education Science in the Faculty of Education:

In my role as Head of the School, I feel it is very important that we join in and contribute to the most important debate; Children and Childhood.

Over the course of the next few days, colleagues will join me in sharing their reflections on Childhood. November 20th is the Universal Children’s Day, a day that has been marked since 1954 by the UN.

I am going to start by thinking and reflecting on my own childhood, growing up in a very small rural hamlet in rural Lincolnshire, an area known as the Fens.  Looking back at the small, rural, close knit community, I recall spending a lot of time outside playing. I read books from the mobile library which came fortnightly, grew strawberries and peas and looked after chickens. Most importantly, I spent time with my grandmother who taught me to knit and to cook.  My grandmother was my dream maker.

The bus picked us up to take us to school, 30 minutes or so to the small primary school, over an hour to my secondary school. There was very limited public transport so I cycled loads: to go to Guides, to play hockey, to see my friends. School was really special for me. I loved it. That’s not to say there weren’t unhappy times but overall I knew by doing well I could realise my dream – to be a school teacher.

Being one of five children, I now think about how hard it was for my parents. They worked long hours to ensure we were fed, we had a roof over our heads and I know that at times it was a real struggle. When my trainers fell apart, there was no money to replace them. I remember the kindness of my teachers, who made me believe I could achieve my dream through their actions. I remember Miss Lucas, my PE teacher, finding me a pair in lost property.  I remember Miss Deung, my English teacher, giving me a bag of books to read.  They were my dream makers.

Every child should have a dream and every child should be encouraged to dream and encouraged to believe that they can. As I reflect on the importance of Universal Children’s Day, it makes me both happy and sad. Sad, angry and determined: because I know that for too many children, their experiences are not joyful, but full of pain, hardship, hunger, violence, fear, loneliness and despair.

But I can make a difference and so can you. My work as a teacher, as an educator, has made a difference and will continue to make a difference. Thank you to all those who helped me achieve my dream. I have tried to do this for others.  Through that gift of belief and hope, through our words and our actions, we can all be dream makers.