Peer-reviewed article
Roadblocks in Child Participation Practices in Academia and Civil Society
Seran Demiral, Zeynep Berna Erdiller-Yatmaz, Ersoy Erdemir ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed article examines a child participation project in Turkey that brought together children from diverse backgrounds to share life issues and build a child-to-child network. The researchers encountered several obstacles to meaningful child participation, including adultism (adult-centred thinking) among child participants themselves, challenges in engaging academic research with stakeholders, and varying levels of motivation across social actors. The article reflects on these roadblocks and discusses ways they could be overcome to advance child participation as a form of political resilience.
Key points
- The project aimed to create safe spaces for children to develop strategies to address everyday problems at the citizenship action level
- Adultism was found not only among adults but also among child participants themselves, creating internal obstacles to participation
- Challenges arose in bridging academic research with practical stakeholder engagement
- Different social actors showed varying levels of motivation and interest in childhood-focused work
- The authors position child participation as a form of political resilience against adult-centric norms
Limitations
The article focuses on describing obstacles and lessons learned from one project in Turkey without providing quantitative outcome data or comparative analysis. It does not provide evidence on the effectiveness of the project's overall outcomes or specific metrics on changes in child well-being.
Abstract
Abstract This article discusses the potential and pitfalls of children’s participation in academic and non-academic settings through a child participation project in Turkey by questioning various forms of childism from child and adult perspectives. We first and foremost acknowledge and emphasise the child’s position as a form of political resilience in a world where adult centrism has been the norm, regardless of differences in childhood experiences across cultures, social classes and age groups. Guided by this understanding, we engaged with two distinct fieldwork processes over the years and took steps toward achieving child participation at citizenship action level. In particular, we aimed to create a safe and open space for children from diverse backgrounds to come together, share their life issues, develop strategies to address their everyday problems and build a child-to-child participation network. However, we encountered several roadblocks to fully involving children in these processes. This article illustrates the perceptional and practical limitations we faced on the road that stem from competing dispositions held by children and stakeholders. To showcase the potential impact of our project, we highlight such obstacles as adultism among child participants, challenges of engaging academic research with stakeholders, and variations in motivation and interest among different social actors in the field of childhood. The obstacles are discussed with their implications in ways that they could be overcome.