Harry Shier

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has raised the profile of children's participation in the United Kingdom. Hart's ‘ladder of participation’ has been the most influential model in this field. This paper offers an alternative model, based on five levels of participation: 1. Children are listened to. 2. Children are supported i...

There is evidence from around the world that teaching on “rights and responsibilities” in schools is confused and ill-informed; as a result children are misled and manipulated. Child researchers in Nicaragua discovered new evidence to support this view. An examination of the literature in search of guidance on how to teach children about rights and...

The ReSPECT Project (Reconceptualising Services from the Perspectives of Children and Teens) was conducted in a disadvantaged urban community in Australia, with young people who experience marginalisation and who were involved with multiple service agencies across a range of service sectors. Its purpose was to work closely with young people to unde...

Participatory approaches are important to ensuring that the involvement of children in decision‐making is normalised in service provision. Participation work requires that professionals have well‐developed engagement skills, and a commitment to the right of the child or young person to participate. Effective participatory approaches also require th...

Access at https://hrbopenresearch.org/articles/4-104 Background: We are currently in a period of transition, from the pre-COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) era and the initial reactive lockdowns, to now the ongoing living with and potentially the after COVID-19 period. Each country is at its own individual stage of this transition, but many have...

Translation of an original work in Spanish published by Interpaz, Bogotá, 2021

This article argues that the right of young people to participate in decisions being made about them forms the basis for professional youth work practice. The authors consider the nature of ‘participation’ and its relation to human rights, and introduces the concept of ‘adultism’ and the challenges for youth workers combatting ‘adultist’ beliefs an...

Background: We are currently in a period of transition, from the pre-COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) era and the initial reactive lockdowns, to now the ongoing living with and potentially the after COVID-19 period. Each country is at its own individual stage of this transition, but many have gone through a period of feeling adrift; disconnected...

This critical dialogue on ‘youth participation’ is a timely contribution to the body of knowledge. It succeeds in illuminating an underpinning rationale while also delivering practical advice on the practice of involving young people in decision making. Dr Tim Corney, as moderator, provides a series of provocative questions to an international pane...

This paper presents a scoping review of the literature on child participatory research in Australia published in academic journals between 2000 and 2018. The review focused on research designed to engage with children and young people in the development, implementation and evaluation of services. A total of 207 papers were identified and distribute...

All researchers whose research involves children and adolescents have decisions to make about how and when to engage with those involved in and/or affected by their research; who to engage with and who to leave out. This paper offers a tool that researchers can use to help them address these issues in a purposeful and ethical way. The paper discuss...

“Empowerment” has been claimed as one of the important benefits of children’s participation. This is an attractive and plausible idea, but there is no consensus among those working in this field on what the term means, and currently no way to validate such claims. CESESMA, a children’s rights organisation in Nicaragua, developed a conceptualisatio...

All children have a right to speak out and be heard on all matters affecting their education. Adults have a duty not just to listen, but to give due weight to the views expressed. As participation is a human right, it does not have to be justified by reference to proven benefits. However, there is a growing body of research evidence to show that it...

This chapter draws on my experience as a PhD researcher investigating children’s perceptions of human rights in school in Nicaragua’s coffee-growing zone to claim that, for a researcher such as myself coming from a playwork background, the ability to hold on to a playworker mind-set offers a distinct advantage when it comes to doing research in par...

Children and adolescents in Nicaragua have intersected identities as both school students and child workers. Most of the literature supposes that a child must be one or the other, and problematises ‘child workers’ as either victims or heroes. Yet, in Nicaragua, this is seldom the case, as most children and adolescents are both workers and students....

Education is recognised both as a right itself and an important means for the realisation of other human rights. Although it is not a right that is exclusive to children, it is enjoyed mainly by them and is crucial to their development and in many instances their survival and safety. This chapter examines and reflects on the implementation of child...

For the many thousands of children in poor countries who drop out of school and so lose out on the life-chances that education might offer them, the notion of a ‘right to education’ has little meaning. Poverty and child labour are contributing factors, but for many children lack of respect for their rights in education is also a major problem. Whil...

Child workers on Nicaragua’s coffee plantations have become researchers, generating knowledge which leads to action to help solve some of the severe social problems that affect the rural communities where they live and work. This article first looks at how child researchers are seen in the existing literature. It then traces the history of the appr...

This article describes a participatory research project, which explored four case studies of children and young people's successful political advocacy in Nicaragua. The analysis combined a human rights-based approach and a human development approach, and included concepts of multiple settings and levels, interrelated participation spaces, children...

Save the Children’s “Toolkit for monitoring and evaluating children’s participation” was the result of an international collaboration involving partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Hundreds of children and young people participated in the pilot process, validating the new framework and testing the tools in real-life situations. CESESMA in Ni...

Drawing on comparative research with children’s participation practitioners in Nicaragua and the United Kingdom, this study explores the thinking that guides their practice. Earlier models are considered inadequate to describe complex, multidimensional participation processes. Whilst several differences are observed, the key issues or tensions are...

Five years ago, after 25 years working in informal education in England, I packed up and moved to Nicaragua, Central America. Here I work with a locally-run rural community education organisation called CESESMA, supporting child workers in the coffee industry in the promotion and defense of their rights.

This paper discusses the value of Logo work with children in out‐of‐school environments‐‐specifically, in playschemes. A Logo project is described and its outcomes discussed. The present and future place of Logo within the playwork field is considered.