571794

research-article2015

EER0010.1177/1474904115571794European Educational Research JournalLcio and IAnson

Editorial

Children as members of a
community: Citizenship,
participation and educational
development an introduction to
the special issue

European Educational Research Journal

2015, Vol. 14(2) 129137
The Author(s) 2015
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1474904115571794
eerj.sagepub.com

Joana Lcio

Research Centre on Child Studies, University of Minho, Portugal

John IAnson

School of Education, University of Stirling, UK

Abstract
For the purpose of this publication, the authors shall discuss the subject of young people as
citizens and, particularly, as members of a community. Their focus shall be on how young people
perceive themselves as members of one (or several) community(ies), and on how communitarian
interactions (at an interpersonal and/or an organizational level) are viewed, by them, as
fundamental for their own development and for that of the community(ies) to which they belong.
The contributions featured in this special issue invoke a broad understanding of participation
and citizenship in terms of childrens everyday experiences, informed by their roles as members
of one (or several) family(ies), as students, as inhabitants of a certain space, etc. These different
roles emerge both as products and as constructs of the different stages upon which the child
acts: they are contexts of individual but also collective and eventually communitarian action
and appropriation. The concept of community as dialectics is especially relevant here, since what
is sought is not consensus, but rather participation, which, in its plurality of forms, warrants the
emergence of initiatives that really correspond to the individuals demands. The common, rather
than smothering diversity, emerges with the purpose of configuring fuller and more complex ways
of experiencing citizenship and citizens rights.
Keywords
Child studies, participation, citizenship, community dynamics, educational development

Corresponding author:
Joana Lcio, Centro de Investigao em Estudos da Criana, Instituto de Educao, Universidade do Minho, Campus de
Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Email: joana.lucio@gmail.com

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

130

European Educational Research Journal 14(2)

What is a citizen? When does citizenship begin and does it ever end or get suspended, and, if so,
how? How is participation defined, and who is allowed to partake in the decision-making processes
within larger or smaller, more or less formal groups? What is childrens and young peoples role in
the process of regulating community life?
Several studies have discussed childrens competence for political understanding and reasoning
namely, their knowledge about the regulative and functional aspects of life in society (Berti,
1988; Berti and Andriolo, 2001), as well as their participation desired or effective in local
dynamics (Alparone and Rissotto, 2001; Tonucci, 2005; Tonucci and Rissotto, 2001; Woolley
etal., 1999). These have contributed to establishing a fundamental principle, which is the basis of
the discussion presented in this special issue: that children are not oblivious to the features and
modus operandi of their surroundings, and, not only that, their perceptions and appropriations are
highly complex and continuously evolving, influenced by the media, their interactions with peers
and others, and their own experiences. Our perspective is, therefore, opposed to approaches that
view children as bystanders passive, largely unnoticed elements of community life who, due to
their young age, are believed to lack the necessary maturity to exercise a political voice or to understand the functioning of social institutions and citizen participation (Vilarinho, 2004).
Moreover, this special issue also aims to discuss educational processes and contexts, whether
at formal, informal or non-formal levels, as privileged platforms for experiencing participation
not only through contact with diverse spiritual, aesthetic, moral and civic values, but also
through childrens direct engagement in decision-making, proposing initiatives and managing
conflict. This is a move away from merely witnessing democracy towards practising democracy
(Freire, 1994).

Citizenship and participation in the everyday life of children

The 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was
marked in 2014. With 140 signatories, the UNCRC was devised on 20 November 1989, becoming
effective in September of the following year, after ratification. With currently 194 countries being
party to it (including every member of the United Nations except Somalia, South Sudan and the
USA), the UNCRC is, itself, the product of a series of related childrens rights proclamations
drafted by the founder of Save the Children, Eglantyne Jebb, in 1923, known as the Declaration of
the Rights of the Child. In its present form, the UNCRC (United Nations, 1989) consists of 54
Articles pertaining to child-specific needs and rights, including the right to life, to a name and an
identity, to be raised within a family or cultural grouping, and to participate fully in family, cultural
and social life.
Explicitly, the childs right to participation, in its many forms, is acknowledged in Article 23
(where it is stated that children with disabilities should be awarded conditions that facilitate their
active participation in the community) and Article 31 (which recognizes the childs right to participate freely and fully in the cultural and artistic life of their community). Other Articles are, however, equally relevant to understanding the concept of participation that is at stake in this document
namely, Articles 1215, which generally acknowledge the childs ability to form their own views,
as well as the right to express them freely, to be heard and to have their views acted on when appropriate (freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of association). Article 12, for example, clearly states that the views of children should especially be taken into consideration in matters
directly pertaining to them i.e. that children are to be seen as experts in their own issues, as
opposed to certain forms of adultcentrism that preclude this.
In an effort to clarify the rights of the citizens of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union became legally binding for European Union institutions and national

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

131

Lcio and IAnson

governments in 2010 (European Parliament, 2010). This document consolidates, among others,
recommendations relating to child labour, the legal, economic and social protection of families,
and the right to education, as well as the notion that childrens views shall be taken into consideration on matters which concern them in accordance with their age and maturity.
In February 2011, in a communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European
Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions, the European Commission
established An EU agenda for the rights of the child (European Commission, 2011). Among other
aspects, this document draws attention to the vulnerability of children in online contexts, where
many young people find platforms for engagement in public debate, supporting a strategy of
empowerment and promotion of participation as a means of preventing online violence. Again, the
goal of securing the participation of children in the development and implementation of actions
and policies that directly affect them (such as education, health and environmental issues) is made
explicit.
The acknowledgement of childrens right to participate is indelibly connected not only to an
acknowledgement of their ability and willingness to do so, but also to their recognition as actors in
their own right authors of their own social and cultural actions, whether through play and/or their
language(s) and forms of self- and hetero-governance. Acknowledging children as citizens involves
not only a recognition of the ways in which they conform to more or less standardized ways of
relating to the world, of participating at the civic and political level and consuming cultural products, on the one hand, but also, on the other, recognizing their innovations, their creativity and even
their negation or subversion of traditional models of participation and citizenship. The legitimacy of their status necessarily means a change in the scope of the concept of citizen participation,
so as to integrate childrens behaviours and attitudes, and validate their perceptions about the functioning of communities.
Decision-making is, of course, only one of several forms of participating that children (and
citizens in general) have; for many, this will be their first experience of involvement in community dynamics. In their discussion about the participation of children in democratic processes in
kindergarten, Danner and Jonyniene (2012) typify its forms: participation in the decision about
the subject and execution of projects; open participation in formal or informal meetings/gatherings; and representation in a parliament or assembly of children. According to the authors, such
experiences, at a young age, have an educational purpose insofar as children are given the opportunity to learn about rights and duties through their empirical exercise. Through such practice,
children come to understand the limits to their freedom, as citizens, through an awareness of the
effects of their own actions in relation to their peers. However, such forms of participation
mostly conform to a logic of consultation in accordance with adult-established agendas. As
Taylor and Percy-Smith (2008: 381) observe: whilst having a say is important, it constitutes
only a part of the participatory process.
This is, in fact, one of the main dilemmas regarding childrens participation. One of the main
criticisms made by those who discuss the widespread legitimation of programmes and policies via
an appeal to a rhetoric of voice (IAnson, 2013) is that this can amount to little more than a populist gesture, bringing in its trail instrumental and passive models of participation, such as representation and consultation. There is, in other words, a clear gulf that separates inquiring into childrens
opinions from actually engaging these actors in the process of responding to the issues they raise.
However, as Taylor and Percy-Smith (2008) highlight, the problematic aspect may lie deeper
still, since the consultation process is, itself, biased in its very formulation. Both the inquiry of
children into issues defined as relevant by an adult-driven agenda and its structure privilege standardized forms of agency, while neglecting young peoples propensity for social action, social
movements and sporadic and short term activities (Taylor and Percy-Smith, 2008: 381).

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

132

European Educational Research Journal 14(2)

Likewise, the focus on change and outcomes blocks an understanding of the participatory aspects
that are already present in childrens actions and contexts. The very act of urging children to take
part in programmes designed by adults to facilitate their participation in this way unwittingly
sends a message that the forms of participation that children autonomously choose are in various
ways invalid, immature and unsophisticated.
Listening to children, providing them with platforms that enable their voices to be heard in a
safe and nurturing environment, is merely one step, and one, moreover, that many groups and communities have already moved beyond. Nonetheless, development within both communities and
individuals themselves can only arise from intergenerational dialogue (not only listening to what
children say, but also responding to them) and equality i.e. from welcoming childrens voices into
formal arenas and decision-making bodies (Mannion, 2012).
Other dilemmas pertaining to the issue of childrens participation have to do with temporality,
such as how quickly it is possible, in practice, to respond to the issues raised by children. Secondly,
there is an issue regarding the management of the expectations of all those involved in the process;
this includes, for example, how effective responses are perceived to be by children, decisionmakers, families and their communities. Irrespective of ones own particular institutional location
within this process, childrens participation inevitably gives rise to deep emotional investment. As
Alparone and Rissotto (2001: 426) point out: just as the citizens and the children themselves may
have over-optimistic expectations concerning the administration, so the latter may over-estimate
the childrens real capacity for, and interest in, contributing.

Children in the community and the community of children

If the issue of childrens participation is fraught with dilemmas and subtleties, the same is true for
community dynamics and for the legitimacy of communities in the overall governing structure.
Community actors are often marginalized, either for not speaking the language of the decisionmakers or for not abiding by national and/or global agendas. As Taylor and Percy-Smith (2008:
385) emphasize: formal participation opportunities often demand expert citizens with the skills,
resources and an ability to think strategically that takes time to develop.
If it is true that ensuring the participation of children does not immediately guarantee better
outcomes to the decision-making process, it is also true that the engagement of community figures
does not necessarily result in greater social justice and more effective development. At any rate,
while there is no direct proportionality and there may be no immediate (and profitable) outcomes,
there is an inherent social capital in relationships and networks that is, without doubt, the cornerstone for sustainable development. In this bottom-up approach, diversity and creativity emerge as
the main resources: children are both authors of their own narratives, those of the communities
they are part of (Harris and Manatakis, 2013), and agents of development in a broad sense, which
includes their physical surroundings and the social, cultural and discursive spaces within which
they move (Danner and Jonyniene, 2012).

Participation and development

One important aspect of place-based educational approaches, including childrens participation,
has been the idea of the child not only as a parameter for assessing the quality of life within communities, but also as a starting point for more inclusive actions and projects (Alparone and Rissotto,
2001; Tonucci, 2004, 2005; Tonucci and Rissotto, 2001). This means that much can be inferred
from the presence (or absence) of children in everyday or ad hoc dynamics and initiatives within a
communitys life. If children do not participate, either because they are not invited or because they

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

133

Lcio and IAnson

or their families feel it is unsafe to do so, or because they are purposefully kept at bay from decision-making processes, something is seen to be not working properly. One of the basic premises
informing The City of Children initiative (Tonucci, 2004) is that a childs viewpoint is taken to be
more inclusive than that of an adult, so that if one is looking at the city (or, for that matter, a community or a certain phenomenon) from the standpoint of a child, one is more likely to perceive
issues and relations in a more inclusive way. An upshot of this way of proceeding is that pressing
issues such as the right to leisure, mobility and autonomy, etc., whether this is with a view to devising or restoring a space or a service, can benefit widely from the inclusion of childrens perceptions
and their creative and sometimes ideologically disruptive potential. As Tonucci and Rissotto
(2001: 414) point out, with such approaches, the aim is to collect the childrens needs and, together
with them, to interpret the communitys requirements, to obtain from them ideas and proposals for
the restructuring.
Cross-cutting at legislative, agenda-setting and academic levels is the issue of development:
participation is a condition or at least a mechanism for development, both for the individual and
for communities. Access to positive, healthy and safe participation experiences potentiates autonomy, the rise of a sense of identity and an overall perception of competence; it leads, at a community level, to better ways of functioning (Alparone and Rissotto, 2001; Taylor and Percy-Smith,
2008; Tonucci, 2005). According to Bruyere (2010: 207), children with successful developmental
trajectories tend to display leadership, help others value diversity they develop into citizens
who contribute to self, family, community, and society.
The promise of participation is somewhat dependent on more or less explicit educational
actions: contemporary exhortations about the importance of citizenship impress on those who
are not already on message the importance of mutual obligations, civic values, and respect for
the rule of law (Hall etal., 2000: 462). This idea of educating for citizenship and participation, as
we have already suggested, is fairly controversial in itself, as it brings with it an issue not only of
access to information (for individuals and for communities), but also of fostering a range of
attitudes, dispositions and values (Hall etal., 2000: 462). This, in turn, leads to a series of evaluative judgements that convey what are deemed to be good (desired and promoted) and bad
(frowned upon or ruled out of court) ways of participating.
The idea of more active forms of citizenship active participation has been on the rise over
the past decades, and particularly in the face of social movements emerging from the global socioeconomic crisis after 2008. This pertains to a perceived need to move beyond approaches based on
rights and duties, to having people realize their membership of a community through direct engagement in response to communal affairs. Aspects of immediacy and relevance are, in a way, mitigated
(since the results are faster and likely to be more effective), but this also comes at a price: a certain
abnegation of responsibility on the part of national and global governments as regards community
issues (Hall etal., 2000).

The contributions
This special issue is concerned with the comparison and discussion of multi- and transnational
perspectives about the issues of children/young people as citizens, members of communities and
actors in their own right, and in their communities educational and social development processes.
As such, this collection of articles responds to a growing trend to address such issues not only
within educational research more generally, but also within the European Educational Research
Journal and the European Conference on Educational Research.
In the past, this journal has featured articles and issued special numbers which fit with some of
the concerns that we wish to foreground in this special issue. In 2002, the journal issued a number

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

134

European Educational Research Journal 14(2)

pertaining to the relationship between learners and their learning/working environments, featuring
contributions about student voices (Papatheodorou, 2002) and youth citizenship (Evans, 2002). In
2003, there was a special issue on Civic education (see Menezes, 2003), edited with the purpose
of highlighting and discussing data collected within the context of the Civic Education Study promoted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. In 2005, a
special issue on Young people, rights and social exclusion featured data about youth at risk of
exclusion and their social re-engagement (see Zay, 2005). Finally, in 2011, with its issue on
Bottom-up approaches to agency in education, the European Educational Research Journal fostered discussion around ethnographic research approaches to children as social agents, with a particular focus on their roles as students (see Mick, 2011).
Even if the themes of childrens participation and education for citizenship have not been
entirely absent from the discussion provided by previous issues of the journal, with this special
issue we would like to promote discussion about not only what is taking place in schools (and
within schools as organizations which are part of a broader community), but also what is happening
in childrens lives, featuring their own narratives about their roles as members of families, youth
organizations, neighbourhoods, etc., together with their views about institutions, utopias, the
media, individual well-being, educational research, governance issues, etc.
The articles included in this special issue focus on one of two main areas of interest within the
larger theme of Children as members of a community: (1) the community inside the school and
the participation of children (offering insight into the school as a community in itself and as an
organization which is, at the same time, part of a broader community) and (2) the community of
children (offering insight into children as a group and, consequently, as a community, with a particular focus on informal and non-formal contexts and educational experiences).
The contributions are diverse in terms of their theoretical and epistemological frameworks, as
well as their methodological approaches, but they all feature what the editors consider to be a positive balance between a (critical) theoretical discussion and the empirical data that they elaborate
on. While the contexts from which they draw are broad, these studies also focus on children as
complex and multifaceted actors, integrated and participating at various levels and not exclusively as students, family members, inhabitants, etc.
In their contribution pertaining to an analysis of classroom-based participatory dynamics, Reetta
Niemi, Kristiina Kumpulainen and Lasse Lipponen discuss children as co-authors in the pedagogical process. They also discuss the role of children in action-research processes, and the dilemmas
of simultaneously acting as a teacher and a researcher. The article describes the ways in which an
innovative diamond-ranking methodology was mobilized, and how attending to the childrens
own words thus produced provided insight into both the pedagogical process and the research
process itself.
Roco Garca-Carrin and Javier Dez-Palomar present a very thorough and important discussion about the Schools as Learning Communities initiative, recommended by the European
Commission as an effective model to support school quality and development. As they focus on a
specific type of Successful Educational Action (Interactive Groups), the authors navigate the philosophy and the process of implementing this strategy, discussing their results in light of the inclusion of children, their academic performance and socio-emotional development, and cohesion at
the community level.
Focusing on the city and analysing childrens discourses and projects concerning urban contexts
and dynamics, Joana Lcio discusses focus groups as legitimizing participation tools. The article
offers insight into children as a community, an aspect that is identifiable a priori (i.e. a set of children who have in common belonging to a more or less formal group), but one that also emerges as
a created commonality (i.e. defining themselves as a group in opposition to a more or less

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

135

Lcio and IAnson

expected and/or identifiable Other). It is, therefore, a discussion about issues of power, agency and
the relational aspect of the educational process.
From a multinational perspective, crossing data from Australia, England, New Zealand, Italy
and Sweden, Jonathon Sargeant and Jenna Gillett-Swan bring to the table what children would
like adults to know about how they perceive themselves in interaction with the family and the
community, as well as their place in the educational process and their concepts of well-being. In
their analysis of childrens voices emerging from the latters response to open-ended written inquiries, the authors discuss issues of capacity/ability, empowerment, dissatisfaction and acknowledgement, and present recommendations that are useful in terms of teachers practices.
This special issue presents and discusses original research data concerning the status of children
as community members, citizens and participants in decision-making processes, while also discussing the European guidelines regarding childrens participation and its developmental role at
both the individual and community level. Through our analysis of these core documents in
European policy and a state of the art that features mainly European authors, in this introduction
we attempt to pave the way for a European perspective on the issue of children as members of a
community. We believe, however, that such a perspective is better established a posteriori: it
emerges from the discussion provided by the articles hereby featured, and not from a preset framework of expectations about what is, or is not, consistent with European concerns or European
ways of doing educational research.
At any rate, it is possible to identify, from the outset, some commonalities to these contributions
and the research processes from which they originated. These allow us to transition from the simple
concourse of multiple outlooks to an integrated view of how these issues are being addressed, and
what impact they have on childrens daily lives and those of their communities. The articles featured in this special issue are essentially qualitative in their approach, while also seeking to move
beyond a view of children as subjects, or spectators, in the research process, as well as in the
decision-making processes within communities. There is also a focus on schools as part of wider
communities (the neighbourhood, the city, etc.), as the learning process itself is discussed as something that spatio-temporally transcends the school. The innovative methodologies that are presented and discussed in these articles may also provide teachers and other childhood professionals
with valuable insights, and possibly tools, for promoting richer learning experiences which integrate the local and global, the past and future, the individual and community, and profane and
scholarly knowledge.
Linked with this growing emphasis on childrens participation and their role within the community is the emergence of a new sociology of childhood (Nobel-Carr, 2006), as well as a more
ecological approach to human development, wherein internal assets are [thought to be] best
promoted through a childs participation in healthy communities and families (Bruyere, 2010:
209). In this new approach, as Harris and Manatakis (2013: 69) point out, children are seen to be
key informants and experts on their own lives, who have the right and capability to contribute to
decisions that affect them. This is, of course, not disconnected from the efforts, at the end of the
20th century, to systematize how childrens understanding of core political concepts and democratic functioning develops over time (Berti, 1988; Berti and Andriolo, 2001; Reay and Lucey,
2000; Woolley etal., 1999).
As we shift our focus towards not only the viewpoints, but also the voices of children in regard
to how they perceive themselves and the groups of which they are a part, how they apprehend and
elaborate on the history of their communities, and how they shape their surroundings and, ultimately, the future of their contexts, there is a certain aspect of resilience: resilient people, and
resilient communities, are those who can successfully manipulate their environment in order to
isolate themselves from the negative consequences of harmful events (Tintor, 2013: 75). The

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

136

European Educational Research Journal 14(2)

articles in this special issue point to ways in which children are claiming new platforms for participation and civic engagement, as well as directing decision-makers eyes towards what they consider really matters.
Declaration of conflicting interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit
sectors.

References
Alparone FR and Rissotto A (2001) Childrens citizenship and participation models: participation in planning urban spaces and childrens councils. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 11(6):
421434.
Berti AE (1988) The development of political understanding in children between 615 years old. Human
Relations 41(6): 437446.
Berti AE and Andriolo A (2001) Third graders understanding of core political concepts (law, nation-state,
government) before and after teaching. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs 127(4):
346377.
Bruyere EB (2010) Child participation and positive youth development. Child Welfare 89(5): 205220.
Danner S and Jonyniene Z (2012) Participation of children in democratic decision-making in kindergarten:
experiences in Germany and Lithuania. Socialinis Darbas/Social Work 11(2): 411420.
European Commission (2011). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the
Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. An EU
agenda for the rights of the child. Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?ur
i=CELEX:52011DC0060&from=en (accessed 5 December 2014).
European Parliament (2010). Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union. Official Journal of
the European Union 83: 389403. Available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.
do?uri=OJ:C::0389:0403:en:PDF (accessed 5 December 2014).
Evans K (2002) Taking control of their lives? The Youth, Citizenship and Social Change project. European
Educational Research Journal 1(3): 497521.
Freire P (1994) Cartas a Cristina [Letters to Cristina]. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.
Hall T, Williamson H and Coffey A (2000) Young people, citizenship and the third way: a role for the youth
service? Journal of Youth Studies 3(4): 461472.
Harris P and Manatakis H (2013) Young childrens voices about their local communities. Australasian
Journal of Early Childhood 38(3): 6876.
IAnson J (2013) Beyond the childs voice: towards an ethics for childrens participation rights. Global
Studies of Childhood 3(2): 104114.
Mannion G (2012) Intergenerational education: the significance of reciprocity and place. Journal of
Intergenerational Relationships 10(4): 386399.
Menezes I (2003) Introduction. European Educational Research Journal 2(3): 363365.
Mick C (2011) Introduction: discourse and identity in education. European Educational Research Journal
10(4): 467471.
Nobel-Carr D (2006) Engaging Children in Research on Sensitive Issues: A Literature Review for the Institute
of Child Protection Studies. Dickson, ACT: ACU National for the ACT Department of Disability,
Housing and Community Services.
Papatheodorou T (2002) How we like our school to be pupils voices. European Educational Research
Journal 1(3): 445467.

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015

137

Lcio and IAnson

Reay D and Lucey H (2000) I dont really like it here but I dont want to be anywhere else: children and
inner city council estates. Antipode 32(4): 410428.
Taylor M and Percy-Smith B (2008) Childrens participation: learning from and for community development.
International Journal of Childrens Rights 16(3): 379394.
Tintor AM (2013) Community resilience and the fulfilment of child rights in the family, school and community. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal 3(2): 7191.
Tonucci F (2004) La ciudad de los nios: un modo nuevo de pensar la ciudad [The City of Children: A New
Way of Thinking the City]. Madrid: Fundacin German Sanchez Ruiperez.
Tonucci F (2005) Citizen child: play as welfare parameter for urban life. Topoi 24: 183195.
Tonucci F and Rissotto A (2001) Why do we need childrens participation? The importance of childrens
participation in changing the city. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 11(6): 407419.
United Nations (1989). United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Available at: www.ohchr.org/
Documents/ProfessionalInterest/crc.pdf (accessed 5 December 2014).
Vilarinho ME (2004) As crianas e os (des)caminhos e desafios das polticas educativas para a infncia em
Portugal [Children and the (wrong) paths and challenges of childrens education policies in Portugal].
In: Sarmento MJ and Cerisara AB (eds) Crianas e midos: perspectivas sociopedaggicas da infncia
e educao [Children and kids: socio-pedagogical perspectives on childhood and education]. Porto:
Edies ASA, 205244.
Woolley H, Spencer C, Dunn J and Rowley G (1999) The child as citizen: experiences of British town and
city centres. Journal of Urban Design 4(3): 255282.
Zay D (2005) Introduction: young people, rights and social exclusion. European Educational Research
Journal 4(2): 9699.

Author biographies
Joana Lcio holds a doctorate in Education Sciences. She is currently a researcher at the Research Centre on
Child Studies (University of Minho, Portugal), a trainer in the field of social and educational mediation, and
the Link Convenor for the European Educational Research Associations Network 14: Communities, Families,
and Schooling in Educational Research. Her research interests include the Educating Cities movement, mediation and non-formal/informal educational processes.
John IAnson is Director of Initial Teacher Education and teaches on the initial teacher education and doctorate programmes at the University of Stirling, UK. He is the Link Convenor for the European Educational
Research Associations Network 25: Research in Childrens Rights in Education. His research interests
include education and childrens rights, cultural difference and aesthetic education.

Downloaded from eer.sagepub.com by guest on September 29, 2015