A collaborative research team, led by UWE Bristol, has produced a policy briefing based on findings from a legislative and policy analysis of Welsh educational documentation. The project team consists of researchers from Cardiff Metropolitan University; Swansea University, University of South Wales and UWE Bristol.
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project has challenged the issue of translating policy intention into education practice with a focus on young children’s participation rights and how these are enacted in classroom contexts.
The policy briefing recommends the following to better support young children’s participative rights in Welsh policy:
- Future education policy in Wales should continue to account for children’s participative rights.
- Children should be recognised as active rights holders in the ‘now’ in all future legislation and policy in Wales.
- Education policy should consider the ‘how’ of children’s participative rights.
Read the policy briefing in Welsh
Principal Investigator Sarah Chicken commented on the briefing:
“Findings from our policy analysis indicate a strong ongoing commitment in Wales to children’s participative rights but there is currently a gap between the policy ambition and classroom practices. The aim of this briefing is to bridge that gap by providing actionable insights for policymakers and educators”
The team have also created a series of infographics which are designed to present the project findings in an accessible and visual manner. Currently, we have two infographics available:
- Infographic 1: Legislative and Policy Analysis
- Infographic 2: Survey Findings
Find out more about the Children’s Participation in Schools project: