Childrens Participation in Social Life in Regard to Participation in School - Coursework Example

Name Tutor Title: Children’s Participation in Social Life in Regard to Participation in School Institution Date Children’s Participation in Social Life in Regard to Participation in School Introduction Participation is the process in which youth and children engage with other individuals around matters that concern their collective and individual life conditions. Participants interact in ways that respect one another’s dignity, with the aim of attaining a shared goal. In the participation process, the children experience themselves as playing useful roles in the school community. A school culture that values the views of students is enriched by creative solutions and ideas. Ireson (2008) argues that through participation of children in school activities adults will be able to understand the needs of children when time is created to listen to them and opportunities developed for their insights to inform practice. Through promoting participation and active involvement, schools will benefit from the talents and skills of their pupils. Importance of children participation in school Children are not simple objects of decisions taken by seniors, but equal, active citizens and social actors. This implies that children must be valued as individuals in their own right, other than mere accessories of their parents, teachers and the entire community. Ireson (2008) observes that through participation, children are offered n opportunity to express their opinions, formulate their ideas and make decisions that are relevant for their school lives. Children are expertise of their individual lives in all its dimensions and aspects. Depending on their degree of maturity and age, children need support from parents, teachers and other adults. However, there are particular things that they can decide and recognize by themselves. The objective of participation is to make pupils visible in social policy and life, and to promote education for democratic citizenship through offering children chances to learn democratic procedures and rules practically, and to be respected and treated as equal citizens (Bath, 2009). When children are involved in school activities, they develop a feeling that they are seriously taken by adults. They ideally become acquainted with the culture of democratic decision making, in which adults and children are equal. They actively participate in life areas which are usually off limits to children, like decision making on local policy level. This offers children a feeling of importance and build up their self esteem. Participation within a decision making culture increases respect for goods and property held in common. For instance, children are able to handle new installations and equipments in the school more carefully if they participate in the process of decision making on which equipments are supposed to be purchased and how they must be installed. Participation helps children to develop vital social and personal skills, such as schemes of conflict resolution, communication and decision making. They gain the capability to speak in public and in front of seniors and to elucidate why they hold particular views and why they dislike or reject something (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). The role of senior roles within school systems to allow children to actively participate within the school sphere Participation of children occurs in formal as well as informal settings, and adults who seek to enhance children’s participation are required to start by understanding where participation is meaningful to the children. Seniors are supposed to engage children’s participation around matters that concern their group and individual lives, in interactive manners that respect human dignity of participants and that seek to attain a shared goal. To understand what is going to engage children actively, it is important for the seniors to know and understand the interests and motives of students in school participation and how the children themselves perceive participation. The notion of meaningful participation means a developmental perspective that will shift depending on children’s goals, interests and the sense of their personal capabilities, as well as the expectations of the societies regarding suitable accomplishments and tasks. Children’s participation is a right and pupils thus are free to express their opinions if they prefer to do so. For instance, children have a right to actively participate in the process of curriculum creation and shouldn’t be constrained, influenced or pressured in ways that may hinder them from expressing their views freely or leave them feeling manipulated. It is important that the adults in the school system to foster participation of young children. The adults must have the willingness to learn from and listen to their children, to consider and understand the children’s viewpoint. These adults should also be ready to reexamine their personal attitudes and opinions and to forecast solutions that address the views of children. For children, as well as adults, participation in the school sphere is a challenging process of learning and should not be reduced to a mere formality. Fulfilling children’s participation in the school system involves mobilizing and training adults who work and live with theses children, so that they are prepared to offer children the opportunity to increasingly and freely participate in school and attain democratic skills. Parents and family members, teachers, lawyers, and social workers must be involved in this process (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). According to Bath (2009), children participation in the school system is connected to freedom of expression and also to fulfilling the right to information, which makes the participation of children to be meaningful and relevant. Therefore, it is the role of adults to offer the necessary information on options that subsist and the outcomes of these options so that that they are able to make free and informed decisions. Provision of information enhances children to gain confidence, maturity and skills in expressing their opinions and influencing decisions. The role of children in the decision making process within the school system According to Weiss and Petlichkoff (1999), children are the main stakeholders of the school and each decision of the school system influences them. Participation implies that children are able to express their opinions and relate their experiences in the decision making process Therefore, students are supposed to be allowed in decision making process and decisions that influence their school lives, lives of their immediate families and the larger community in which they live. Participation of children in decision making enables them to express their concerns related to their lives in school and identifying their personal problems and how these problems can be solved. According to IAWGCP (2007). Meaningful involvement of students in decision making plays a vital role in success of school improvement. Decision making as a portion of school governance is related to the entire procedure of overseeing school management and administration procedures for well being of the whole school system. Inclusion of pupils in decision making allows them to be part of management and planning of school activities, such as budgeting, raising funds and tracing of educational resources. Participation of students as the main stakeholders in decision making is the foundation of school development. Participation of students in decision making enables them to acquire more skills and knowledge on the school system. It offers children several chances that can result to significant improvements in the school, as well as building up self esteem and self confidence in their lives (IAWGCP, 2007). Educators should therefore intuitively understand significant involvement of student in decision making and deem that valuing and validating them empowers pupils in a democratic learning environment. Participation assists the children to be good citizens in the future because while asking and expressing their opinions in the school’s decision making process, they are able to develop skills, acquire confidence, build competencies and form aspirations. To implement a school plan and perform school development activities, participation of children in decision making plays a significant role (Ireson, 2008). Through the participatory approach to education, the knowledge passed on by pupils may lead to improvements in management, curricula, and school attendance. Participation refers to the meaningful involvement of children. Meaningful involvement of students is incorporated into improvement of the school in every level and pupils authorize with school authorities to crate change and incorporate the change throughout the school improvement activities. The effectiveness of school administration or management, development and governance activities depends on condition of child participation. Children participation results to better outcomes and decisions in educational systems since it highlights to justice and fair involvement of children in school which in turn results increased access of marginalized groups of individuals to education policy making process (Weiss & Petlichkoff, 1999). Features in school to allow for children to actively participate in the school sphere Classroom learning Learning requires children to actively take part in the learning process, in a variety of ways, thus increasing the probability of internalizing what they have discovered and being capable to use learning in their daily lives. Active learning is a process and as students meaningfully participate in their own learning they engage in a procedure in which they can start from what they are already aware of, explore probabilities, questions and draw conclusions and reflect on the outcomes. It is important that children are offered the chance to progress via the numerous stages of learning process I order to enable them make sense of learning for themselves and make novel connections. Active learning may be executed by individual pupils or group s and by all age groups. Children may be actively engaged in their learning whilst working alternatively or independently as they interact with and learn from classmates (Clark, 2010). Active participation and learning can occur at all class levels in school, with infant classes participating in organized play activities and involving with materials in every aspect of the curriculum with children in senior classes reflecting on the media images and developing new stories. Active learning promotes actions and as children participate in activities, they learn to transmit learning to situations they might encounter in their daily lives and to the choices and decisions that they make. Active participation in learning is thus important in assisting children to attain education related messages and put them into practice in their personal lives. Additionally, as they learn the significance of responsible citizenship they are endorsed to take steps to develop into active participants in their communities (Clark, 2010). Extracurricular activities Children actively participate in school extracurricular activities such as football, basketball and athletics. According to Verhellen (2002), these activities enable children to participate in all forms of sports and outdoor activities which enable them to learn life habits that keep them mentally and physically fit within the school sphere. Several extracurricular activities such as performing arts and music help pupils to learn problem solving and creativity skills, which help them at several stages both in school life and life outside school. Participation in school extracurricular activities helps children to learn new schools and activities and as they learn, attain self confidence which is needed at each stage of life. Extracurricular activities assist children to learn social skills like cooperation, conflict resolution, negotiation and team work in a relaxed and fun filled environment. The activities also assist them to interact with other people of the community properly, a social skill that is valuable at each life stage (Verhellen, 2002). Conclusion Participant is an important aspect that every school should endorse. It offers children the opportunity to express their views, to formulate their ideas and make decisions that are relevant to their school lives. They that are involved in school activities, children feel that they are taken seriously by their seniors and their opinions valued and respected. This in turn results to development of self confidence which enable children to freely interact with other members of the school sphere. Therefore, seniors should be ready and willing to listen to children and to understand and consider their points of view and adults who live and work with school children must be mobilized and trained to make them prepared to give children the chance to freely participate in school activities. Bibliography Bath, C., 2009, Learning to belong: Exploring young children’s participation at the start of school, Taylor & Francis, New York. Weiss, M. R. & Petlichkoff, L. M. (1999). Children's motivation for participation in and withdrawal from sport: Identifying the missing links. Pediatric Exercise Science, 1, 195-211. Ireson, J., 2008, Learners, learning and educational activity, Routledge, London. Verhellen, E., 2002, Monitoring children’s rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Clark, A., 2010, Transforming children’s spaces: children’s and adult’s in designing learning environments, Routledge, London.  Dweck, C.S. & Leggett, E.L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256-273. Inter-Agency Working Group on Children’s Participation (IAWGCP) (2007). Children’s participation in decision making: Why do it, when to do it, how to do it, Bangkok: Author. Read More