Children and Participation in South Africa: An Overview

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Moses
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation

AbstractThis paper examines the current policy and practice around children's participation in South Africa. By situating the analysis from the perspective of the socio-economic and normative context within South Africa the paper critiques current typologies of children's participation for focusing too narrowly on processes internal to participatory processes. The paper argues that theorisations of children's participation need to take account of the range of activities which are labelled as children's participation and interrogate issues around who gets to participate and why, what the purposes of the participation are and under what conditions it is possible. This requires examining participatory processes and the children involved in them in relation to adult actors within and beyond the process as well as in relation to broader socio-political and economic environments.

scholarly journals The Participation of Children with Intellectual Disabilities: Including the Voices of Children and Their Caregivers in India and South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (18) ◽  
pp. 6706
Author(s):  
Shakila Dada ◽  
Kirsty Bastable ◽  
Liezl Schlebusch ◽  
Santoshi Halder
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
South African ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Child Reports ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Child Assessments ◽  
Children's Participation

There is a shortage of research on the participation of children with intellectual disabilities from middle-income countries. Also, most child assessments measure either the child’s or the caregiver’s perceptions of participation. Participation, however, is an amalgamation of both perspectives, as caregivers play a significant role in both accessing and facilitating opportunities for children’s participation. This paper reports on both perceptions—those of children with intellectual disabilities and those of their caregiver, in India and South Africa. A quantitative group comparison was conducted using the Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment (CAPE) that was translated into Bengali and four South African languages. One hundred child–caregiver dyads from India and 123 pairs from South Africa participated in the study. The results revealed interesting similarities and differences in participation patterns, both between countries and between children and their caregivers. Differences between countries were mostly related to the intensity of participation, with whom, and where participation occurred. Caregiver and child reports differed significantly regarding participation and the enjoyment of activities. This study emphasises the need for consideration of cultural differences when examining participation and suggests that a combined caregiver-and-child-reported approach may provide the broadest perspective on children’s participation.

scholarly journals The Role of Social Support in Participation Perspectives of Caregivers of Children with Intellectual Disabilities in India and South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (18) ◽  
pp. 6644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakila Dada ◽  
Kirsty Bastable ◽  
Santoshi Halder
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
South African ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation

Caregivers are an intrinsic component of the environment of children with intellectual disabilities. However, caregivers’ capacity to support children’s participation may be linked to the social support that they, as caregivers, receive. Social support may increase participation, educational, psychological, medical and financial opportunities. However, there is a lack of information on social support in middle-income countries. The current study described and compared the social support of caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities by using the Family Support Survey (FSS) in India and South Africa. The different types of social support were subsequently considered in relation to participation, using the Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment (CAPE). One hundred caregiver–child dyads from India and 123 from South Africa participated in this study. The data were analysed using non-parametric measures. Indian caregivers reported greater availability of more helpful support than did the South African caregivers. Social support was associated with children’s participation diversity (India) and intensity (South Africa). The child-/caregiver-reported participation data showed different associations with participation. Results from this study suggest that perceived social support of caregivers differs between countries and is associated with their child’s participation. These factors need to be considered when generalising results from different countries.

Has Anything Really Changed? Managers' Views of Looked after Children's Participation in 1997 and 2004

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Postal Survey ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Child Care Services ◽  
Children's Participation

A postal survey of local authority child care managers was conducted in 1997–98 as part of a study of children's participation in decision-making in care. The same survey was repeated, with minor variations, in 2004. Nigel Thomas compares what managers said about policy and practice in their local authorities in the two studies. The results suggest that there have been significant perceived changes in the way in which local authorities seek to engage children and young people in the provision of child care services.

Is Anyone Listening? The Impact of Children’s Participation on Public Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 602-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Crowley
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
Children’S Voices ◽  
The Impact

Children’s participation has attracted a great deal of attention from academics, policy-makers and practitioners over the past 25 years. This article presents findings from research into the impacts on policy-making from such participation by children in Wales, within the United Kingdom, and Tamil Nadu, in India. The paper considers how the dominant objectives for children’s participation in the uk context can be seen to be helping to ensure that new structures set up to facilitate children’s participation such as youth forums and school councils, have been much more about providing opportunities for children to practice “good” citizenship than about children’s voices being heard and acted upon. This approach is compared with a more “bottom-up” initiative designed to enable children to participate in public decision-making in rural villages in south India. In Tamil Nadu’s Neighbourhood Children’s Parliaments, children aged 6–17 have successfully brought about what they consider to be significant improvements in their living environment. The reasons for these differences are explored and consideration given to some of the factors that work as enablers and inhibitors in children’s voices not only being heard by policy makers and service providers but also being taken into account and given due weight. The paper continues with a discussion on these findings, exploring the extent to which children’s participation may be seen as a means of empowerment or social control and makes some tentative comparisons between experiences in India and Wales before concluding with some thoughts on policy and practice implications. The term children is used throughout the paper to refer to people under the age of 18 years.

scholarly journals Pre-verbal Children’s Participation in a New Key. How Intersubjectivity Can Contribute to Understanding and Implementation of Child Rights in Early Childhood

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eystein Victor Våpenstad ◽  
Brynulf Bakkenget
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Verbal Language ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Conversational Narrative ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Voice

Children’s participation and involvement has increasingly been on the agenda for the last few decades. The right for children to participate was established in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). However, even though the UNCRC gives the right to participate to all children, national policy and practice seems to draw a line on verbal language and exclude pre-verbal infants from participation. The spur of this paper is to challenge the exclusion of infants, to describe how pre-linguistic children communicate their intentions, and to show how an understanding of children’s participation grounded in intersubjectivity, can inform and reframe the participation of all children as being fundamentally about close relationships with sensitive and containing adults who look within themselves for the voice of the child. The infant’s proto-conversational narrative communicates interests and feelings through sympathetic rhythms of what infant researchers have named “communicative musicality,” and it can surface in the mother’s narrative about the child and their relationship. Intersubjectivity oppose the monadic view of man as separate and left only to imitate others and claims that humans from the very start are intertwined in a fundamental thirdness of co-created reality. Infants are powerful communicators who actively engage in intersubjective relationships with their caretakers only days after birth, and newborns actively influence and even control the mental process of those who communicate with them. Early childhood participation then, would be to find within ourselves the voice of the child. A research project building on the theories and ideas described in the first part of the article, is presented.

Children's Participation: Learning from and for Community Development

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Percy-Smith ◽  
Marilyn Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Research Communities ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
The Common ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
The One

AbstractInterest in children's participation has in the main come about as a result of the UNCRC. However, children's participation is also relevant to a wider global interest in citizen and community participation more generally. But there is surprisingly little sharing of experience and learning between the research communities concerned with children's participation on the one hand and community engagement and empowerment on the other. This article seeks to address that gap by reflecting on the learning from both of these traditions, drawing mainly on UK experience. It begins by outlining some of the key dilemmas and challenges facing children's participation. It then explores the parallels between that experience and the experience of community participation in New Labour's neighbourhood and democratic renewal programmes. It goes on to consider some theoretical tools for responding to the common dilemmas in both settings, before discussing the implications for children's participation. It ends by arguing that more attention to children's participation could benefit community engagement policy and practice more widely.

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