Di Rienzo Symposium

Symposium on

“Human rights in Education: Freedom of Expression in the Classroom”

European Court of Human RightsStrasbourg, France, 24-25 November 2011

United Nations – Convention on the Rights of the Child

article 12, a bridge to democratic participation at school

dr. Massimo Di Rienzo

Save the Children Italy – Education Unit

[email protected]

“States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”

mailto:[email protected]

Symposium on



RIGHTS PEDAGOGY

“States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child…

…the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”

• Must be informed• Should be able to express

• Should be listening• Should be able to give due weight

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What experiences…

FORUM of the students on the

implementation of the Convention

on the Rights of the Child1

PREPARATION MEETINGS MOTION WRITING MEETINGS FORUM

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

FORUM is a final event of a training process aimed at

helping secondary school kids in:

• Focussing on a specific topic which is strongly

related to their lives…

• …reading up on it…

• …discussing in the classroom…

• …writing up common positions under the form of a

“motion”…

• …reading up the motion in front of institutional

“duty bearers”

Organization of FORUM

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What experiences…

FORUM of the students on the

implementation of the Convention

on the Rights of the Child1

MOTION

A formal motion is a statement made by a

whole classroom during the FORUM final

meeting describing what is to be done and

how it is to be accomplished.

…for instance…

The classroom asks the following:

• The Municipality of Rome should create

more appropriate spaces for kids close

to town centres. They should be held in

check and open to everyone.

• The school principal should foster

“ability to listen” in the classrooms

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What experiences…

l’AquilAltrA2

…is an initiative addressed to both teachers and children which

experienced a recent strong earthquake in the city of l’Aquila.

NEEDS ANALYSIS

Children had to move to different schools… relations were cut

and threat for the future was the main feeling

• 2009 April 6th… earthquake

• 2009 April 9th… emergency action

• 2009 October to 2010 May...Training for children

• 2010 November to 2011 April… Training for teachers

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What experiences…

l’AquilAltrA2

In late 2010 teachers asked us to continue the project. They

wanted to develop new approaches for improving participation of

children in their classrooms.

Focus on… BREAKING ALL THE ROLES

Teachers were invited to plan their lessons with creative non-

formal approaches, aimed at breaking all the roles in teaching…

OUTCOME

…how does it feel to come out of the role of “teacher”

“Sometimes we think we give enough space and time to kids in our classrooms, but it is more in purpose than in practice”“This training helped me better organize the work in the classroom, as I intended when I started working and nevermanaged to do”“Exploring different ways of managing the lesson in the classroom made it easier for kids to be more involved”

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What experiences…

l’AquilAltrA2

Project sample

• Teachers decide to let the children

choose a topic, prepare and manage the

lesson.

• During the lesson teachers try to

boicot, talking over and asking stupid

questions.

• Children could not complete the lesson.

• Children argue with teachers about

responsability of preparing and

managing the lesson

Children were very upset about teachers

behavement, they really made a big effort

to prepare the lesson…

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Lessons learnt…

ALWAYS CHECK OUT WHAT IS THE

STARTING POINT BOTH FOR RIGHT

HOLDERS AND FOR DUTY BEARERS

DEFINE SPACE FOR PARTICIPATION

WITH RIGHT HOLDERS AND DUTY

BEARERS IN THE FIRST TIME

EXPLORE THE POWER OF NON-FORMAL

EDUCATION

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Lessons learnt…

EMPOWERMENT

CHILDREN (RH):

Building up capacities for

free expression

ADULTS (DB):

Improving skills for better

listening and understanding

CONSULTATIVE

PROCESSES

CHILDREN (RH):

Building up capacities for

organizing opinions into

communication schemes

ADULTS (DB): Learning

how to give due weight

to opinions and how to

manage decisions

DECISION-MAKING

PROCESSES

CHILDREN (RH):

Building up decision-

making capacities

ADULTS (DB):

Learning how to

manage inclusive

decision-making

processes

SELF-INITIATED and

SELF-MANAGED

PROCESSES

CHILDREN (RH): they

have no need to be

trained

ADULTS (DB): Learning

how to make a step

beyond

ALWAYS CHECK OUT WHAT IS THE STARTING POINT BOTH FOR

RIGHT HOLDERS AND FOR DUTY BEARERS

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Lessons learnt… DEFINE SPACE FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE FIRST TIME

For example, planning

contents of lessons during

the school year

For example, negotiating

rules for peacefully living in

common spaces

For example, new ideas for

re-qualifying a dismissed

area

…democratic participation has its rules

teacher

students

school principle

teachers

local government

school principle

teachers

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Lessons learnt… EXPLORE THE POWER OF NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

KNOWLEDGE

IS A SOCIAL

CONSTRUCTION.

IT CANNOT BE

TRANSFERRED FROM

ONE PERSON TO

ANOTHER

KNOWLEDGE

COMES OUT OF INTERPERSONAL

AND COOPERATIVE NEGOTIATIONS

OF MEANINGS

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HOW TO:

Shift from experimental to ordinary

democratic participation

“Participation should be an institutional, professional

and personal attitude more than an occasional practice,

as it raises expectations and may cause huge

frustrations if it is not properly designed”

…the challange

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• undertake an assessment of the extent to which

children and young people’s opinions are heard

and taken seriously in existing legislation,

policies and practices

• assign, if not in existence responsibility to a

government department or agency to drive,

oversee and monitor implementation of this

strategy and to ensure that child and youth

participation is mainstreamed through decision

and policy making structures

Consultation on the draft Council of Europe

Recommendation on child and youth participation1

HOW TO:

Shift from experimental to ordinary democratic participation

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HOW TO:


• promote training on child and youth

participation for teachers

• provide children and young people with

information on their right to participate

• make children and young people’s

rights, including the right to be heard, a

mandatory component of school curricula



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HOW TO:


• promote all forms of active participation by children

and young people in educational establishments,

notably through pupils’ councils having the possibility

to express views on all aspects of school life

• provide education in a way that respects the inherent

dignity of the child and young person and enables

free expression of her/his views and participation in

school life, for example through using interactive

teaching methods and the recognition of non-formal

education and informal learning



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HOW TO:


…is about …finding indicators

…is about …understanding the

added value of free expression

…is about …teaching in a different way

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Ideas…

SCHOOLS OF PARTICIPATION

• Schools self-assessing the level of participation

• Depending on the level accomplished, the CERTIFICATORY

AGENCY provides a different training format both for teachers

and for children

• Schools are granted with a certificate “School of participation”

UNDERADIO.IT

• Webradio broadcasting the free voice of 24 classrooms

coming from Rome outskirts

• Starting from November 28th

• Tune in at www.underadio.savethechildren.it

http://www.underadio.savethechildren.it

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Ideas…SCHOOLS OF PARTICIPATION… assessing the SPAN of participation

QUALITY OF FREE

EXPRESSION,

QUALITY OF

LISTENING

QUALITY OF

CONSULTATIVE

PROCESSES

QUALITY OF

DECISION-MAKING

PROCESSES

QUALITY OF SELF-

INITIATED and SELF-

MANAGED

PROCESSES

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My little child came back from

school very upset. I asked him

why. He said to me:

“...my teacher gave me all the

answers... but I didn't ask any

question”

THE MEANING OF PARTICIPATION

Documents

Di Rienzo Symposium