Prelims

Half Title Page

Children as Change Makers

Series Title Page

Emerald Studies in Child Centred Practice

Series Editor: Sam Frankel, Learning Allowed, UK

Emerald Studies in Child Centred Practice: Voice, Collaboration and Change seeks to reposition the place of childhood studies as a discipline, highlighting its social value. This series explores the application of theories from childhood studies in practice. It highlights the place, purpose and power of these theories to inform practice and seek to shape a child-centred approach across the settings within which children live and experience their everyday lives – schools, families, the law, the care system. Uniquely, books in the series will not only draw on academic insight but also include the perspectives of both practitioners and children. The series makes the case for the need for a shared dialogue as a foundation for re-imagining practice.

This new series offers a new and valuable dimension to childhood studies with relevance for how the wider society comes to engage with it. Indeed, it offers a chance for childhood studies to increase its presence in society – to demonstrate how an awareness of children's agency and the constructed nature of society can positively influence discourse and debate – with the hope that this can increasingly shape policy and practice and add value to children's everyday experiences. Proposals are welcome for the series that align to this goal and help us to develop and grow childhood studies. The series is particularly keen to explore multifaceted aspects of children's lives, such as schooling, home lives, children's rights, child protection, activism and more.

Title Page

Children as Change Makers

A Resource to Enhance Child Centred Practice and Extend Active Learning Opportunities

By

Sam Frankel

Learning Allowed, UK

And

Daniella Bendo

King's University College, Western University, Canada

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Sam Frankel and Daniella Bendo.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: www.copyright.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80262-714-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-713-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-715-2 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to our families.

To the Frankel family – as always thank you for your patience, understanding and inspiration – as you remind me on a daily basis of the power of children's voices and how we [as adults] need you [and all children] to be Change Makers.

To the Bendo family – and to my husband Steve; thank you for always making me feel like I can be the Change I want to see and for continuously supporting my desire to engage in Change Making.

This book is also dedicated to the Honourable Landon Pearson (1930–2023) who dedicated her life to advocating with and for children and their rights. Thank you for always inspiring and supporting young people in many capacities, to make a difference in the world.

‘Children and youth are experts in their own lives and if we are to find workable solutions to the challenges that confront them, we need to find them together’. – Landon Pearson, 2012

List of Figures and Tables

Foreword

As I write, it feels like the world is on fire. Strife explodes in many corners of the globe… Foreboding surrounds dire changes in weather…In liberal democracies, we face an increasing erosion of trust in virtually all institutions meant to hold the promise of the economic and political system.

And then there are the world's children. Living in incredibly different circumstances. Some who can engage with their rights but many who cannot. Thousands upon thousands of children looking at the sky for bombs rather than for sunshine. Thousands upon thousands hoping for, not expecting, a good meal for the day. Yet children, in all their diversity, have at least this in common…Their parents, their communities, their countries, their faiths and their cultures would hold that they are precious.

The book you are about to read is, in my mind, an urgent call to action. Think of our world as a kite. A kite taken by the wind. Careening this way and that, with every gust, wildly out of control. Children have the ability to be the string to that kite. To hold that kite to the ground and guide it.

They cannot do this without the intentional and active support of adults who touch their lives. In terms of rights, children have the ‘right to participate’, and adults in every country of the world are the ‘duty bearers’ of this right. This means that adults have the obligation to ensure that children can meaningfully participate in the decisions that affect them. Imagine how taut and firm that string to the world's kite would be if adults chose to focus on listening to children more than they did. How might this shape decisions – such as initiating a war?

Listening to children's voices is possible because, wherever you sit reading this book, I know you have been taught that children are precious. Just by being precious, children can influence and change the adults in their world. ‘Influence’ to a change maker is an important form of change. Influence is a change in a way of thinking, and isn't this the key factor in what we might call ‘fundamental change’?

I remember as the Child Advocate for my Province in Canada, I had the opportunity to sit with a group of 8-year-old First Nation children in their community called Wikwemikong. The community, like many in Canada, was suffering under the yoke of history and colonialism, including residential schools. I sat with the children as they described their community to me and what they saw…Until at one point, one of the little girls spoke up, ‘excuse me’, she said, ‘I think you don't need to worry about us. You need to worry about the teenagers, because kids like us, we aren't old enough to know we have no hope’.

Boom!

Years later, I can picture and hear that little girl. Her comment has stayed with me and keeps me stopped dead in my tracks each time I remember her forcing me to reflect. She was a change maker. I will hold her comment in my memory for the rest of my life.

It is absolutely certain that children can practically impact the world.

Paolo Freire, the great educator from Brazil talked about the ‘oppressed’ as being rendered ‘objects’ not ‘subjects’ in the world. He argued that it was the process of ‘voice’ and ‘agency’ that gave human beings their humanity. Janusz Korczak, the Father of children's rights, wrote that ‘children are people today, not people tomorrow’. Upon these, and so many great thinkers, rests this book. It is a call to action.

We all must support children in participating in their own lives, in their own communities, in their own countries and in their own world. In order for this to happen, we must cease to understand children as property, as objects, but understand them as human beings, as subjects.

We must learn to approach the world with ‘love’. I use the word ‘love’ because I am thinking about how a 15-year-old told me once, she knew her counsellor cared about her. ‘My counsellor is curious about me’ she said, ‘and I think it takes a lot of humility for adults to be curious. Humility, that does not come easily to you all’.

We can all be humble and curious. I believe it is within us. I'm thinking that to find those qualities, we will have to follow the lead of children, who by nature are both humble and curious.

So, read this book. As an Indigenous writer, Thomas King might say, ‘You can reflect upon it. You can write a response. Send the authors a letter or an email. You can give it to a friend or colleague. You can do nothing. But, you can never live your life again as if you have never read the book. You have read it now’.

Irwin Elman

Officer of the Order Of Canada

Senior Fellow, Laidlaw Foundation

President, Defence for Children International Canada

Senior Global Advisor, Save Ukraine (Kyiv)

Strategic Advisor, Abrar Mental health and Trauma Services

Acknowledgements

This book evolved from our experiences of practice as we have engaged with children, young people, students, parents and professionals. As a result, these ideas have been shaped by many people – and to all of those who have engaged with openness and enthusiasm (when things have worked and when they have not), we say thank you.

It is important to thank our colleagues and students at King's University College. The Childhood and Youth Studies Department has created a space for creativity and innovation, and we are grateful to have benefitted from that.

We want to thank Sam's team at Learning Allowed – in particular Caroline Whalley for her mentorship and encouragement. It has been fantastic to look back on previous projects and use those to fuel some of our thinking here – so thanks to the old Act 4 team and to John Fowler.

Thank you to the team at Emerald for their patience. We got there in the end!

A special thank you to Kayla Getty, who has been working away in the background to help us pull the manuscript together. Kayla, you have been amazing!

We want to thank Irwin Elman. I (Daniella) remember messaging Irwin on Facebook when I was doing my Master's in 2014 to tell him that my project would focus on the Canadian Council of Child and Youth Advocates. He responded immediately with support and encouragement and invited me to come visit his office in Toronto. His support enabled me to bring my project to life. From this day, Irwin has become a friend and supporter, and for this, I will always be thankful. Irwin – you are an inspiration to so many, and we are grateful for your contribution.

I (Sam) remember taking a group of students to Toronto to support Irwin at a time when the provincial government decided to remove funding from his work as Child and Youth Advocate. It was hard to understand. Irwin's work had been transformative. It sparked a fire in me and in many of those students to ensure children's voices remained a priority. His passion has been such an encouragement to us on this project, and we thank him for providing a foreword and hope that in some small way, what we are doing here might add to the foundations he laid in Ontario – with benefits to children around the world.

Finally, Daniella…thank you for your resilience as we have made our way through this project and for your willingness to listen to my crazier ideas and help in finding ways to express them. From an ambition shared a long time ago – we have managed to get it down on paper – and hopefully this book can fuel more opportunities for children and adults to make a positive difference. Thank you!

And last but certainly not least, Sam…thank you for including me on this project and for sharing your crazy ideas with me! Your leadership and ability to dream big is inspirational, and there's no doubt it's why we were able to pull this project together. You are a Change Maker – and through this book, I hope we can support others to engage as Change Makers too.