The continuing need for child-led approaches within inclusive systems: A focus on transition across 8 European countries

Taking the position that the central goal of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Education 2030, Education Framework for Action is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UNESCO 2015) the authors argue for a conscious synthesis that blends this overall aim with discourses such as child-led participatory approaches. An analysis of child-led participation is presented that emphasizes there is currently some confusion with “individualised” approaches. This exploration also asserts that children are being judged against normative criteria (Dahlberg in New Media & Society 9:827–847, 2007). For example, in Scotland young school children (4.5 years) are being tested with national assessment scales concerned exclusively as a result of the scores from the leading proponents of global education, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It is argued that as a result children are often silenced; their views on assessment processes not heard; their creativity, capabilities, and resourcefulness ignored and overshadowed by the discourse of professional accountability and economic competitiveness of the global market; with the ultimate focus of attention being placed on the “achieving child,” which excludes the child who does not fit into professional powered processes and systems. The authors identify and readdress the injustices of what they describe as exclusive practices of an often oppressive world arguing for more true participatory systems.