25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Paper
Mobilizations of Transgender Students' Rights Discourses as a Wedge Issue in International Far-Right Authoritarian Movements
Bridget Stirling
University of Alberta, Canada
Presenting Author: Stirling, Bridget
Topic: Transgender children’s rights discourses in international authoritarian movements
Research question: How are debates over transgender children’s rights in education deployed by far-right authoritarian movements?
Background:
In recent years, the conflict over the rights of transgender children and youth has moved from a relatively niche debate largely confined to sexual and gender minority advocates, parents of transgender minors, medical practitioners, education and child welfare workers, and religious groups to prominent battles waged on the front pages of major newspapers, television documentaries on major networks, social media sites, the floors of legislatures, and the streets of many cities. Education has become a flashpoint, with the rights of transgender students debated in every aspect of schooling: policy, curricula, pedagogy, school leadership, comprehensive school health, infrastructure, and extracurricular activities.
Primarily, the debate has centred on the needs and interests of transgender students, which have often been set up as conflicting with the needs and interests of other students, parents, and even transgender children themselves. However, the battle over the rights of transgender students has implications for democracy and human rights beyond the rights of a specific child population or even balancing the rights of some children against those of other children.
This paper examines how transgender students have become an early target in a larger effort to undermine the rights of all children and an instrument in the international movement to destabilize democratic systems of governance and establish (or re-establish) authoritarian regimes that threaten human rights, peace, and international efforts on threats such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
While much international attention has centred on the context of the United States and the United Kingdom, these rights discourses are not limited to one country; while they are locally inflected, they connect to a broader international social movement network on the far right, spreading through both mainstream and alternative media as well as social media sites. Currently, 31 European countries have anti-discrimination laws protecting sexual and gender minorities that affect education (UNESCO, 2023); however, various local policy contexts may shape how these laws are applied when it comes to minors and only 21 countries have strategies to address school-based bullying and discrimination against sexual and gender minority students. Legislative and policy debates are also taking place across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, led largely by right-wing governments.
Rather than debating the legitimacy of transgender children’s identities, this paper examines how the rights of some children are being used as a wedge by actors whose goals are far larger than reshaping rules around which bathroom a child can use or which sports they are allowed to play.
Theoretical framework:
Childhood can be understood as a kind of structure: it has developed out of social and cultural forces as well as biological influences (Castaneda, 2001; Qvortrup, 2009). Using a childist approach (Wall, 2019), I examine how children are taken up as symbolic objects (Kjorholt, 2013) in international authoritarian movements on the right. In particular, these movements mobilize childhood as a signifier for purity in political discourses, reflecting Shotwell’s description of purity as a means to make claims on what is normative, good, and to be pursued (2016).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe lens of childism is both a way of conceptualizing social theory and a research approach (Wall, 2019); similar to feminist scholarship, childism offers a theoretical foundation for critical discourse analysis (CDA). CDA, as compared to other forms of discourse studies, is grounded in critical theory’s orientation on not only understanding and explaining but also on critique and social change (Wodak & Meyer, 2009). CDA functions at the intersection of language and social structure (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000) and is particularly interested in questions of political discourse and ideologies (van Dijk, 2005; Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000). In Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach (DRA) to CDA, discourse is disambiguated by making a distinction between meaning-making as part of a social process, the language of a field of practice, and a way of construing aspects of the world (Fairclough, 2010, 2013). DRA offers a resolution to some of the issues that arise from discursive approaches in policy studies. Policy as discourse has several possible meanings that may be in contention with one another (Bacchi, 2000); however, DRA offers a means to address this contention by considering both text and social context. As with other forms of CDA, DRA is best used in combination with theoretical and analytical resources from various social sciences. In particular, it contributes to and works alongside political, economic, and sociological analysis in the realm of policy studies, bringing together textual analysis with social analysis and critique. Using Fairclough’s approach, I examine policy discourses across Europe (including the UK), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US to identify how transgender children’s rights are discursively mobilized by authoritarian movements.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsChildhood is taken up by far-right authoritarian movements as both a symbolic space and a mechanism to mobilize and attract movement participants. The debate over transgender students’ rights in schooling acts a wedge issue and draws in new movement participants who might not otherwise align themselves with far-right activists. Legislation and policy intended to target transgender children has broader consequences for children’s rights to privacy, association, expression, and self-determination, affecting rights protections for all children. Further, as a wedge issue, these debates can boost electoral success for far-right candidates, offering a route to increasing political power for authoritarian movements. These discourses are transnational and both spread across and reinforce international authoritarian movements that pose a risk to democratic institutions and human rights.
ReferencesBacchi, C. (2000). Policy as Discourse: What does it mean? Where does it get us? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 21(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300050005493
Blommaert, J., & Bulcaen, C. (2000). Critical Discourse Analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology, 29(1), 447–466. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.447
Castaneda, C. (2001). The child as feminist figuration: toward a politics of privilege. Feminist Theory, 2(1), 29–53.
Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ualberta/detail.action?docID=1397484
Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis and critical policy studies. Critical Policy Studies, 7(2), 177–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2013.798239
Kjorholt, A. T. (2013). Childhood as social investment, rights, and the valuing of education. Children and Society, 27, 245-257. doi: 10.1111/chso.12037
Qvortrup, J. (2009). Are children human beings or human becomings? A critical assessment of outcome thinking. Rivista Internazionale Di Scienze Sociali, 117(3/4), 631-653.
Shotwell, A. (2016). Against Purity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
UNESCO. (2023, April 20). Progress towards LGBTI inclusion in education in Europe. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/progress-towards-lgbti-inclusion-education-europe
van Dijk, T. A. (2005). Critical Discourse Analysis. In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 349–371). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470753460.ch19
Wall, J. (2019). From childhood studies to childism: Reconstructing the scholarly and social imaginations. Children’s Geographies, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2019.1668912
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory, and methodology. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis. SAGE.
25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Paper
The Narrative Imagination - Listen To The Stories Of The Third Generation Survivors
Anna Sarri Krantz
University of Uppsala, Sweden
Presenting Author: Sarri Krantz, Anna
Proposal information
The third generation survivors, grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, have started to tell the stories of their grandparents' experiences during the Nazi dictatorship. The grandchildren use various forms of communication to share their stories in a public context. In their storytelling, they incorporate their own testimonies of contemporary antisemitism, either directed towards themselves during their school years or towards the Jewish minority in Sweden.
At the same time, the Swedish educational system, from preschool to high school, has an explicit democratic and value based mission, which is formulated in the curriculums. The school's mission regarding democracy and values is regulated by laws and regulations, including the Education Act. It is also governed by anti discrimination legislation clarifying how educational institutions should act governed by something called ”active measures” against discrimination (see Sarri Krantz, 2023). Legislation against discrimination and offensive treatment clarifies how educational institutions should implement active measures against discrimination. At the same time, research shows that students are subjected to discrimination and offensive treatment in the Swedish educational system (Sarri Krantz, 2018, Gillander Gådin & Stein, 2017, Gyberg et al., 2021).
The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how the stories of the third generation survivors can be used in educational contexts to create awareness of human diversity based on the idea presented by Nussbaum (1997, 2010). Ultimately, the goal is to create a more democratic and inclusive education.
2. Theoretical framework
In this paper, I want to call attention to the incorporation of the stories of the third generation survivors concerning their grandparents' experiences during the Holocaust, and their own experiences of contemporary antisemitism. By working with these stories one can create what Nussbaum calls "narrative imagination" (1997, p. 10).
In the effort to create an education system free from discrimination and racism, there is the opportunity to establish a school based on the idea of a liberal education and the possibility to shape future global citizens (Nussbaum, 1997). During the school years, it is crucial that a young person's personal development takes place. Nussbaum pinpoints the idea that education that cultivates a critical approach to different cultural expressions is essential for bringing about change in the individual. Art, literature, music, and film produced by individuals from diverse religious, cultural, social, and ethnic backgrounds can foster a "narrative imagination" (Nussbaum, 1997, p. 10). "The narrative imagination" means that education provides opportunities, and works towards a deeper understanding of students, in order to change their perception and of their understanding of the world.
The purpose emphasized by Nussbaum is to create an education that promotes an attitude that helps students develop essential components such as understanding other people's perspectives, feeling empathy and sympathy, countering stereotypes related to other people, and, above all, developing critical thinking and a critical approach so that discriminatory acts are not left unchallenged (Nussbaum, 1997, 2010).
To train students in this work, Nussbaum argues that ongoing exercises in critical thinking need to be carried out continuously. This should be done by expanding the mission to educate critical thinkers to a variety of subjects, so that teachers collectively and broadly take on the task. Nussbaum criticizes traditional teaching methods where students are passive listeners, and considers this demoralizing and weakening. Instead, she advocates for an education where students are active, engaged, and proactive. They need to learn to investigate and evaluate facts and develop the ability to present their own arguments as well as analyze existing arguments (2010). The goal is to create critical and reflective students who are “active, critical, curious, capable of resisting authority and peer pressure.” (Nussbaum, 2010, p. 73).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedMethod
During the 2010s, I conducted anthropological fieldwork in Stockholm, Sweden, studying Jewish life and Jewish identity specifically focusing on the grandchildren of the Holocaust survivors. The methods used were observations and in-depth interviews (Aull Davies, 2008). In this research, presented in the thesis (Sarri Krantz, 2018), it became evident that the third generation themselves were engaged in a narrative that was unique to them. They combined their grandparents' stories, as they had been recounted by the older generation, with their own experiences of contemporary antisemitism. Therefore, it was a natural progression to complement anthropological research with studies of the narratives of the third generation. This study has been characterized by analyzing the themes chosen by the third generation primarily aiming to call attention to their grandparents' experiences during the Holocaust. At the same time, their narratives also address what it means to belong to the Jewish minority in contemporary Sweden where antisemitism is prevalent, highlighting this from a current situation. The grandchildren's stories serve as time documents of the Jewish minority's situation from a historical and contemporary perspective, while also being valuable for educational purposes for global citizens of tomorrow.
Authors, titles and thematical perspectives
Lichtenstein, Moa, “Bagage från läger 99”: life during persecution, historical antisemitism
Schreiber, Johanna, “Brev till min farfar”: historical antisemitism, contemporary antisemitism
Verständig Axelius, Natalie, “Det var inte jag som skulle dö”: historical episodes during the Holocaust, war versus peace, survival
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn order to dismantle discrimination and racial injustice the school system in Sweden, together with school systems around the world, can implement a shift of focus and listen to the stories of the third generation survivors, and other narratives from a variety of voices. On the basis of a clear judicial governance from the state, providers of education, and especially school principals, can construct educational possibilities using the stories in highlighting human experience. This can enrich individual and personal development for students and at the same time have an impact on classroom discussions. In the long run, we can thereby accomplish a narrative imagination enabling students, and staff, to develop an understanding and respect for the diversity of human experiences.
The relevance of the paper is to show and discuss the narrative of the Jewish minority, focusing on historical and contemporary antisemitism, and what educational possibilities such a narrative can have for students and staff in schools. The relevance of the paper is also to highlight the legislative obligations for the providers of education and what can be developed using the ideas of narrative imagination in order to safeguard the human rights for the next generation.
ReferencesReferences
Aull Davies, C. (2008). Reflexive Ethnography A guide to researching selves and others, Routledge.
Bagage från läger 99. (2019). Moa Lichtenstein, P1 documentary, Producer: Martin Jönsson, Swedish radio, P1 18 August.
Gillander Gådin, K. & Stein, N. (2019). Do schools normalise sexual harassment? An analysis of a legal case regarding sexual harassment in a Swedish high school. Gender and Education. Vol. 31, nr 7, 920-937.
Gyberg et al. (2021). Discrimination and its relation to psychosocial well‐being among diverse youth in Sweden. Child & Adolescent Development. 1–19.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1997). Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Harvard University Press.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for profit Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton University Press.
Sarri Krantz, A. (2018). Tredje generationens överlevande - en socialantropologisk studie om minne, antisemitism och identitet i spåret av Förintelsen, dissertation.
Sarri Krantz, A. (2023). Kulturen i skolan och skolans kultur in (eds.) Johansson, N. & Baltzer, C. Rektors praktik i vetenskaplig belysning: framgångsrikt, hållbart och närvarande ledarskap - är det möjligt? Liber.
Schreiber, J. (2015). Brev till min farfar. (ed) Lomfors, I. et al. I skuggan av Förintelsen De överlevandes barn och barnbarn. Judiska museet. 85 – 91.
Verständig Axelius, N. (2019). Det var inte jag som skulle dö. Natur och kultur.
25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Paper
Perspectives from a Study on Home Schooling During the Time of COVID-19: Children’s Rights and Agency in Education and Research
Melanie Kubandt2, Birgit Hüpping1
1PH Ludwigsburg University of Education; 2University of Osnabrueck, Germany
Presenting Author: Kubandt, Melanie
The presented participative mixed-methods study in a German primary school focussed on children’s learning and coping strategies at times of home-schooling during the Covid-19-crisis. Findings in educational research during the pandemic (2020-2022) are increasingly enabling a differentiated view based on national and international results in order to derive consequences for educational settings (Helm et al. 2021) in challenging times. However, it is noticeable (Bujard et al. 2021) that the perspectives of children, and especially those of primary school age, have hardly been heard. A small number of studies have focussed on the perspective of primary-school age in order to gain insights into the learning situation and well-being of pupils (cf. Budde et al. 2021, Bujard et al. 2021). In this context, our main research question was: How do especially school beginners (age 6 to 7) deal with this challenging situation between classroom teaching and home-schooling while Covid-19? The aim of our research was to look specifically at the children’s perspectives on home-schooling phases during COVID-19 lockdowns and the related challenges, as well as coping strategies employed by the learners themselves during this time of crisis and instability.
Numerous theoretical frameworks were combined: including the social constructivist perspective, where a setting, in this case a school is continuously constructed in and through local practices, i.e. where activity is produced and adapted by the actors involved in the sense of doing school. The lens of relational understanding of agency was also employed, where specifically, school was depicted as a network of relationships, characterised by the diverse interactions of the school community of actors - adults as well as children. This study is based on the paradigm, as suggested by Eßer and Sitter (2018), that children are competent actors and are actively involved in the (re)production of school as a social setting. Therefore, the principle for this study was based on actor-network-theory and Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory and is informed by ongoing debates about children’s agency. The theoretical framework of this study merges socio-cultural theories in order to better understand the role of children's agency, and understanding children as active constructors of their self, environment and childhood during a time of upheaval. Furthermore, the study’s key aim was to make children’s voices heard at the level of the study’s methodology underpinned by a children's rights perspective. A participatory research approach was therefore chosen. According to Von Unger (2014) and Eßer et al. (2020) participatory research approaches are characterised by the involvement of actors as researchers in order to describe and changing social reality as well as measures for the individual and collective empowerment of the partners. The inclusion of children as co-researchers is attributed to both childhood research and participatory research and has gained particular importance in the course of the implementation process of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in the 1990s (Bradbury-Jones/Taylor 2014, Spriggs/Gillam 2017). This study’s approach, reflects New Childhood Studies with its long tradition of actively involving children in research while observing research ethical principles (Lundy/McEvoy 2012, Hartnack 2019). As is appropriate to a study involving children, ethical considerations were given priority.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe study employed a mixed-method design in order to consider different approaches to children's perspectives by positioning children as active constructors of their selves and their lives. Participation and agency were one specific focus, especially at the level of the data collection. To reflect this, participatory research approaches were used to ensure that children's perspectives were included and to address them as experts of their own lives with their own voices (Hüpping/Büker 2019). The Ethical Code for early childhood researchers (Bertram et al. 2015) was followed with voluntary, informed consent/assent sought from children, parents and educators. Based on this theoretical framework, the following methods were used: 10 Interviews with 21 children, questionnaires, children's drawings and audio statements. The data obtained was analysed in a circular research process based on grounded theory (cf. Glaser/Strauss 1998) and followed segment-analysis protocol according to Kruse (2014). The first data collection phase of the study was carried out within the framework of a subject lesson in the school. Specifically, the children were first invited to complete a paper-based questionnaire, create research-induced children's drawings or give audio statements via a dictaphone laid out as part of a non-reactive process. The content of the questionnaire was aimed at the individual perception of daily home-schooling and well-being of the children when returning to school. The children's drawings related to the children's every day experiences and were initiated by writing and drawing sheets titled as "Me learning during homeschooling", "Me back in school" or "Corona and school: this is how I deal with it...". The children's drawings such as questionnaires could be dropped into a mailbox in the classroom over a period of two weeks. On completion of the data collection, the analysis of the drawings and questionnaires together with the children’s interviews pursued a double objective. It took place in a participatory manner in order to sift through and classify the data together with the children. In addition, the interviews functioned as a communicative validation of the data for the researchers. By including voluntary questionnaires and children's drawings as well as audio statements, an attempt was made to enable the children to take an increasing degree of self-directed action. Whilst the concept of children as co-researchers is contested (Hammersley 2017), the intention of this study was to view and understand the data through the children’s contributions.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe study traces how school beginners in Germany cope with learning demands in times of instability and crisis, when normal schooling is interrupted. It demonstrates the different creative coping strategies employed by the children, but also points to the high relevance of school as a social interaction space (Hummrich, 2015) in addition to being an essential learning and educational space for children. Data from this study suggest that children value the notion of ‘school’ beyond merely a place to learn. This study argues that educators and policy makers should give greater consideration to the school’s role in children’s social development and well-being when planning for alternative education, not only in times of crisis. Besides the presentation of empirical findings of the children`s own perspectives at a specific time of educational instability, the research team take a critical look at their own research approach and their original claim of enabling participatory research and taking children's agency seriously. Regarding adults' responsibility in data collection processes, ethical challenges emerge in “doing participatory research”: the adult researchers in this study were aware of performing a balancing act in doing justice to children´s rights and agency in order to meet the demands on and through the study’s methodology and their own research objectives (Velten/Höke 2023). Using the example of critical reflection on our own methodological approaches in the project, this paper explores where typical pitfalls as researchers with children lie and how participatory approaches can be better designed. We focus on key ethical considerations according to a critical reflection of power dynamics, transparency of research aims, and the degree to which children fully participated at different stages of the research process. Based on the reflections, this paper provides a series of recommendations on how researchers can improve participation and agency when researching with young children.
ReferencesBertram, T. et al. (2015). EECERA Ethical Code
for Early Childhood Researchers. www.eecera-ext.tandf.co.uk/documents/pdf/
organisation/EECERA-Ethical-Code.pdf
Eßer, F. & Sitter, M. (2018). Ethische Symmetrie in der partizipativen Forschung mit Kindern. Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung/Qualitative Social Research, 19(3).
Hammersley, M. (2017). Childhood studies: a sustainable paradigm? Childhood, 24(1), 113–127.
Hartnack, F. (Hrsg.). (2019). Qualitative Forschung mit Kindern. Herausforderungen, Methoden und Konzepte (Research). Wiesbaden
Hüpping, B. & Büker, P. (2019). Kinder als Forscher in eigener und gemeinsamer Sache – ein Weg zur Partizipation? Ein kinderrechtebasierter didaktischer Ansatz und dessen Relevanz aus der Perspektive von Grundschulkindern. In: Pädagogischer Blick, 27(3), S. 159-173.
Lundy, L. & McEvoy, L. (2012). Children’s rights and research processes: Assisting children to (in)formed views. In: Childhood, 19 (1), 129-144.
Bradbury-Jones, C. & Taylor, J. (2015). Engaging with children as co-researchers: challenges,counter-challenges and solutions. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 18 (2), 161–173.
Eßer, F., et al. (2020). Partizipative Forschung in der Sozialen Arbeit. Zur Gewährleistung demokratischer Teilhabe an Forschungsprozessen. Zeitschrift für Sozialarbeit, Sozialpädagogik und Sozialarbeit 3–23.
Budde, J., et al (2021). Grundschule in Zeiten der Pandemie – eine Fallstudie zu familialen Ungleichheiten und kindlichem Wohlbefinden. In B. Amrhein und B. Badstieber (Hrsg.), (Un-)mögliche Perspektiven auf Verhalten in der Schule. Weinheim
Bujard, M., et al. (2021). Belastungen von Kindern, Jugendlichen und Eltern in der Corona-Pandemie. Wiesbaden
Ryan, R. M./Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78
Glaser, Barney G./Strauss, Anselm L. (1998): Grounded Theory. Strategien qualitativer Forschung. Bern
Helm, C., et al. (2021). Was wissen wir über schulische Lehr-Lern-Prozesse im Distanzunterricht während der Corona-Pandemie? – Evidenz aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft: ZfE: 237–311.
Hummrich, M. (2015). Schule und Sozialraum. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven. In: A. El-Mafaalani, S. Kurtenbach, K. P. Strohmeier (Hrsg.), Auf die Adresse kommt es an: Segregierte Stadtteile als Problem- und Möglichkeitsräume begreifen. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz Juventa. S.168-187
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Spriggs, M./Gillam, L. (2017). Ethical complexities in child co-research. Research Ethics (1), 1–16.
Unger, H. von. (2014). Partizipative Forschung. Wiesbaden
Velten, K./Höke, J. (2021). Forschung partizipativ und inklusiv gestalten? Ethische Reflexionen zu Interviews mit Kindern unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Erwachsenheit. Zeitschrift für Grundschulforschung (2), 421–436.
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