GOTALK: More inclusive child participation in policy change

The GOTALK project focuses on making decision-making processes in school and leisure more inclusive and child-friendly. We are looking for ways to strengthen and render inclusive and child-friendly participation at school and in leisure time sustainable and to generate more policy impact inclusive of children’s voices. The project is running in Belgium and Italy, but in addition we are looking for ways to make the ideas on child participation from the project usable for other countries as well.

Formulation of problem

Earlier research shows that even though child participation is organized with the best of intentions in different organizations, many children feel they lack the opportunity to speak up. In addition, children's perspectives are not always taken seriously, which means that policymakers and professionals do not always take their voices into account.

The GOTALK project wants to change this and test innovative ways of child participation. In the first project year (2023-2024), a pilot project is running in elementary school in Flanders on organized after school activities (BOA decree). At the same time, a pilot project is also running in secondary education in Northern Italy focusing on citizenship education. In both trajectories we will work with schools to connect and weigh in on policies together with the children. In the second project year (2024-2025) we will exchange insights between the two contexts and run the track in secondary education in Flanders, while in Northern Italy we work in primary education.

The processes in Flemish and Northern Italian schools and organizations will be monitored and evaluated, with the aim of gathering insights for the future. For this purpose, data are collected from children and young people, teacher teams, leisure activity providers and policy makers.

Goal

Our goal is to try out and describe innovation in child participation so that it is accessible to as many organizations working with children as possible, also outside Flanders and Northern Italy. We want to involve all possible partners in different networks, both at local and international level. GOTALK is a project within the European CERV program 'Citizenship, Education, Rights and Values) and is co-funded by the European Union.

Researchers

• anouk.vanderwildt@kdg.be
• marie.vanroost@kdg.be
• an.piessens@kdg.be