Abstract

TOMAS, Catarina; GONCALVES, Carolina  and  GAZZINELLI, Juliana. “WHEN CHILDREN'S PARTICIPATION IS A MIRAGE”: OBSTÁCULOS EN CONTEXTOS EDUCATIVOS. Práx. Educ. [online]. 2025, vol.21, n.52, e13456.  Epub June 16, 2025. ISSN 2178-2679.  https://doi.org/10.22481/praxisedu.v21i52.13456.

The legal, political, and symbolic recognition of children's participation rights, stemming from the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, in conjunction with scientific recognition facilitated by the development of Social Studies of Childhood, has contributed to a process of paradigmatic transition and alteration in the ways of understanding childhood and children. However, the analysis of reality points to a gap between discourses and practices regarding the effectiveness of children's participation in educational contexts. Building upon these premises, two case studies were undertaken in two public schools in Lisbon, as part of Project SMOOTH - Educational Common Spaces, Passing through enclosures and reversing Inequalities (European Commission). The observations and interviews conducted with children and professionals from the two educational contexts (formal and non-formal), between March 2022 and June 2023, make it possible to identify three logics - divergent temporalities, organizational dynamics, and pedagogical practices - that hinder the promotion of children's right to participation in those contexts and, consequently, point to schools as spaces of (limited) democracy in the lives of children.

Keywords : children’s participation; educational contexts; obstacles.

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