What approaches can be employed to effectively transform the recognition of the significance of listening to young children's voices into sustainable initiatives?
How can we ensure young children’s meaningful involvement within educational, social, and policy contexts, all in the pursuit of a more positive future for humanity?
Children are the custodians of the future and of a world that we/the adults will not inhabit, and cannot predict how it will evolve, change, and be shaped even in the near future. It is enough to think about the rapid technological advances, the pressing environment issues, and increased mental health challenges to predict with certainty even the near future. Therefore, we want children to be endowed with skills required to face and shape an unpredictable future rather than equipped with skills of today’s known and predictions for the future.
The Voices of Children International project is a multiyear initiative and action research study led by University College London (UCL), with the primary objective of honoring the fundamental right of young children to have their voices heard and celebrated. The overarching aim is to introduce the innovative NEW Voices of Children Pedagogy™ , developed collaboratively by educators, researchers, and children, using creative arts as a medium. Additionally, the project seeks to engage parents, grandparents, and older family members in the process.
The Voices of Children Labs, situated in early years settings, preschools, and kindergartens globally, prioritize high-quality training and mentorship provided by UCL's PhD and Master students. These Labs empower educators, with the guidance of their mentors, to elicit children's voices in daily routines and actively engage parents and older family members in the educational process.
The Annual Voices of Children International Gallery will be held at UCL East London alongside the 2024 Bright Start International Conference, featuring artworks and messages from children in all participating countries. The exhibition is designed to share children's artifacts with educators, parents, researchers, policymakers, the media and the entire community.
We invite participants in the ‘Voices of Children’ project to submit case studies on the work which they are doing with young children to illustrate the power of the voices of children through creative arts in transforming pedagogical practice.
We seek submission of case studies that are co-authored by educators and children, supported by their mentors. Co-authored case studies mean that children are active participants in deciding what and how it will be included in the case studies.
We seek submission of papers which document, through various forms of creative arts,
i. Children’s intended key messages to decision makers in their lives and world (i.e., parents, educators, community leaders, policy makers and implementers)
ii. Children’s questions about their world and the world, arising from their experiences, expressed in their wonder and wonderment, awe, bewilderment, awe puzzlement, perplexity, and confusion; unable to, but seeking to understand.
iii. Children’s inquisitive and creative inquiries - a process and journey that is dynamic, fluid, indefinite, subjective and inter-subjective, embodied and dialogical with living beings (others) and the materials at hand and the material world. Inquiries that are always unfolding and evolving arising to solutions or not.
We encourage submission of case studies which incorporate an artefact-based format, e.g., visual, diagrams, maps, photographic images, sculptures, crafts work. Co-authored case studies are expected to present children’s (and educators) engagement with the process of producing their creative artefact, illustrate their evolving thinking, and convey key messages to their intended audience. Collectively, the case studies in the edited volume are expected to demonstrate the power of the Voices of Children Pedagogy™ to transform early years practice.
Interested educators to co-author a case study will receive further guidance and support by the volume editor, Dr Theodora Papatheodorou, Research Development and Impact Manager, Bright Start Foundation.
If you're passionate about making a difference as a mentor, we encourage you to fill out and submit the Voices of Children Pedagogy™ Mentors' Expression of Interest form using the link provided below. Following the review of your application, we'll promptly inform you of its acceptance status. Upon a positive response, you'll receive detailed information outlining the plan of action and the exclusive benefits available to the Voices of Children Pedagogy™ mentors.
https://brightstartfoundation.org/
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