These guidelines are the product of the GOTALK project on pupil participation in elementary and secondary schools. The guidelines are targeted towards school teams and contains guidelines on makingparticipation more inclusive, sustainable and impactful.
Problems and Purpose
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.
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.
Origins and Development
The GOTALK project ran over a course of 2 years (2023-2025) and was co-funded by the European Commission under the CERV-program (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values). In the project, eight educational contexts experimented with young people participation with guidance of GOTALK facilitators. During these piloting experiments, challenges of inclussiveness, sustainability and policy impact were targeted.
About the Guidelines
The GOTALK guidelines are developed for teacher teams and schools, organisations supporting children's rights and young people's associations and NGO's which support schools in citizenship education. They guidelines give an overview of what the GOTALK project concluded is important in pupil participation and gives suggestions about how to develop a strong participative culture and practice in schools.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
The guidelines focus mainly on work to be done with adults, as adults too need to be prepared for children's participation. The shift from a pedagogy of teaching, towards a pedagogy of participation is elaborated upon. Both the level of teachers and teacher teams and the school as a whole, can embrace participation. The guidelines will help educational institutions assess their participation practice critically and adjust their strategies.
