Childhood and Rights in a Global World

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Childhood and Youth Studies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 May 2024 | Viewed by 3792

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Education, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain
Interests: childhood; rights; global citizenship education; policies for the protection, provision and participation of children in educational contexts

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of General Didactics, Theory of Education and Technological Innovation, Catholic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Interests: childhood; rights; education for global citizenship; policies for the protection; provision and participation of children in educational contexts; teacher training and teaching competencies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, we face urgent global challenges (climate and health crises, poverty, exclusion, armed conflicts, etc.) that affect all citizens, and children in particular. From this perspective, children are often perceived as the future; however, adults tend to silence them, make them invisible and undervalue them.

More than thirty years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has become necessary to equip children with rights and capacities in order to defend them as citizens.

Having rights and being able to exercise them do not always go hand in hand, and in this sense, the right to high-quality education that promotes listening, participation, spaces for equal access and opportunities continues to be an inalienable challenge at a global level. To this end, the protection, participation and provision of services for children should be essential, as the progress of nations and human civilization lie with children.

The aim of this Special Issue is to create a space to share knowledge, research and educational experiences that promote children's rights. This research that promotes children having participatory experiences that facilitate ethical, responsible, respectful and committed citizenship.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, systematic literature reviews and educational papers with interesting and inspiring contributions. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

- Children's rights;

- High-quality education;

- Education for global citizenship;

- Recognition of children as citizens;

- Policies for the protection, provision, care and participation of children;

- Educational innovation and improvement through child participation;

- Educational research techniques to involve children. Children as co-researchers.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ana Castro Zubizarreta
Prof. Dr. Roberto Sanz Ponce
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • childhood
  • children's rights
  • educational innovation
  • participation
  • global citizenship

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 278 KiB  
Article
The Teachability of Global Citizenship to Children through Empirical Environmental Education: Reflections from a Horticultural Project in a Spanish School
by Isabel Pérez-Ortega and Iñigo González-Fuente
Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(4), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13040225 - 20 Apr 2024
Viewed by 216
Abstract
In a context defined by the internationalisation of educational policies and the supranational nature of school programmes, we highlight the desirability of promoting local strategies for teaching environmental sustainability in order to contribute to the formation of global citizenship in children. Based on [...] Read more.
In a context defined by the internationalisation of educational policies and the supranational nature of school programmes, we highlight the desirability of promoting local strategies for teaching environmental sustainability in order to contribute to the formation of global citizenship in children. Based on the experience of a horticultural curricular project in a school in northern Spain, the aim of this article is to reflect on the need for socio-educational communities to transform the objectives of environmental education into tools with which children can co-responsibly build connections to modify or enrich their everyday concepts of caring for the planet. To do this, semiotic analysis of different official school documents is used as a key methodology. Our findings invite consideration of the fact that pedagogies designed to train children in global citizenship competencies should not be limited to the classroom or to reproducing the proposals of institutional documents. Rather, they should be based on the prior knowledge and experiences of all members of the community, above all, of the children. From this perspective, the promotion of empirical learning situations is essential for the acquisition of meaningful and appropriate environmental contents, in the sense that they allow children, as future global citizens, to recognise the ethical repercussions of their own actions and decisions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood and Rights in a Global World)
17 pages, 379 KiB  
Article
Towards Quality Education: An Entrepreneurship Education Program for the Improvement of Self-Efficacy and Personal Initiative of Adolescents
by Ángela Martín-Gutiérrez, Elisabet Montoro-Fernández and Ana Dominguez-Quintero
Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13010023 - 26 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1051
Abstract
In recent decades, youth unemployment has been the focus of attention of international and community bodies in the area of social rights. Specifically, there is a need to promote attitudes and skills to access employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. The measures implemented have [...] Read more.
In recent decades, youth unemployment has been the focus of attention of international and community bodies in the area of social rights. Specifically, there is a need to promote attitudes and skills to access employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. The measures implemented have not been effective. In 2023, Spain had the highest youth unemployment rate in the European Union (29.6%). An improvement in the level and quality of education and training of young people would reduce their level of unemployment. Entrepreneurship education is, therefore, a necessary value in the society of the 21st century since it is a tool for the development and growth of the younger population. In the entrepreneurship education model proposed in this study for adolescents, we focus on the capacities of self-efficacy and personal initiative as precursors of entrepreneurial behavior. This paper analyzes the differences between the mean values of the variables before and after the implementation of the educational program and the influence or correlation between the variables. The main results are threefold: (i) the educational program implemented improves the mean values of the two variables analyzed; (ii) self-efficacy exerts a positive or direct influence on personal initiative, and (iii) the educational program improves or reinforces the positive influence of self-efficacy on personal initiative. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood and Rights in a Global World)
18 pages, 370 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Entrepreneurial Potential in the Training of a New Generation of Change Agents in Spain
by Antonio Ramón Cárdenas-Gutiérrez, Ana María Domínguez-Quintero and Antonio Bernal-Guerrero
Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(12), 680; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120680 - 10 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1090
Abstract
The development of entrepreneurial potential in the training of school-age pupils is relevant for carrying out projects of an innovative and transformative nature. Entrepreneurial training is enacted through Spanish educational regulations, in relation to the development of the key entrepreneurial competence. Thus, a [...] Read more.
The development of entrepreneurial potential in the training of school-age pupils is relevant for carrying out projects of an innovative and transformative nature. Entrepreneurial training is enacted through Spanish educational regulations, in relation to the development of the key entrepreneurial competence. Thus, a training programme in entrepreneurial potential for school-age students, who are considered as agents of change, was evaluated under the approach of “enterprise education pedagogy”. For this purpose, an experimental research study, pre-test and post-test, with a control and experimental group, was designed. The sample consisted of 1036 participants from eight autonomous communities in Spain. The data analysis was carried out by means of a t-test to compare the mean before and after the application of the programme on the total number of participants, as well as on the subgroups with and without entrepreneurial intentions. The results show that the PEIEO programme had a positive effect on entrepreneurial potential. The experimental group, compared to the control group, significantly increased their total score in the t-test, as well as for each dimension of entrepreneurial potential. Similarly, the participants considered to have entrepreneurial intentions further increased their entrepreneurial potential compared to the group considered to have no entrepreneurial intentions. Consequently, the results indicate that entrepreneurship education, in a holistic sense, has a relevant impact on entrepreneurial potential in a programme aimed at training agents of change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood and Rights in a Global World)

Review

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24 pages, 1507 KiB  
Review
A Scoping Review of Children, Empowerment, and Smartphone Technology Regarding Social Construction Theory with the Aim of Increasing Self-Direction in Democracies
by Carol Nash
Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(4), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13040196 - 31 Mar 2024
Viewed by 577
Abstract
Children are Dependents in a version of social construction theory regarding their inability to self-direct their behavior in democratic society. In this regard, childhood represents a lack of self-direction, a life period when people require the guidance and protection of adults. The assumed [...] Read more.
Children are Dependents in a version of social construction theory regarding their inability to self-direct their behavior in democratic society. In this regard, childhood represents a lack of self-direction, a life period when people require the guidance and protection of adults. The assumed necessity of adults supervising children in democracies necessitates substantial social resources, reducing the self-direction of those charged with overseeing children. Given that self-direction defines the optimal experience of people within a democratic society, finding ways to increase the self-direction of children is an individual and a social benefit. In this regard, smartphones have improved self-direction in children. How children have become empowered to self-direct their lives with smartphone use considering social construction theory—as Advantaged, Contenders, or Deviants—is the focus of a scoping review conducted on “children, empowerment, smartphones” of the following databases: OVID, JSTOR, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The result is that children permitted to self-direct their activities aided by smartphone technology have comparable social behavior to adults positioned as Advantaged, Contenders, or Deviants, and as such, they should be encouraged to utilize smartphone technology to improve their self-direction, as doing so will augment individual and caregiver self-direction, providing increased social benefit. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood and Rights in a Global World)
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