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Conditions for Effective Children’s Participation, According to Children’s Voices

This study focuses on the conditions that children’s participation experiences that take place in different educational settings, such as the school, leisure education and children’s councils, should fulfill. The findings are based on multiple case studies performed in six educational experiences, in which the information is provided by the main figures of the participation: the children involved. The children’s inputs allow us to identify three categories that define the conditions of children’s participation for the latter to be meaningful and authentic: (1) the acknowledgement of the rights of childhood; (2) how the participation-based experience works, and finally (3) the role of the educators. It transpires that the conditions stated by the children coincide greatly with the ones indicated by different authors in their theoretical proposals.