Keywords

1 Introduction

In this chapter, we draw upon data collected from a flexible primary school program offered to a group of children living in an urban slum in Bangladesh. We use notion voice to examine the experiences of five children in the context of their education. We contend that valuable insights can be gained from listening to the voices of these children about their aspirations and what they value most in their education. By engaging with accounts and narratives from the participants, we hope to provide a space for the ‘subaltern’ (Spivak 1988) voices of children in poverty who have become target of increasing policy interventions and are often constructed through the discourses of ‘immaturity’, ‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’.

Our child participants deal with varying degrees of socio-material disadvantage and are burdened with adult responsibilities. Hena, a 14 years old girl, spends up to 5 h a day doing household chores due to her mother’s prolonged illness. Dola, 11 years old, faces a similar predicament; she spends up to 3 h a day assisting in household work and looking after her younger brother because of her mother’s illness. Our other participants are Koli, a 10-year-old girl and the youngest in the group, Milon, a 13-year-old boy and a class Capitan, as well as Sagor who is an 11-year-old boy. Although Koli, Milon and Sagor all have working parents, they are tasked with care giving duties because of their families’ difficult financial circumstances.

We used a focused ethnographic methodology in our research to explore the views and voices of these participants about their education. Our choice of methodology was informed by Hulme’s (2004) call for ‘thinking small’ in studies of child poverty. The notion of thinking small requires the conduct of small-scale research that foregrounds the story of one person, one household or one community at a time. Such an approach can provide deep insights into what it actually means to live in circumstances of material disadvantage. Focused ethnography was deemed an appropriate methodology for researching and representing slum children, a group who is often talked about, but is seldom given an opportunity to speak.

Our discussions in this chapter are organized in six sections. Section 2 examines the theoretical debates about voice, participation and representation and how these debates intersect with the notion of childhood and poverty. Section 3 provides background information and a context to our discussion of child poverty and education in Bangladesh. Section 4 describes our research design, and Sect. 5 draws on the voices of the child participants to examine their aspirations and what they valued most about their flexible primary education program. Section 6 synthesizes our discussions calling for an agentic view of children in poverty. We maintain that such a view can be particularly useful in designing better educational policies and programs that can respond the needs of these children.

2 Children in Poverty: Voices from the Margins

Over the past few decades, the notion of voice has gained traction in debates in various disciplines from philosophy, sociology and feminist studies to political sciences and education. When discussed in relation to children, voice acquires a meaning beyond expressing an opinion; it incorporates wider issues of inclusion, representation and participation. To have voice denotes having the chance to express an opinion, being listened to, taking part and exercising agency in practices that bear upon one’s life. This makes voice, as McLeod (2011) has aptly argued, a political project and a metaphor involving identity, agency, as well as a powerful strategy for promoting empowerment, equity and inclusion.

Debates about child voice are polarized between protectionist and participatory views. This is because children constitute a particular category in terms of their rights and responsibilities. Children are often constructed as a group who is both distinct from and ‘other’ to adults (Smith et al. 2005). This rather precarious space is reflected in the phrases that cast childhood as preparation for adulthood, phrases such as citizens-in-making (Marshall 1950), citizens-in-waiting (Kennelly 2011), not-yet-citizens (Moosa-Mitha 2005), tomorrow’s citizens (Dobozy 2007), future citizens (Arthur 2015; Print 2007), apprentice citizens (Wyness et al. 2004), or semi-citizens (Cohen 2005).

More recently, there has been growing acknowledgement about the limits of ‘transitional’ and ‘developmental’ thinking about childhood. Such and Walker (2005), for instance, argue that children understand and experience the world in the present, and are actively engaged in its construction. Pugh (2013) also maintains children should be viewed as “active social agents, strategizing within their constraints, deploying and utilizing their cultural fluency.” Such an understanding opens up a new way of thinking about children, one that transcends the dominant adult-centric perceptions about childhood as a period of passivity, ignorance, innocence and vulnerability. It acknowledges the lived experiences of children in the context of their families, schools and communities and the role that they play in contributing to their social worlds.

Studies of childhood also need to take into account the social divisions and differences that exist among children and that can mediate their experiences (Dadvand 2018). Such an understanding invites reflection on how elements in children’s backgrounds, for example due to poverty, dynamics of gender and gender relations, disability, etc., may limit their opportunities for voice and participation and thus act as a source of social exclusion (Liebel 2008; Savelsberg and Martin-Giles 2008). A one-size-fits-all approach that presents childhood as a homogeneous social group masks the diversities of experiences; it conceals the reality that much similar to adults, children’s experiences are mediated by an intersection of factors including socio-economic status, ethnicity, locale, gender, sexuality and disability.

An intersectional lens (Yuval-Davis 1997, 2011) also inform our thinking about the politics of childhood by drawing attention to the dynamics of power involved in relation to who gets the opportunity to speak and whose voice gets to be heard. As Alcoff (1991/1992) explains, “rituals of speaking are politically constituted by power relations of domination, exploitation, and subordination. Who is speaking, who is spoken of, and who listens is a result, as well as an act, of political struggle.” Similarly, Hadfield and Haw (2001) argue that debates about voice are inevitably intertwined with “issues of power and how power intersects with, and emerges through, positions of, for example, age, social class, ethnicity and gender.”

Understanding child voice as embedded within the already existing structures of power can account for the subordinate voices of some children. Such an understanding redirects our attention from the dialogic process in articulating voice to the conditions that moderate “who can say what, when and how” (Mockler and Groundwater-Smith 2015). This can be particularly useful in providing an account of those children who live in poverty. In a sense, these children face a double disadvantage. On the one hand, they are viewed as not-yet mature enough to have voice and agency, and on the other hand, they are burdened with adult responsibilities and have to undertake work and care giving duties because of economic hardship.

One implication of these theoretical understandings relates to the interventions that aim to alleviate childhood poverty. More often than not, these interventions are developed with little consultation with those who are most affected by them, namely children themselves. We do not aim to critique the intentions behind these interventions. We acknowledge that such interventions often have the best interest of the child. What we problematize, however, is the wider discourses that position children in poverty as either ‘at risk’ or ‘a risk’ and thus in need of external intervention. Absent from these discourses is the understanding that valuable insights that can be gained by listening to the voices of these children about what matters to them.

In the remainder of this chapter, we apply some of these understandings about voice to the context of children’s education in the developing world. We focus on an education program designed specifically to address the needs of slum children in Bangladesh. Engaging with direct accounts and narratives from five child participants, we examine their aspirations, and discuss what they value most in their flexible education program. Through our analysis and discussion, we hope to counter the dominant cultural narratives around slum children as a group who is deemed to have little to offer to policy discussions about education. Before reporting on our case study, a brief note is needed about the context in which we undertook this research.

3 Child Poverty: A Wicked Problem in Bangladesh

Poverty is one of the most urgent global problems that has serious implications for development. It is estimated that today almost one in ten people lives under the internationally recognized poverty line of less than $2 US dollars a day (World Bank 2018). As a result, tackling poverty has become a priority and now many international, government and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) are actively involved in initiatives that aim to alleviate poverty in different parts of the world. Ending poverty has also gained such a level of significance that it has become the first goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations 2018).

There is no single and universal definition of poverty (Schweiger and Graf 2015). Broadly speaking, though, poverty denotes more than lack of adequate income and material resources; its manifestations encompass “hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making” (United Nations 2018). These wide-ranging adverse implications make tackling poverty a social justice issue that involves not only dealing with the material basis of inequality (Rawls 1972) but also addressing the impacts of socio-material disadvantage for wider issues of participation, voice and representation (Fraser 1997, 2010).

The adverse impacts of poverty are compounded when the dynamics of childhood is attached to it. This is because of the particular status of childhood as a period of social and cognitive development which makes the young person more susceptible to the negative effects of poverty. Lack of access to adequate food, hygiene and health services, formal education, risks of sexual exploitation and child labor are some of the many ills emanating from child poverty. Childhood can also intersect with social divisions and differences rooted in the complex nexus of gender, ethnicity, locale, capabilities and other power relations (Yuval-Davis 2011) to put certain groups of children at further disadvantage compared to others.

While child poverty remains a global issue, it is a more prevalent and pressing issue in the context of developing countries. Today poor children account for a third to a half of the population across developing nations (Biggeri and Mehrotra 2011). In Bangladesh where we undertook this research, 26.5 million children live below poverty line (UNICEF 2009). It is also estimated that up to a quarter of Bangladeshi children who live in poverty are deprived of one of the four basic needs of food, education, health, information, shelter, water and sanitation (Shohel 2012). Poverty is also one of the main contributors to child labor, approximately affecting one in every six children or more than seven million children in Bangladesh (UNICEF 2009).

Dealing with the issues arising from inter-generational nature of poverty and child labor has been a major concern for successive Bangladeshi governments and a reason for extensive NGO interventions over the last few decades. With the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations 1989), provision of universal (primary) education has been advocated as a long-term solution to poverty and child labor in the country. A policy response that focuses on access to free and flexible education is informed by understanding that children affected by poverty are less likely to attend school, more likely to dropout from school or be ‘silently excluded’ from education even when they attend schools (Shohel and Howes 2008).

Primary education in Bangladesh is unique in two ways. First, Bangladesh has one of the largest primary education systems in the world accommodating for more than 18 million children (World Bank 2013). In Bangladesh, primary education extends from Year 1–5 and has been free and compulsory for children aged 6–10 since 1990. Despite remarkable progress in access to universal education over years, the primary education sector in Bangladesh suffers from significant inequities in terms of access, participation and outcomes. A third of primary school students are ‘first generation learners’ from families with no prior education (Nath 2012). One in every three children drops out before completing Year 5 (UNDP 2013). Drop-out rate is also twice as high in the bottom quartile of socio-economic advantage (EPDC 2014).

In addition, Bangladesh is unique in its reliance on the non-government sector in the provision of primary education. Government primary schools enroll more than half of Bangladeshi children (DPE 2014). The rest of the primary student population is served by other education providers. NGOs are significant stake-holders in the primary education sector catering for some hard to reach communities that have not been traditionally served by the central government. One such NGO is Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC). BRAC provides second chance or ‘catch-up’ education for children who have not enrolled in or have dropped out of primary school. Since the inception of the BRAC education program in 1985 until 2011, five million children have graduated from its primary schools (Nath 2012). BRAC schools are currently attended by nearly four hundred thousand students (BRAC 2018).

BRAC uses a single-classroom, single-teacher school model which (ideally) hosts 33 children. Students enroll at the beginning of the school year and complete the 5 years of national primary curriculum within 4 years. BRAC schools run between 4 and 4.5 h a day, 6 days a week and most of the teaching materials are provided free of charge. School locations, opening hours, and schedule are decided in consultation with parents and communities. The schools adopt child-centered, participatory and gender sensitive education approaches. There is no summative assessment except for Year 5 completion exam. BRAC schools use a range of extra-curricular activities to teach children in drawing, story writing, savings skills and aesthetics.

Research shows that BRAC primary schools often outperform mainstream primary schools in terms of learning outcomes, school participation and cost effectiveness (World Bank 2013; DPE 2014; Ahmad and Haque 2011). This has generated interest into what contributes to the success of the BRAC primary school model for children in poverty. Much of the existing research, however, relies on input-output based economic analyses of school performance (Reynolds 2000). This line of research does not provide adequate insights into the complex issues that influence children’s learning and wellbeing in contexts of poverty in Bangladesh. To explore the lived educational experiences of slum children, one therefore needs a broader framework that prioritizes the voices and views of young people themselves.

As we outlined in our theoretical discussions in Sect. 1, children who live in poverty are often constructed through the discourses of immaturity, risk and vulnerability. Such deficit discourses relegate the voices of these children to the margins and undermine the active role that they often play in tackling their social exclusion. In the remainder of this chapter, we engage directly with the accounts and narratives from a group of five slum children to tap into their future aspirations, and to explore their views about what constitutes enabling educational experiences for them. By drawing on the voices of these children, we hope to provide a ‘situated gaze’ (Yuval-Davis and Stoetzler 2002) into their lived educational encounters and experiences.

4 The Present Study

Our data for this study comes from a BRAC school situated in an urban slum in Dhaka. The school had 30 students. From these students, 27 (19 girls and 8 boys) agreed to participate in the study. Due to the limits of space, we only report on the data collected from 5 of these students. Data were collected through a focused ethnographic research design which lasted for 6 weeks. We used a range of participatory methods including photovoice, drawing and storytelling, and individual semi-structured interviews. Given the context of poverty in which the children and their families lived, a digital camera was provided to the children to allow use of photos as prompts for discussions, a procedure that can make group discussions and interviews with young people enjoyable, fluent, stress-free and productive (Colucci 2007).

The data collection phase followed a number of sequential steps. First, the participants were invited to draw four pictures about what they liked most to do, what they wanted to do or to be in future, what they liked most about their school and what they wanted to change in their school. The students also took three pictures of their school. The participants then took part in individual semi-structured interviews. Children’s interpretations of their drawings and photos elicited using story-telling techniques provided insights into their experiences in the school and their future aspirations. This enabled us to explore their visions and what they valued in their education through their own language. In the final phase, we used ‘member’s data check’ (Lincoln and Guba 1985) to cross-check the validity of the findings with the children.

5 Children Speaking Up

Our analysis and discussions of children’s voices are organized in three sections. In the first section, we discuss what the participants had to say about their aspirations and the values that underpinned those aspirations. In the second section, we examine what the participants valued most in their education. Our discussion highlights the integral role of safety and wellbeing in the construction of educational spaces to which the participants had a strong sense of attachment. Closely related to and contributing to these spaces of belonging was positive relationships with peers and the teacher, a topic that we explain and discuss in the third section.

5.1 Aspirations and Imagined Futures

Given the prevailing deficit discourses of immaturity, risk and vulnerability through which slum children are often framed and recognized, we first explored what aspirations the participants held for their future. In doing so, we were conscious of the adverse impacts that poverty can have on young people’s capacities to image futures unfettered by their current conditions of socio-material disadvantage. As Ray (2006; emphasis in original) points out, “[p]overty stifles dreams, or at least the process of attaining dreams. Thus poverty and the failure of aspirations may be reciprocally linked in a self-sustaining trap.”

Research also shows that children who live in poverty often have lower aspirations compared to their more privileged peers (Dalton et al. 2016). This is often attributed to an aspiration gap, which denotes “the distance between what an individual might aspire to and the conditions she currently finds herself in” (Ray 2006). However, contrary to such expectations, our participants showed high levels sophistication in talking about their aspirations and the role that they attributed to education in moving towards their future aspirations.

The participants used the medium of drawing to depict themselves as contributing and productive members of their community. In response to a prompt about what she would like to do most when she grows up, Dola drew herself as a teacher standing in front of a book shelf and reading out to her class of students (Fig. 1). This, in part, reflected Dola’s passion for learning and her reputation in the school as a ‘book worm’. Koli, who also excelled in the school, wanted to a doctor (Fig. 2) so that she will be able to help poor families and those in need in the slum.

Fig. 1
A drawing illustrates a small girl reading a book. Above her, there are books arranged on two shelves.

Dola aspired to become a teacher to help other kids in the slum

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Fig. 2
A drawing illustrates a young girl wearing a stethoscope. Beside her, a person lies on a table. There is a calendar on the wall behind the girl.

Koli wanted to become a doctor to help the poor and the sick in the community

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Hena and Sagor also wanted to become teachers, a profession that is held in high regard in their slum for the contribution it makes to uplifting children and families form poverty. All the five child participants in our research aspired for roles that help them overcome their poverty. For the participants, access to education was integral to what they perceived as a valued future life. This highlights not only the importance of education as a means to a better future, but also the significant role that empowering educational experiences play in broadening children’s horizons with regards to their ‘imagined’ futures (Schuller et al. 2004).

Closely related to their future aspirations for a fulfilling life was the way the participants viewed the role that their school played in helping them to develop and flourish in present. In their discussion about the contributions of their school education, the participants used the Bangla phrase ‘adarsho manush houya’ to explain how the education they received assisted them to become ‘an ideal person’. For the children, an ideal person was one who embodied the ethical and moral parameters of conduct; it represented three qualities of ‘respecting elders’, ‘showing compassion to minors’ and ‘speaking truth without fear’. Milon, for example, shared his views about the three qualities in the following ways: By ‘respecting elders’, I mean that I always give Salam (An Islamic way to address others by saying, ‘peace be upon you’); I listen to the instructions of the elders, particularly those of my mother’s and the teacher’s… I mostly help my junior peers and the teacher in lifting any heavy stuff such as the school mat. I am also patient to assist my peers in learning… I’m not scared of pointing out the occasional errors the teacher might make… I admit if I am not being able to complete my homework… Our teacher likes us to be honest about the homework and gets upset if we lie or make lame excuses.

By and large, these values reflect wider cultural norms and codes of conduct in Bangladesh. For the slum children, however, education was key in providing an opportunity to learn about and practice these norms and values in their interactions with each other within the program and later in their encounters with others throughout the broader community. In so doing, the program played an important part in the moral and ethical character formation of the children. This was also a contributing factor in the visions and aspirations that the children held for their future roles as contributing members of their communities.

5.2 Enabling Spaces of Belonging

Although all the child participants were burdened with care giving responsibilities at home, their school attendance was regular. In their discussions, the participants described their school-time as ‘the best part’ of their day. They used phrases such as ‘moja pai’ (have fun), ‘anonda pai’ (enjoy and become happy) or ‘bhalo lage’ (feel good) to talk about how they felt in the school. Some of the students also explained how their school enabled them ‘to do many things that they wished, aspired or liked to do.’ Other students talked about ‘empowerment’ explaining the ways in which ‘the school equipped them with good education’.

These reflections highlight the value that the participants attributed to their school as ‘a place of belonging’. Contributing to geographies of belonging is a sense of accord with one’s material, physical, social and relational context (May, 2013). This highlights the importance of relationships and positioning to the formation of a sense of belonging (Dadvand and Cuervo 2019). For our participants, a strong sense of belonging stemmed from the ways in which they were poisoned and treated in the school. The children talked about how they were often ‘acknowledged’ by their teacher and their peers for their efforts and contributions.

Safety and protection from harm were among other factors that the students valued about their school, and which also contributed to their sense of belonging. In their discussion, the participants contrasted their school with other schools, explaining how absence of physical punishment increased their sense of safety and protection in the school. Corporal punishment remains a common phenomenon in schools in Bangladesh affecting 9 in 10 students (UNICEF 2009). The non-punitive approach of the school which emphasized ‘respect for the integrity of the child’ and their overall wellbeing was perceived in the eyes of the children as an acknowledgement of their ‘agency’ and their claims for respect, voice and recognition.

Emphasis on skills development for wellbeing was yet another characteristic of the education valued by the participants. The students talked about the value of care, and the learning activities that helped them develop the skills that they needed to maintain their health and wellbeing. Teaching about the importance of hygiene was an important part of the school curriculum. This was a recognition on the part of the school that these children often did not receive such an education from home. In the school, the students also took their health-related instructions seriously. Cleaning the mats, sweeping the classroom and refilling the water dispenser were all part of the daily routine for the students. Koli, for instance, stated: Setting-up the school in the morning is not a big thing to do. We try to make and keep our school beautiful, tidy and presentable with whatever resources we have. We are happy to work for our school… Our teacher taught us from grade one how to always keep the school clean. Now, we know very well what to do for our school.

Health and wellbeing were also discussed in relation to aesthetics. Most of the children used simple measures such as their drawings to keep their classroom presentable. A photo taken by Milon of the school’s bulletin board (Fig. 3) provides a good example of this. For girls, the school mirror and comb (Fig. 4) were important symbols of aesthetics and hygiene. Koli, for example, explained that combing her hair was ‘about discipline, looking good and feeling good.’ Similarly, Sagor explained that being orderly is their way of giving back to the school and would help them to maintain the school’s reputation as a good school.

Fig. 3
A photo displays a bulletin board with 12 decorative cards. There are 5 cards in both the first and last rows, and one card each at the end of the middle row.

The students took an active part in making their school presentable by contributing to the bulletin board

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Fig. 4
A photograph captures a small mirror, hanging off of a nail. There is a comb in one of the mirror's holders.

The mirror and a comb reminded the students about the importance of health and hygiene

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5.3 Relationality and Peer Support

Positive relationship with the teacher and peers was another feature of the flexible education program which was highly valued by the slum children. Positive relationships also had a significant impact on the students’ sense of belonging to their school as a safe and enabling space. Research shows that effective schooling is related to the forms of relationship among students, teachers, parents and the community (Cahill et al. 2014). The students in our research used the analogy of ‘family’ to describe their close bonding with each other. For example, in response to a question about why she helps other students, Koli replied: In this school, we usually take care of each other. We’re not only good friends, we’re also like siblings for each other.

The friendships and the connectedness that emerged among the students within the social space of the classroom extended well beyond the school. The students often talked about how they benefited outside the school from the friendships that they forged within the school. This is reflected in the following excerpt from Sagor: We, the three best friends, Shopan, Ishan and I, study in a group as we do in the school; we go to Shopan’s house at 6:00 pm and study until 9:00 pm… It has many benefits; we can help each other. Group work is particularly useful in math.

A large body of literature on the effectiveness of alternative school arrangements show that the most effective factors of these schools are their child-friendly classrooms, interactive pedagogy, and caring relationships between teachers and students (Shohel and Howes 2008, 2011; Nath 2012). Our own research also shows that establishing positive relationships with students in integral to effective and reflexive teaching practices (Akbari et al. 2010; Akbari and Dadvand 2014). For children in poverty, positive and caring relationships acquires extra significance because of the absence of significant others in their lives who might act as a source of social and relational support for them. The value that the participants attached to caring relationships is reflected in Dola’s drawing about what she appreciates most in her school (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
A drawing has a woman wearing a sari standing in the center. Surrounding her, there are four groups with four children each, holding hands and standing opposite to each other.

There was a focus on positive and caring relationships among the students, and between the students and the teacher

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In the follow up individual interview, Dola commented on her drawing along the following lines: All members of our group sit together in a round shape. We help each other to understand the topic, and then assess each other … The teacher moves around and supervises our activities … When we finish, she assesses the lesson … She randomly brings one of us in front of the class to repeat the lesson and we write down in our notebooks.

Other students used the Bangla phrase ‘shahajjo kori’ (to help others) to talk about their peer relationships. Many viewed helping others not merely as an act of benevolence, but as a strength and a capability. Dreze and Sen’s (2002) research shows how helping others can be seen as a valued capability, especially among people in contexts of poverty who are often positioned as recipients of others’ help and incapable of making contributions. This repositioning of the children from source of a problem to solution builders was perceived by the participants as an acknowledgement of their agency for participation and change.

The importance of providing support for others is also reflected in the following excerpt from Dola who talks about her reasons for helping one of her peers: I always help Lina in learning as she is the weakest girl in the class and most importantly, she has no one at home to assist her… I help her in all subjects… I know that both of her parents are illiterate, and she has no brother or sister at home to help her in learning… others also help her.

Implicit in the above reflection is Dola’s commitment to an ethic of care for her friend. This ethic of care is built upon relationality and a recognition of differences (Dadvand and Cuervo 2018). The above reflection also highlights how an educational context that capitalizes on the participants’ strengths can contribute to their sense of agency as solution builders, rather than as sites of problems. The relational ties and the caring practices among the students have also been crucial in the social construction of space (Massey 2005) where the students feel that they are safe and that they belong. These are also important factors that have played a significant part in the educational participation and engagement for the students.

6 Concluding Remarks: Learning with and from Children in Poverty

In this chapter, we examined the school experiences of five slum children in the context of their flexible catch-up education program. As we demonstrated and discussed using the voices, drawings and photos from the participants, the children valued their education and saw it as a means towards achieving their future aspirations. These aspirations depicted the participants living a life free of poverty and as contributing members of their community. We also discussed how for these children a strong sense of belonging to the school was key to their (re)engagement in learning. A spirit of collaboration entwined with a sense of safety and protection created atmospheres of trust and mutuality among the students, and between the students and their teacher. The students also demonstrated a strong sense of ownership of their learning and education, often acting as a source of support and care for their peers.

In this section, we reflect on some of these findings to discuss the insights that we can gain from listening to the voices of children in poverty. As we explained in our theoretical discussions about voice, childhood and participation, there has recently been growing recognition of the contributions that children can (and do) make to their social worlds. However, policies and institutional practices still remain, to a large extent, oblivious to this recognition. Programs are often developed with little regard for the views of children with the underlying assumption being that children have little to offer in decision-making about important matters (Cahill and Dadvand 2018). While there have been moves in recent years to engage children in initiatives that affect them, these have often been limited to tokenistic forms of consultation or feedback.

Children in poverty, in particular, face a double disadvantage when it comes to voice and participation. On the one hand, the cultural politics of age constructs these children as not mature enough to contribute. On the other hand, these children are viewed through a deficit lens that focuses on vulnerabilities and risks. We maintain that these discourses play ‘a governing’ role (Foucault 1975) and limit imagination as to what is possible to achieve in children’s participation. We take the accounts that we have reported from our child participants as a case in point. Contrary to wider discourses around children in poverty, these children have valuable insights about their conditions, needs, interests and aspirations. These insights can be harnessed to better engage them in ways of learning that are meaningful and relevant to them.

Finally, as our child participants helped highlight, empowering education builds aspirations and contributes to ethical and moral character formation. For doing so, such an education takes as its starting point ‘the funds of knowledge’ (Zipin et al. 2012; Zipin 2013) that children bring with them to their schools and classrooms. Capitalizing on the knowledge that marginalized children already have makes education a more a meaningful experience and a relatable encounter for them. Meaningful and participatory education also requires and contributes to the formation of ‘spaces of belonging’ that help nurture the overall wellbeing of children and cultivate their sense of safety and protection. An important contributor to such a space is caring practices and relationships that work with these children to address their needs, rather than acting upon them as objects of adult interventions.