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Open research questions in Children's Rights and Participation

90 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 4,801 Children's Rights and Participation papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Examining the "Digital Paradox" and the Limits of Technology The "Digital Paradox" finding—observed in the Chilean implementation of the Finland-based KiVa model, where groups incorporating online games proved less effective than those without—should be investigated in depth. As emphasised by Brisson (2026), interpreting bullying solely through statistical recurrence (frequency) is insufficient to account for types such as cyberbullying, which can cause significant harm even in a single instance.

    A comparative analysis of Norwegian and Finnish regulations on the concept of safe school within the axis of child's social development · 2026 · DOI

  • References This study has several limitations that should be considered when interpreting the findings. First, the research was conducted in a small number of ECEC centres within one German federal state, which limits the transferability of the findings to other institutional or cultural contexts. The ethnographic design prioritised depth over breadth, focusing on relational processes within selected settings rather than aiming for representativeness. In addition, children’s perspectives were interpreted through adult researchers’ observations and analyses, which may shape how agency became visible in the data. While the relational and play-proximal approach enabled rich insights into everyday interactions, it also reflects a particular methodological stance that influenced data generation. Finally, the study was embedded in a specific policy context and interpretations should therefore be understood as situated within these temporal and institutional conditions.

    Beyond Voice: High-Quality Interactions and Children’s Agency in Early Childhood Education · 2026 · DOI

  • Aimed at investigating primary school children’s interactional competence and cooperation practices, this article focuses on recruitments and offers of assistance – a topic mostly studied in interactions among adults, as well as in early childhood and adolescence, but underexplored in classroom settings with children aged 8–9.

    Primary school children and cooperative interaction: Recruitments and offers of assistance in small-group activities · 2025 · DOI

  • Whilst school discipline has been explored to various extents by scholars working in the children’s rights field and beyond, the policies that regulate children’s behaviour have not been systematically examined for their rights-compliance, and behaviour more generally has not been adequately conceptualized as a subject of legal concern.

    The Administration of School Discipline in a Manner Consistent With Children’s Human Rights: A Rights-Based Analysis of School Codes of Behaviour in Ireland for Autistic Students · 2025 · DOI

  • We conclude by offering a caring optimism as a proposition and an open question for redefining and reconstituting what it means to be a professional ECE.

    (Care)fully reconstituting cruel professionalism with and for early childhood educators: how caring activism can resist uncaring conditions · 2024 · DOI

  • This study targets hitherto largely understudied empirical processes and activities through which certain ideas and imaginaries are being commercialised and used by corporate actors in the global Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) industry.

    “We help Germany create greater equality.” Logics and rationales in exporting ‘Scandinavian’ early childhood education and care · 2023 · DOI

  • However, they were insufficiently familiar with human rightseducation (HRE) concepts, and they were uncertain about whether it was acceptable to physically restrain children in order to protect themor others, as this could undermine a child’s rights.

    Several aspects related to the teachers’ views on the rights of the child based on focus group discussions on the example of Finland · 2022 · DOI

  • The Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance provided a useful lens to consider some of the interactive components of ISD in the early childhood initiative and further, more in-depth study is warranted to determine which components are necessary for collaborative success.

    Exploring the foundation for Collaborative Governance to support early childhood in Nova Scotia · 2020 · DOI

  • While these are imperative components of the Mosaic approach, the authors argue that there are times when adults’ voices, such as parents, carers, practitioners and educators, can add to the richness and meaning of Mosaic data that the children have originally captured but are not understood by other adults, potentially adding weight to children’s voices when advocating to those who make decisions that affect children’s lives.

    Meddling with Mosaic: reflections and adaptations · 2020 · DOI

  • Abstract (analytical)Given the lack of evidence in this area, the general objective of this study was to describe and apply an instrument designed to measure children's rights in Chile based on the day to day practices of social operators who work with children and adolescents, in educational, health, justice and psychosocial development centers.

    Cumplimiento de derechos infantiles en Chile: evaluación de profesionales de programas públicos · 2020 · DOI

  • The breadth and richness of the contributions to ‘The Routledge International Handbook of Young Children’s Rights’ reveal some advances have been made to secure children’s rights fully across the World, but they also highlight that a great deal remains to be done, particularly in respect of the rights of children younger than eight years old.

    Happy anniversary? 30 years of the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child · 2019 · DOI

  • According to Jean Webb, the Congress convenor, the impetus for this Congress was an awareness of two matters in the study of children's literature that were "topical" but relatively "under explored": one is "creativity" in the sense that "writers, artists and academics variously create, interpret and re-create notions of childhoods and the child body", and the other the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of children's literature studies.

    The 22nd Biennial IRSCL Congress Creating Childhoods · 2017 · DOI

  • Despite the voluminous work published since then with over three thousand books and articles by the end of the 1990s (Renn, 1998) there is no consensus regarding the risk construct itself, as it is approached from so many differing perspectives and disciplines.

    Chapter 2. From Risk to At-Risk · 2007 · DOI

  • The first section, “Setting the Context,” includes chapters on the changing nature of empirical research, the changing nature of childhood, the changing legal context of research with children (limited to the UK context) and ends with a discussion of the scientific paradigm of empirical research and its post-structuralist and social constructivist challengers.

    Doing Research with Children and Young People · 2005 · DOI

  • In other places, opportunities to 290 obtain useful insights are limited by the brevity of coverage in short paragraphs of sometimes just a few sentences, which merely raise a point without further discussion or connection to the next paragraph.

    Globalization and Children: Exploring Potentials for Enhancing Opportunities in the Lives of Children and Youth · 2004 · DOI

  • Similarly, several analytical schemata have been developed to deal with particular types of discourse in particular societies (see, for example, Sinclair & Coulthard 1975; Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974 Brenneis & Lein 1977; Watson & Boggs 1977), but their applicability in other contexts has not been tested.

    Children's disputes in three speach communities · 1978 · DOI

  • However, much remains to be done by way of tracing the after- school history of the physically handi- capped, of those with personality and behavior maladjustments, others who learn below capacity, and of yet others especially talented in a par- ticular field, if appropriate adjustments are to be made in the instructional such and treatment programs groups. little known that Benjamin Franklin was the originator of the first bi-focals.

    Case Study of Exceptional Children · 1943 · DOI

  • This paper argues that children’s agency is a poorly defined concept, whose lack of clarity contributes to children being constrained as active change agents within and beyond contexts which directly affect them.

    Constructions of agency in children’s cultural and linguistic brokering practices · 2024 · DOI

  • An under-recognised aspect of this challenge is how the same contexts give rise to inequitable and divisive relationships between teachers, diminishing opportunities for transformative justice for children and families.

    Equity, inclusion and belonging for teachers in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand · 2023 · DOI

  • To demonstrate the potential of this framework, I apply it to questions of children’s suffrage, arguing that the theoretical grounds for excluding children are insufficient to overturn the default principles of universalism and inclusion.

    Children, Voting, and the Meaning of Universal Suffrage · 2023 · DOI

  • It is argued that spirituality should be seen as a process rather than a thing, or a set of practices; and that considerations of power, notably factors such as gender, race, class and age, are too rarely addressed.

    Revisiting some half-forgotten ideas on children’s spirituality · 2022 · DOI

  • Whereas children’s agency and their right to civic participation have been extensively discussed in childhood studies, especially within sociology, their presence in pedagogical studies is still scarce.

    Children’s Participation, Progressive Autonomy, and Agency for Inclusive Education in Schools · 2022 · DOI

  • Policymakers and academics continue to debate the criteria used in formulas to allocate funding to children’s services, but few studies have considered how well the results of these formulas align with rights-based entitlements and commitments after implementation.

    More Money, More Problems? Addressing the Funding Conditions Required for Rights-Based Child Welfare Services in England · 2022 · DOI

  • There is considerably limited research regarding strong characterisations of such concepts, and significantly less literature involving the voices of children and their perspectives regarding the topic.

    “In accordance with age and maturity”: Children’s perspectives, conceptions and insights regarding their capacities and meaningful participation · 2022 · DOI

  • In nine well-referenced chapters, the author casts a contrasting spotlight on the strategies employed by child rights activists to augment the safety, protection, and empowerment of children and the array of ongoing ideological and structural barriers that remain to be overcome.

    The Youngest Citizens: Children's Rights in Latin America by Amy Risley (review) · 2021 · DOI

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90 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 4,801 Children's Rights and Participation papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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