Online Conference
More than thirty-five years after the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), children’s rights are firmly established in international law and increasingly present in education policies and discourse. Yet their translation into the everyday life of schools remains uneven. Recent research continues to identify a gap between recognising children as rights-holders and enabling them to actually experience and exercise those rights in education, particularly in relation to equality, participation, autonomy, play and influence over decisions that affect them.
The consequence is that schools remain “paradoxical spaces: they are meant to promote human rights but often reproduce restrictive or even unjust practices” (Johnsson,2026).
This conference wants to depart from this uncomfortable paradox and explore what would education look like if children’s rights were not only taught or recognised, but actually shaped how schools work, conceiving children are rights-holders in the present, not only future citizens learning how to exercise rights later in life.
Moving beyond education about rights, the conference will focus on all these aspects of education that must themselves be compatible with those rights: the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, relationships, rules, governance and everyday organisation of education. We want to offer a space to examine good practices but also tensions and contradictions: between protection and autonomy, participation and adult authority, inclusion and institutional barriers, individual practice and systemic change.
With the aim to connect and move the conversation one step further from rights recognised to rights experienced, the conference will bring together researchers, educators, civil society organisations and policymakers. We will provide a space to explore current research avenues, highlight transferable school practices, and explore innovations in education policy and institutional reform across Europe that can support a more genuinely rights-based education system.
The Conference will take place on the 20th of November from 10h00 to 15h15, online.
How can we move beyond consultation and “student voice” towards meaningful influence and shared decision-making?
This strand explores children as co-researchers, co-creators of knowledge and active participants in shaping their learning, their school communities and the decisions that affect them.
It also looks critically at tokenism, adult–child power relations and the conditions needed for children’s contributions to lead to real change.
Rights cannot be meaningfully exercised if the conditions for participation are unequal.
This strand explores how educational environments can become safe, accessible and genuinely participatory for all children, particularly those who face greater barriers to being heard or involved.
It focuses on the relationships, pedagogies, communication practices, adult behaviours and support structures needed to turn formal rights into rights that children can actually exercise.
Children’s rights cannot depend only on committed teachers or isolated school projects.
This strand looks at the structures of schooling itself: governance, curriculum, assessment, institutional cultures, teacher education and education policy.
It asks which elements of current education systems support children’s rights, which restrict them, and what forms of structural and policy change are needed to make rights-based education sustainable and systemic. A space to question, share and reimagine
Martina Paone — QUEST Coordinator
From Consultation to Co-Creation: Child Leadership in Practice in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia
Young Children’s Voices in Educational Decision-Making: Power and Participation in Disadvantaged Preschool Classrooms
Reimagining Educational Research Through Children’s Participation: Insights from Transdisciplinary and Participatory Approaches
From Participation to Practice: How Evidence-Based Wellbeing and Equity-Focused Leadership Can Shift Power Towards Children’s Voices in Education
Rights-based participation of children with special educational needs in educational decision-making
Creating a Safe, Inclusive and Supportive Classroom
Re-examining the School Form Through Students’ Voices: Perspectives for a More Democratic School
Policy Frameworks for Evaluating Democratic Learning Environments
We welcome abstracts for presentations from researchers and practitioners.
Presenters are invited to share their work and engage with the conference’s central questions, particularly within Thematic Clusters 2 and 3 (Cluster 1 is already full). Abstracts should be submitted through this form by 25 September 2026.
Schools, students and teachers are also warmly invited to share transferable practices and concrete experiences in children’s rights based education by completing this form by 25 September.
For questions, please do not hesitate to contact
Martina Paone, our Coordinator