Reclaiming children's participation as an empowering social process

In his book The Child in The City , Colin Ward related a story about how, through observing their local environment, children took action to save an old house of character. The purpose of the story was to illustrate how the city can be used as a valuable resource in children’s learning. Of importance here is not just the rich opportunities for children to learn outside of the classroom or the opportunity to develop their own skills, but also to realise their own capacity for active participation in their communities. As Ward refl ected: “The most important thing is their realisation that they can actively play a part in shaping their surroundings, that what they say about where and how they live will be listened to and that the key to their future lies in their own awareness” (1978: 185).