The imperative of realising the child’s right to an education of substance

The actualisation of the child’s rights in education contexts requires shared understandings between adults and children. While the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is conspicuous in declaring not only what children are owed but also how those obligations can be realised in school, rights attainment in many education contexts remain unfulflled. The rights of the child are materially important as those rights relevant to child safety, protection, provision directly refect the overarching principles of human rights understandings. Where child rights understandings become problematic is when the material aspect of the “child” that can be universally considered as worthy of protection is interchanged by socially and culturally constructed notions of the child viewed through various sociocultural and developmental lenses. By referencing children’s school participation through the criteria identifed in Article 29 of the UNCRC, more practical, educationally relevant and effective adherence to child’s rights can occur. Anchoring practice to the explicit mandates of the United Nations will enable the visible actioning of the child’s education rights. In this chapter the author will identify the synergies and divergences of children’s educational experiences with the mandates of the UNCRC.