Awareness and implementation of children’s participation rights: An experience in Hong Kong for research and practice

The aims of the current study are two-folded, firstly to investigate the awareness and understanding of child participation and rights among teachers and social workers in Hong Kong; secondly to identify good practices in promoting child participation in schools and NGOs. In Study One, a total of 331 teachers (77%) and 99 registered social workers (23%) were surveyed with a questionnaire. In Study Two, nine focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 37 participants: 10 teachers (seven from primary schools and three from secondary schools), seven social workers or children-related workers from NGOs, and 20 students (12 from primary schools and eight from secondary schools). Although majority of the adult respondents (90%) claimed to know the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”, majority of participants (82%) have never received any professional training about the implementation of children’s participation rights, and almost two third (62%) admitted not to fully understand it. Furthermore, social workers reported having significantly higher confidence and knowledge than teachers in helping children to implement participation rights in community participation, religious belief, and political participation. Social workers reported accepting significantly more children’s advice than teachers in the stage of design and implementation of service and activities, and they agreed significantly more with the capability in children when compared to teachers. Results from the interviews confirmed that social workers are more familiar than teachers with the concept of “children’s right to participate” and that they more actively operate for informing children (and communities) of their rights and teach them how to exercise it. Children could understand child participation rights illustrating of daily examples of how they were heard by parents, teachers and social workers and how they were involved in decision making about extra-curricular activities and career exploration. Conclusions will be drawn on definitional criteria of good practices for promotion of children’s rights. Implications and limitations will be discussed.