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Hart's (1992) 'Innocenti Essay on Child Participation' advocated for increased involvement of young people as active participants in societal decision-making. This paper provides a historical overview of active child citizenship initiatives, using applied research insights from 'bottom-up' approaches and conversations with children and professionals. It explores how current practices exemplified through three case studies can enhance genuine child participation and citizenship. The case study analysis examines the conversational processes involving children in problem-solving and decision-making within their communities. Through these examples, the paper highlights practical strategies for meaningfully engaging children as stakeholders and empowering them as active citizens whose voices substantially influence matters impacting their lives.

The application of engagement strategies to ensure democracy of decisions is increasingly valued and adopted by governments to ensure trust in the process and ownership of the outcome. This paper describes the approach and methods used to engage early childhood education and care (ECEC) and outside school hours care (OSHC) stakeholders in the contemporizing and updating of Australia’s national Approved Learning Frameworks (ALFs): Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) and My Time Our Place: Framework for School Age Care (MTOP). Theoretical underpinnings of a robust stakeholder engagement strategy ensured a range of methods were developed to communicate with and encourage participation by the diversity of stakeholders who are invested in ECEC and OSHC in Australia – broadly defined as approved providers, teachers, educators, families, children and young people, regulatory authorities and other professionals who provide support and advice. A mixed-method, sequential 3-Stage design was developed to gather the insights, responses, and perspectives of stakeholders who provided, worked in, used, attended, or supported ECEC and/or OSHC settings. Stakeholder feedback included survey ratings and written comments, focus group and panel discussions, educator documentation and video-diaries, and the writings, talking, and drawings of children and young people. Evaluation methods focus on the number, diversity, and depth of stakeholder responses. In conclusion, we reflect on the usefulness, benefits, limitations, and effectiveness of our approach to participatory engagement to inform government policy development and decision making.

Children are significant stakeholders within education and care settings. Their views can be invaluable in thinking about what matters to conceptualising, assessing and improving quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) settings. As stakeholders, children’s views are rarely listened to by Australian policy makers to assess what constitutes quality and how the quality can be improved. In the process of updating two nationally approved Australian Learning Frameworks (ALFs): Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia 2.0 and My Time Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia 2.0, children’s responses provided meaningful insights into their perceptions of the practices of the educators. The children’s perspectives were gathered in a combination of research methodologies of talking circles, dialogic drawing, and visual elicitation. Their responses about experiences in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) contexts were analysed to provide a deeper understanding about the characteristics of their experiences in the settings. The research process delivered information about children’s perspectives about pedagogical principles and practices that describe the Australian children’s education and care workforce and environments. The process of gathering the children’s perspectives is not without limitations, however the information is invaluable in considering the assessment and improvement of quality in children’s services.

Aim: To explore the literature about services and interventions provided to tween children as the basis for informing future practice and policy. Background: The tween years (10–13 years) is a period in human development where children experience rapid physical and mental development; their thinking and actions are influenced by peer pressure, risk taking, concerns about their body image, size, and gender, and may become victims to bullying and increasing levels of mental ill-health. It may also be a time of transition between schooling institutions. Despite the multiplicity of these factors, pre-adolescents appear to be receiving little attention from both service providers and policy makers. Methods: Following the PRISMA reporting guidelines, a systematic search of peer-reviewed papers was conducted between June 2020 and April 2021. Studies were selected by screening their abstracts and titles. In total, 44 articles were included for in-depth analysis. Of these, 17 were randomised studies and 10 were non-randomised, and all were subjected to the assessment of risk of bias using the Review Manager Tool and ROBINS-I Tool respectively. Data extraction and synthesis: Data was extracted by type of service/intervention/program, country, and type of study/methodology, aim, sample size, age range, and findings. Data synthesis was performed using thematic analysis and content analysis. The results are presented in an outcome summary table highlighting the study's outcomes including the provided programs, their acceptability, and their impacts on factors such as anxiety and depression levels, change of attitude, behavioural control, weight loss, resilience and coping, emotional regulation, self-esteem, and improved well-being. Conclusion: The majority of programs described in this review reported positive results, and as a result have the potential to make a valuable contribution to future practice, policy, and research involving the tweens.

Engaging children in school-age childcare (SAC) in the research process through the use of photography gives them a voice that is not necessarily heard otherwise. This article discusses a research project undertaken in an Australian SAC service using photography as a means for the children to describe their play experiences. It examines the literature about researching with children using photography and discusses some of the challenges and how these can be overcome in order to provide staff and policy makers in school-age care with understandings about school-age care from the perspectives of the children. SAC plays a significant role in the lives of children and families; however, the research about this service is minimal.

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) provides play, leisure, care and education for significant numbers of Australian children. As government has become increasingly involved in the regulation of OSHC, the sector has become increasingly professionalised. OSHC practitioners are active participants in quality improvement processes and increasingly likely to have qualifications. Despite its growing social importance, there is little research about the OSHC workforce. This article draws on a research project conducted with OSHC practitioners who participated in a professional development program that introduced a set of professional standards for practitioners. The research investigated how participants engaged with the standards after completion of the program and demonstrated that uptake of the professional standards was complicated by workplace and sector hierarchies. Participants were less likely to use the standards for service leaders and short-term, casualised workers. These hierarchies formed in complex ways around dominant discourses that underestimate care and leisure work and position OSHC as a secondary consideration for school management. The findings in this research have important implications for the sustainability of the OSHC workforce, how it is perceived and how it engages with professional development programs.