SİMGE ÇİÇEK

2017108132
MELDA AKBAŞ PRESENTATION REFLECTION

Melda Akbaş has been working in this field as a children’s rights activist for fifteen years.

She graduated from İstanbul Bilgi University and faculty of communication. She worked in

the Children’s Studies Unit. She worked on child participation, children’s rights, immigrants’

rights, and media. Akbaş also gave classes about social responsibility, child participation and

media. She worked with diverse children organizations as a researcher, consultant, and trainer

such as “Tarlabaşı Toplumunu Destekleme Derneği”. She also worked as a director with

parents, teachers, and civil society in the Ashoka Program for Kids.

I will summarize the presentation and mention topics that we discuss in the class. Firstly, she

prepared a game for class. It is a quiz that measures our knowledge about children’s rights. It

involves information about the historical evolution of children’s rights. The first topic that

she underlined is who is the child? and why we set eighteen year as a finishing childhood.

We analyzed the definitions of child in the dictionary. These definitions are obviously made

from an adultist viewpoint. In TDK, the definition of child is that they behave childish, and

things are not associated with adults. Children are seen as unable to make rational behaviors.

When we look at the definitions of children throughout history, there are different

viewpoints. In ancient Roma, they were seen as property, not a child. In the medieval era,

children were miniature adults. In Renaissance, Pieter Bruegel's famous artworks called

“children’s play” demonstrated childhood as a period. At the 17th century, John Locke

defined a child as a “blank space” that should be filled from adults. I think this kind of

thought puts children in a vulnerable and passive position. In the nineteenth and twentieth

century, we closed today’s definition. Childhood became an issue for psychologists and

emotional investment for children increased during these years.

Secondly, we discussed when childhood ends and when a child is not a child. This is a

controversial topic and there are no strict answers. We talked about the society’s myths about

childhood in Turkey. The most popular beliefs about children are that they are innocent,

vulnerable, future, naughty, and should be aware of their positions. Why do we distinguish

childhood from adulthood and set a clear age boundary? When we look at the basic

necessities of a person, we can say basically safety, nutrition, health, love etc. For children,

there are additional necessities that adults do not need. These are necessities that stem from

developmental periods such as play and care needs. One of the most popular myths about

children is that they are born dependent on caregivers. However, there is a difference between

dependent and connected. Children are born connected to caregivers because it is more

appropriate in terms of responsibility and right based.

Finally, Akbaş explained the historical evolution of children’s rights. In the twentieth

century, children became subjects of rights. After the First World War, a committee was

created for the protection of children in 1919. The Geneva Declaration on the rights of the

child was adopted in 1924. After the Second World War, the International Emergency Fund

was created in 1946. The declaration of the rights of the child was adopted by the United

Nations General Assembly in 1959. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted

by the United Nations on November 20, 1989. Every year November 20 is celebrated as

children’s right day.

In the second part of my reflection paper, I am going to discuss The Lundy Model of

Participation and Roger Hart participation ladder. Child led organizations and youth activism

are one of the interesting topics mentioned by Akbaş’s presentation.

Roger Hart (1992), he builds a child participation ladder by inspiring well-known adult

participation ladder developed by Sherry Arnstein (1969). Roger Hart (1992) child

participation ladder involves eight rungs whose first three rungs are manipulation, decoration,
tokenism that are non-participation. The first three rungs explained the non-participation

occasions in activities. “The example of manipulation is a situation where children are

consulted but given no feedback at all”( Hart, 9). Most children are unaware of the purpose

and results of the projects that they included. From fourth to eight rung, we can see the

degree of child participation. The fourth rung is assigned but informed, fifth consulted and

informed, sixth adult initiated shared decisions with children, seventh child-initiated and

directed, child-initiated shared decisions with adults. The last two rungs are ideal for child

participation. This ladder is a really helpful and useful theoretical framework for

understanding and developing child-led activities, projects, and organizations.

Another important source about child participation that Akbaş mentioned at class is the

Lundy model of child participation. This model offers a conceptualization of article 12 of the

United Nations of Children’s Rights Convention. There are four elements that are space,

voice, audience, and influence in a rationally chronological order. We should ensure that

children have the space to express their views, their voice is enabled, they have an audience

for their views, and their views will have influence. In Class, Akbaş gave Greta Thunberg as

an example of a child-led climate activist that influences everyone.

Roger Hart’s ladder of child participation (1992) and Lundy model of child participation

(2007) have a greater impact on child participation rights. In class, we could not touch deeply

but these are really useful materials for people who want to work in the field of children’s

participation right.

“Children are undoubtedly the most photographed and the least listened to members of

society.” (Hart, 9). Akbaş also said that children are the biggest minorities that are

underestimated by adults. In pandemic, children are the most affected group but also they are

not seen by the government. They could not go to schools and parks. Their lives were

influenced very badly because of government politics. Children's voices do not listen and
nobody asks them what they want. They are invisible in society but they are the most affected

group because of the pandemic. This is a very long issue to be discussed right now but it must

be considered as well.

REFERENCES:

History of Child Rights. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/history-

child-rights

The Lundy model of child participation. Ec.europa.eu. Available at:

<https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/lundy_model_of_participation.pdf

Hart, A., R. (1992). Children’s Participation from Tokenism to Citizenship. Innocenti Essay:

No.4, Unicef International Child Development Center, Florence, Italy.