Class 6

Student participation is here defined as students being active and engaged in the classroom; students impacting on curriculum design; and students’ feeling of belonging to a community.

In the school context, participation is often used to refer to the interactivity of teaching strategies seen as conducive to students’ motivation but without serious consequences for their influence. Similarly, participation sometimes simply means taking part in a class discussion.

Community participation can be loosely defined as the involvement of people in a commu- nity in projects to solve their own problems. People cannot be forced to ‘participate’ in projects which affect their lives but should be given the opportunity where possible.

Participatory development is an important approach for people-oriented development that emphasizes raising the quality of participation in local societies as a step toward the realization of self-reliant sustainable development and social justice.

What are the benefits of participation?These would include: more independence and autonomy in what they can do. greater physical benefits including being more active. more opportunity to have a say in matters of direct concern to their lives. more social contact and interpersonal relationships. greater self‐awareness and involvement.

Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions. Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government. e-participation, citizen participation in e-government using information and communications technology.

Sarah White distinguishes four forms of participation: nominal, instrumental, representative and transformative. She reasons that each form has different functions, and argues actors ‘at the top’ (more powerful) and ‘at the grass roots’ (less powerful) have different perceptions of and interests in each form.

If you take part in an activity or organization, you participate in it. For example, you participate in a conversation by listening to and talking with others, or you participate in a sport by joining a team and taking part in practices and games.

‘Participation means the involvement of intended beneficiaries in the planning, design, implementation and subsequent maintenance of the development intervention. It means that people are mobilized, manage resources and make decisions that affect their lives’ (Price and Mylius 1991)

Meaningful participation means children and young people are provided the opportunity to express their views, influence decision-making and achieve change.