Experiences of Adolescent Participation in Educational Institutions in Croatia

Ivana Borić, Andrea Ćosić and Iva Prskalo
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Ivana Borić: Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Andrea Ćosić: Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Iva Prskalo: Center for Professional Rehabilitation, 31000 Osijek, Croatia

Societies, 2021, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Adolescents in educational institutions are one of the groups of children whose voice is seldom heard, who have fewer opportunities to participate, and face more obstacles when they want to participate. Furthermore, growing up in out-of-home care often increases the children’s vulnerability and endangers their participatory rights in terms of obtaining adequate information on the course of care, the opportunities to participate in decisions relevant to their life and care, the impact on the quality of care, etc. The aim of this paper is to describe adolescent participation from two perspectives: prescribed and formalized in the form of beneficiary councils in educational institutions and in the form of adolescent’s experiences in institutions. A qualitative approach was used, and the data were obtained from focus groups with adolescents, as well as from descriptions of beneficiary councils through online questionnaires. The results shed light on the importance of adolescent’s rights but also on the lack of their fulfilment in educational institutions, especially when it comes to participation. Adolescents’ participation in educational institutions is perceived as limited, characterized by restriction and a lack of choice, which results in decreased motivation for participation. Beneficiary councils, despite being regulated in terms of legislation, are not considered a significant form of child participation in educational institutions.

Keywords: adolescents’ participation; educational institutions; forms of participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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