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Ladder of Participation
About the Ladder
Sociologist Roger Hart wrote a book called
Children's Participation: The Theory And Practice
Of Involving Young Citizens In Community Development And Environmental
Care for UNICEF in 1997. This groundbreaking work put the
work of young people and adult allies around the world in the context
of a global movement for participation, offering needed guidance and
criticism of many efforts. The "Ladder of Children's Participation,"
also called the "Ladder of Youth Participation," is one of
many significant tools from the book.
Degrees of Participation
8) Young people-initiated, shared decisions with adults.
This
happens when projects or programs are initiated by young people and
decision-making is shared between young people and adults. These projects
empower young people while at the same time enabling them to access and
learn from the life experience and expertise of adults. This rung of the
ladder can be
embodied by
youth/adult partnerships.
7) Young people-initiated and
directed. This step is when young people
initiate and direct a project or program. Adults are involved only in a
supportive role. This rung of the ladder
can be
embodied by
youth-led activism.
6) Adult-initiated, shared
decisions with young people.
Occurs when projects or programs
are initiated by adults but the decision-making is shared with the young
people. This rung of the ladder can be embodied by
participatory action research.
5) Consulted and informed.
Happens when young people give
advice on projects or programs designed and run by adults. The young people
are informed about how their input will be used and the outcomes of the
decisions made by adults. This rung of the ladder can be embodied by
youth advisory councils.
4) Assigned but informed.
This is where young people are
assigned a specific role and informed about how and why they are being
involved. This rung of the ladder can be embodied by
community youth boards.
3) Tokenism.
When young people appear to be
given a voice, but in fact have little or no choice about what they do or
how they participate. This rung of the ladder reflects
adultism.
2) Decoration.
Happens when young people are
used to help or "bolster" a cause in a relatively indirect way, although
adults do not pretend that the cause is inspired by young people. This
rung of the ladder reflects
adultism.
1) Manipulation.
Happens where adults use young
people to support causes and pretend that the causes are inspired by young
people.
This rung of the ladder reflects
adultism.
The 7/8 Debate
Roger Hart's Ladder of Participation shows young people-initiated, shared
decisions with adults as the top form of young people's participation,
followed immediately by young people-initiated and directed. This is
somewhat controversial an issue for many people working with and around
young people. Essentially, the debate is which of these levels of
participation is actually the most meaningful?
Many believe that shared decision making is most beneficial to both young
people and adults. Others believe that young people are most empowered when
they are making decisions without the influence of adults. Most often, this
doesn't exclude adults but reduces their role to that of support.
Both arguments have merit; ultimately, it is up the each group to
determine which form of decision-making best fits with the groups' needs.
Adapted from
here.
©
2008. Adam Fletcher owns the copyright
for this material on behalf of The Freechild
Project. You are welcome to print out
this material for educational purposes
only - you cannot make any financial
gain from them without the explicit
permission of the author. You may not
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without explicit permission of the
author. For more
information write info [at] freechild.org
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