Social Constructionism in the Educational System. New Dimensions regarding School Participation

This article is an invitation for social constructionist practices in the educational system to enhance school participation. The paper represents a qualitative research, and it explores the perspectives of children that are learning in rural areas. Fifteen in-depth interviews and three focus groups with children were conducted between April and December 2020. In this research is used a constructionist approach that finds participation as a social construction. In this line, school participation is created at the level of interactions between children, teachers, and parents through a continuous negotiation. The purpose of the research is not necessarily to highlight the practices through which children are involved as being appropriated or not, but rather to explore how children experience school participation, generating new practices to flourish school participation. The importance of this qualitative research is the fact that it includes the voice of the children that often is silenced in certain issues. Finally, the paper proposes a theoretical model addressing three different levels of school participation aim to generate solutions and new ideas for improving children’s participation, considering their own perspectives.