TITLE:
Child Protection and Well-Being: A Right or a Privilege
AUTHORS:
Nora Hamzeh
KEYWORDS:
Well-Being, Capability Approach, Neoliberalism, Childhood, Policy, Bernstein, Pedagogical Rights
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.6,
June
28,
2024
ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to shed light on children’s well-being in the frame of educational policy. Current research on well-being opens the discourse on children and their placement in policies and reforms. Children continue to face hardships in societies in various cultures up to current times (WHO, 2022). Well-being is a complex notion that presents new interests in recent research with educational organizations, such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Council of International Schools (CIS) incorporating this concept in their structures for evaluation and accreditations providing implications for policy makers. Considerations on how children are viewed, including the child in neo-liberal contexts invite us to address the ways children are thought of and placed in societal contexts with connections to social justice and children’s well-being. This study proposes Nussbaum’s (2011) Capability Approach and draws connections from Bernstein’s pedagogical rights, to highlight a different view on childhood inviting the narrative for policy makers to make new considerations that support children’s well-being in schools and educational contexts.