The Challenges of Children’s Participation, Sharing, Collaboration, and Care in Non-formal Education Contexts: Insights from the SMOOTH Project

The SMOOTH project is grounded in the collaboration between children, youth, children/youth and adults for the establishment of shared spaces that enable the co-production of knowledge and foster alternative modes of thinking among children, youth, and adults as interdependent subjects, considering both intra-generational and intergenerational relationships. Building upon the concept of Education as a Common Good, the project embraces dimensions such as collective freedom and experimentation, equal participation, solidarity, unity, care, and sharing. These dimensions will influence a set of objectives, including challenging dominant discourses regarding the role of education and inclusion, childhood, and youth; fostering a critical perspective on normative frameworks pertaining to childhood and youth; promoting shared governance where children and adults are subjected to less control, opening up new possibilities for a balanced exercise of power; and learning through co-construction (local and emancipatory knowledge). Specifically, at the University of Minho, in collaboration with a non-governmental institution, two projects were developed: the Children’s Club and the Children’s Advisory Board. These projects involved children aged 8–12 years, from disadvantaged socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, characterized by a disruptive interaction and a lack of material resources. This text brings up the dynamics and challenges of participation, sharing, collaboration, and care in those non-formal education contexts during the projects’ implementation.